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Second Romo collapse wastes Posey heroics

AT&T PARK — Sergio Romo just hasn’t been able to catch a break.

Romo (BS, L, 3-3, 5.08 ERA) blew back-to-back saves for the first time in his career and the Giants lost 5-4 to the Colorado Rockies Saturday.

The closer had a hard time fathoming the sequence of events in the ninth inning:

“I’m just in disbelief that it happened. … I couldn’t have done anything better. I actually felt like I threw better pitches than yesterday. I mean, if you look at the swings I got, not one good swing.”

For the second-straight blown game, Manager Bruce Bochy stood by his closer:

“That’s a tough one for Sergio. He was throwing the ball well. … That’s baseball. I thought he made good pitches.”

The wild ninth started quietly as Romo retired the first two batters on a ground out and fly out.

After Charlie Blackmon deposited a single into shallow left field, Brandon Barnes came in to rip an inside-the-park home run into the right-center gap past Angel Pagan who couldn’t get to it in time.

Pagan said the ball was confusing to run down:

“I thought it was going to be a normal hop, but it just kind of shifted a little bit to the right. … I gave it everything I got to make the play … We just gotta turn the page and come back tomorrow and win a ball game.”

Buster Posey knew he just missed one when he fouled off 2-1 fastball in the fifth inning.

He swung his bat down in disgust and two pitches later he found another fastball he liked and cranked it into deep left field to tie the game 3-3.

Posey also provided the go-ahead RBI with a sacrifice fly that plated Pagan in the seventh inning to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.

He finished the game 2-for-3 with a run and three RBIs.

Starter Ryan Vogelsong looked lost on the mound all day. The veteran righty took a no-decision Saturday allowing seven hits and three earned runs over five innings.

“I just couldn’t really get anything going as far as finding something mechanically that was going to work for me today… The last inning, I finally made an adjustment that worked and had a quick inning, but at that point my pitch count was up and my spot [in the lineup] coming up. They had to hit for me.”

Vogelsong only pitched one inning — the fifth — where he didn’t give up a hit.

Rex Brothers (W, 2-3, 4.85 ERA) took the win after the strange ninth inning. He pitched a perfect eighth inning by striking out the side.

Rockies closer LaTroy Hawkins notched another save for his 13th of the season.

Hunter Pence yanked a solo home run to left-center for his ninth of the season in the first inning to start the day’s scoring.

Giants ace Madison Bumgarner (8-4, 2.67 ERA) will go against righty Juan Nicasio (5-5, 5.70 ERA) in the series finale Sunday. Game time is 1:05 p.m.

After Sunday’s game, the Giants will go on a five-game road trip in which they’ll play the Chicago White Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Notes

The Giants dropped their first series at home to the Rockies since May 31 – June 2, 2012. … Hunter Pence’s home run snapped a seven-game drought for the Giants… With a double and a home run, Buster Posey collected his first multiple extra-base hit game since July 8, 2013 against the New York Mets.


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Last modified June 15, 2014 5:37 pm

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