Ex-A’s pitcher Hill shuts down reeling Giants in Dodgers debut
Ex-A’s pitcher Hill shuts down reeling Giants in Dodgers debut
LOS ANGELES — If a single frame can encapsulate the hair-pulling frustration of more than a month, the Giants could nominate the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s 1-0 loss to the Dodgers.
The real story of this game — and, really, of the entire second half — was the Giants’ eighth inning against Joe Blanton.
The normally stoic Buster Posey betrayed his frustration with an uncharacteristically visible outburst toward first-base umpire Sam Holbrook, who rang him up on a half-swing for the second out, with Angel Pagan aboard.
The inning ended with a deflation in the Giants’ dugout that might have been audible in Pasadena.
Brandon Crawford hit what looked like a three-run homer — the monster hit the Giants have sought for weeks.
[...] Josh Reddick caught it at the right-field wall for the third out, the Giants’ last hope of regaining a game on the Dodgers.
Human nature suggests the longer this dive goes, the harder it must be to keep the negativity from creeping into their heads.
When Cueto allowed his run, on a cutter that stayed up for Turner in the fourth inning, he was doomed to a 1-0 loss, frustrating any time, more so in a late August showdown game.
When Cueto walked to the dugout at the end of the inning, he screamed into his glove.
Hunter Pence sustained the rally with a line single to right-center, a hard shot that might have gone to the wall and tied the game had the Dodgers not been playing “no doubles” in the outfield.