With the game tied 2-2, Bengie Molina called for a timeout. The home plate umpire, crew chief Gary Darling, called out timeout and raised his arms to stop play. Tim Lincecum stopped his pitching motion and stepped off the rubber. Darling then calls balk and the run from third scored.
Up to that point, Tim Lincecum pitched a decent game. His control was not as good as in his previous games, but he was able to get out of jams unscathed.
Instead of leaving the game with a no decision, the botched balk call cost Lincecum the game and punched the Giants right in the gut. The next inning saw the Giants players trying to swing for the fences instead of playing their small-ball game.
This game began weird and ended the same way.
In the first inning with Fred Lewis on third and Eugenio Velez on first and one out, Velez took off to steal second to avoid the possible double play. Velez stole the base easily due to Yorvit Torrealba's poor throw. But, for some reason Lewis took off for home and the throw to home beat him with plenty to spare.
In the same inning, Molina pulled up a little bit gimpy after hitting a run scoring double. The Giants cannot afford to lose Molina; maybe, Bochy should let it be known in the papers that on orders, Molina will never leg out anything more than single unless the hit is a home run.
On the Rockies side of things, Troy Tulowitzki pulled a muscle in the leg/groin area throwing to first base. Watching him aggravate the injury two plays later made me cringe a little. His replacement, Chris Iannetta, hit a game-tying home run against Lincecum and was the guy on third during the balk fiasco.
Iannetta's natural position was a catcher and he was put in at third. Rather then bunting down to his side of the ball, the Giants' players kept swinging away. Only Ray Durham attempted to bunt down to Iannetta which he failed to accomplish. Then everyone just seems to go away from testing him.
Fast forward to the bottom of the ninth inning. Randy Winn is up at-bat with a man on 2nd and one out. The pitch count is 3-0. Brian Fuentes threw a pitch a little bit above the belt and Winn pops it up. A non-produtive out. It just makes you shake your head in disappointment.
No matter. Fred Lewis was coming up. He had been 2 for 4 in the game and should be primed to come through in this clutch situation. But, for some weird reason, Dan Ortmeier was called up to replace Lewis. What was the bench coach thinking? Instead of having one of your better hitters in Lewis hitting, he brings in a guy off the bench just to take advantage of a left vs right situation. That decision was utter bullshit.
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