Colorado Signs Death Warrant on Giants' Season (Again)

On August 24, 2009, the Giants gave away a game to Colorado (bite me, Ryan Splibourghs) that effectively killed their season. A year and five days later -- same story.

In this world there are winners and losers, those who want the ball and those who treat it like a grenade, guys who perform when they must and those who soil the sheets. It appears the San Francisco Giants may be doing a lot of laundry.

I think you can sum up the current state of the Giants with a single observation: their pop gun offense doesn't leave any margin for error, yet the pitching and defense make far too many of those for them to be viable contender. There's an "it" factor that winning teams have, and that's something the Giants currently lack.

Leading 1-0 in the ninth, the Giants saw a walk and a pair of defensive misplays send them down to defeat. In the process, the season went with them..Stick a fork in them.

It should be noted that Jonathan Sanchez pitched well. Now he knows how the other half lives. Little run support and a defensive failure cost him the win. And again, plenty of culprits.

Let's set the stage. Sanchez goes to the hill to start the ninth. He's earned that right. But he also did the one thing you can't do in that situation, and that's walk the lead-off guy. At that point he was yanked, and rightfully so. With one of the game's best closers in the wings, you gotta pull the trigger.

It likely would have been fine had it not been for Brian Sabean's latest stroke of genius. Cody Ross, the waiver "gift" Sabean couldn't resist, butchered a fly ball to right. Freddy Sanchez, another dude Sabean had to have, compounded the misfortune by tossing the relay into the dugout. On one pitch the Giants make two miscues and a 1-0 lead becomes a 2-1 defiict.

The Giants hit the ball hard in the ninth but still went in order because Colorado has actual players who make actual plays. Game. Set. Match. Season.

Giants management should be ashamed. This is a pitiful excuse for a team, and it's headed in the wrong direction. In the search for a (budget) winning team, the Giants have created a squad that often can't seem to get out of its own way.

As soon as Sanchez issued the walk, only his second of the game, I had a sense of impending doom. That's how it is with the Giants. If you were a fan of the Yankees, or Colts, or Patriots, you'd be watching the critical juncture of the game anticiapting how they'd find a way to win. After all, they're "winners." With the Giants, you start calculating the number of ways they can louse it up.

In that regard, they rarely disappoint.

Lost in the defensive fog will be the fact that the stellar Giants offense managed just four hits. Four. They've scarificed defense in search of offense, and found neither.

This is the low point of 2010. Time to clean house. If more than half this team returns in 2011, fans should set fire to the ball park and call for management's collective head on a stick.

Remember July, when there was hope? Now there's just a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because I know this team is doomed. Bad players, bad management, bad ownership. Everything about this stinks.

Since splitting a critical series against the Padres in mid August, the Giants have won just six times over a span of 16 games. This is not a contender.

Duane Kuiper once quipped: "Giants baseball --  torture." I used to agree, but you can't even call this baseball anymore.

Baseball is supposed to be fun. This isn't. This is just embarrassing.