On a blustery day not unlike a Candlestick day of old, the San Francisco Giants were on the verge of sweeping the New York Mets at Citi Field. But Jonathan Sanchez struggled with his control, the Giants couldn’t muster enough run support to cover his mistakes, and the Mets eventually won by a score of 5-2.
Sanchez (L 2-2) lasted for 5 innings allowing 5 runs on 5 hits with 6 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was so fed up with his delivery that he scrapped the windup all together and pitched from the stretch towards the end of his outing, never a good sign for most pitchers. It was his second straight start with at least 6 walks, way too high for a pitcher of his caliber. Guillermo Mota and Dan Runzler combined for 3 innings of perfect ball the rest of the game after Sanchez departed.
Mike Fontenot had the big hit for the Giants today, a solo shot to the upper deck in right field in the 4th, his second of the year. The other RBI came from the Sanchize himself with a single up the middle in the 5th, plating Nate Schierholtz. The Giants had a great opportunity in the 9th, but left the bases loaded with a Miguel Tejada strikeout and a Buster Posey pinch-hit ground out. No Giant recorded more than one hit for the day.
Jose Reyes had a 2 RBI triple in the 2nd, while Carlos Beltran launched a 3 run jack off Sanchez in the 5th. The Mets Mike Pelfrey (W 2-3) went for 7.2 innings this afternoon, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Francisco Rodriguez came in for a 4 out save, his 7th of the season using 42 pitches to do so.
With the loss the Giants move to 15-16 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
San Francisco will now head back to AT&T Park for a 6 game set, starting with a three game series with the Colorado Rockies on Friday. Matt Cain (2-2 3.28 ERA) will square off with Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2 7.20 ERA) who still is trying to battle back from his rocky start (excuse the pun). First pitch is set for 7:15 tomorrow night and can be found on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.
For more discussion and analysis of your San Francisco Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get in on the action.