I’ve never been one to blame a manager for a team’s loss.  If the hitters are unsuccessfully flailing away at the plate, there’s only so much a coach or manager can do to help.  He can make suggestions, point out mechanics issues, etc, but he can’t go up there and actually hit the ball.  That’s the players’ job.  Same goes for the pitchers.  You can tell someone to drop their release point, but the player is the one who is still required to execute.  For me, the games are won and lost by the players…for the most part.

     But there are those times, when a manager’s poor decision…or indecision, for that matter…can pull the rug right from under a team and disrupt their impending success, and last night’s 14 inning loss to the Rockies is, indeed, one of those times.

     There were 2 glaring mistakes that I saw in last night’s game that, had they not happened, coul dhave easily changed the outcome of the game.  The first, came in the 9th inning.  With a leadoff double by Ryan Garko, the Giants had a golden opportunity to tack on the lead run.  But rather than play it smart and safe, Bochy left it up to his free-swinging, offensively challenged hitters. 

     Any reason you don’t lay down a sacrifice bunt there?  I don’t care if Aaron Rowand isn’t the best bunter in the world, you have to lay it down and advance the runner.  It’s as simple as that and it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.  If Rowand sacrifices, then Edgar Renteria has a guy on third with one out.  All Renteria needs to do is put it in the air at that point and the Giants are up by a run.  Frustrating?  That’s an understatement!

     And what about Bochy handling of the pitching staff lately?  For the most part, this season, I’ve liked the way Bochy has handled the team.  But one of his biggest flaws, in my opinion, is that he sticks with pitchers far longer than he should, especially lately.  It happened on Saturday when he left Joe Martinez in for too long and again later on when he left Justin Miller in after his single, triple, walk, wild pitch, triple, homer, walk debacle.  He gave Merkin Valdez a little too much leash that same game too, but at that point, the damage was done.

      Bochy did it again with Miller last night.  I know that at the point of the 14th inning, the pen is pretty much spent but you’ve got to be kidding me.  Once Miller gave up the single to Chris Iannetta, the first batter he faced, he should have been yanked…especially after Saturday’s misfirings.

     But no, Bochy sticks with him out there and watches as Miller then walks Troy Tulowitzki and Adam Eaton.  Yes, Adam Eaton.  The pitcher.  Miller walked the pitcher. Miller walked the guy who hasn’t had a hit sonce Reagan was in office.  Just awful.  By that point, who can fault Valdez for that meatball he served up to Ryan Spilborghs?  The bases were jacked with one out and you could just feel it in your bones that the Giants were going to lose this one.

     What started out as a golden opportunity for the Giants to make some headway in the Wild Card chase turned into a disaster. The hitters actually did an admirable job in this series, so I can’t really fault them to much, can I?  Nope.  The blame here goes to Bochy and the pen.  Poor managerial decisions and just complete disgustingness out of the relief corp.

     If the Giants are even considering the playoffs, they’re going to have to treat these next 6 games as if they were the final games of the World Series.  We’ve got 3 against lowly Arizona that we must win and then the Rockies come calling again.  I know it’s not even September yet, but we’re at the point where it’s win now or go home.  We can’t afford otherwise.