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ST. LOUIS – According to statistics, a ball that drops to 62.4 mph will be a hit less than 15% of the time.
Lucky Giants. Matt Adams threw a ball with this exit speed with two outs on the eighth Friday night. But he hit a spot on the ground that he rarely finds, as the ball came between Evan Longoria and third base. Two points scored to break a 3-3 tie.
And that's how the Giants dropped from 5 to 3 to win their second season of consecutive defeat, the first time in 10 years. The Cardinals maintained their lead of one and a half game on the Rockies for the second wild card.
"No luck tonight. There is no doubt, "said manager Bruce Bochy, not only of Adams' success, but also consecutive shots in the same spot by Harrison Bader and Kolten Wong, which cost Madison Bumgarner's 2014 Playoffs
"Sometimes it's a fun game," Bumgarner said. "It's difficult when you throw for a soft touch, you get a soft touch and they only find one hole."
Despite all the rebounds, the 82nd defeat of the Giants was marked by many problems.
They played well enough to win, wasted some great opportunities early in the game to destroy starter John Gant, did not hit a circuit and eliminated 16 times, the fourth time this season that they have at least as many points in nine. game part, the second time on this trip.
Dams are not a deadly sin in this new era of hitting all or nothing, but you can not have the third highest number of withdrawals in the league (1,391) and the second-lowest number of home-based circuits (129) and expect a success.
To be honest, almost all the people coming out of bulls these days are throwing 97 miles to the hour or so, and these guys have been tough with a team of Giants full of kids. Aramis Garcia represented four of the 16 strikeouts in the first game of the series. Austin Slater and Chris Shaw each had two.
"Just too many withdrawals tonight," said Bochy. "There are times when we have to put the ball in play and we can not."
For the second time in three games, the Giants had riders in turns and no one had scored, as the next hitter hit when even a double play would have produced a race.
Their approach is often out of effect, taking too many called third shots when they should protect and not shorten and fight.
What's funny is that the Giants have cleared a 3-1 deficit in seventh against the hardest pitcher of the match, Jordan Hicks. His fast ball averages 101.7 mph and he threw two at 105 mph to Phillies' Odubel Herrera in a bat, angry that Herrera was out of the box.
Slater took a decisive step ahead of Alen Hanson and Gregor Blanco, each on 102 mph fast balls, reducing the lead to 3-2. They had the tight race in a Longoria at-bat with 10 shots that young people should watch a few times to see how to stay alive against a good pitcher.
Longoria fell behind 0-2, had an easy shot for the first ball, and then made the following four shots. The eighth pitch chased his head at 101.3 mph and knocked him down. He then fired a few balls on a 101.2 mph fastball, but still blocked his bat to hit it before hitting a ball on the ground.
Longoria had two singles and a double before that.
Bochy praised how Longoria played recently on both sides of the ball, but the third baseman recognized what many people thought and said aloud.
"I just wish I did it when it counts, and we were lucky to be in the pennant race," said Longoria. "It's good to have a good game, but we lost, and I do not go home thinking about what I did personally."
Henry Schulman is an editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @hankschulman
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