Giants robbed; look ahead to Dodgers

At left: Travis Ishikawa clearly beats Henry Blanco's tag for what would have been the winning run but was called out by umpire Phil Cuzzi.

The San Francisco Giants (50-42) lost to the New York Mets (49-43) by a score of 4-3 in ten innings today at AT&T Park. However, the real story of the game was that the Giants by all rights should have won the game in the bottom of the ninth when Travis Ishikawa slid under the tag of Mets catcher Henry Blanco. David Wright fielded Freddy Sanchez's ground ball with one out in a 3-3 game in the ninth and fired a high throw home. Blanco clearly tagged Ishikawa late. It kind of took the wind out of the sails of the Giants who had rallied from 3-1 down at the start of the inning behind Ishikawa's two-run pinch-hit single. Ishikawa and manager Bruce Bochy both argued with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi but of course to no avail. You can see for yourself in the photo I'm posting that the call was missed.

Cuzzi had a rough day behind the plate and missed several calls including many balls and strikes. It's frustrating to see what should have been a four game sweep taken away, although winning three of four is still a very good start following the All-Star Break. Cuzzi probably should have rung up Mets first baseman Ike Davis on a couple of breaking balls from Brian Wilson on 1-2 and 2-2 counts in the tenth but somehow called those balls. Davis, hitting with two outs, doubled off the bricks in right field to bring in Jason Bay who had singled a batter earlier. It proved to be the winning run.

All this being said, the Giants still had chances to win but Aubrey Huff bounced out to Davis with runners still on first and third following the controversy to end the inning. And in the tenth Eli Whiteside struck out on a 3-2 curve ball from Mets pitcher Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez who ended up throwing 47 pitches on the day over two innings and was responsible for coughing up the two run ninth inning lead. Whiteside was hitting with runners on first and second following Edgar Renteria's two-out double and an intentional walk of Juan Uribe. The Giants showed resiliency in not going down quietly in the ninth or tenth. I like that the team has such great heart.

Ishikawa, Bochy and well pretty much everybody said that Cuzzi missed the call and even Blanco said "He was safe all the way. Everybody was surprised when he called it out." I think it's cool that an opposing player admitted that, but it still sucks that the call was missed. The Giants travel to southern California to face their hated rivals the Dodgers (49-43) for three tomorrow through Wednesday. Coverage of all three games starts at 8 p.m. MT on mlb.tv. I would throw in MLB Extra Innings but for some reason today's Giants-Mets game wasn't on there and I had to bust out my computer to catch it on mlb.tv. Doesn't make sense but most games typically are on Extra Innings and I would think at least two of these three will be.

The Giants need to turn it around on the Dodgers after being swept at home by them recently. Ever the optimist I feel like the Giants should win two of three with Bumgarner, Lincecum and Zito starting, but with the series in Dodger Stadium I would more realistically say the Dodgers will win the series. But go Giants nonetheless. This Dodgers series is important not just for the standings but for the teams psyche after dropping five of the first six this season as well as not playing well against the NL West in general. They have to improve their play within the division from here on out if they want to have good odds of making the playoffs.

One good thing about this weekend was that the Dodgers were swept in St. Louis by the Cardinals (51-41) in four games, including an epic late game meltdown today that really makes me happy. With the Giants winning their series it puts them back ahead of the Dodgers in the West and just a half-game behind the Rockies (50-41) for second place after they lost two of three in Cincinnati (51-42). The Padres (54-37) lead the division by four games and still seem to never lose after sweeping the Diamondbacks (34-58) in San Diego this weekend. But as a Giants fan I'm just focusing on just being a half-game back of the Rockies and Reds for the Wild Card.