The Giants squeaked out a 4-2 win over the Rockies on Thursday afternoon. And while Madison Bumgarner was dominant for 7 1/3 innings, closer Brian Wilson struggled mightily to finish the game and, as we now know, turned his ankle in the ninth inning.
That's according to Bruce Bochy, via CSNBayArea.com's Andrew Baggarly, who informed reporters after the game.
"Wilson turned his ankle," Baggs tweeted. "Bochy said he's OK but will be off [Friday]. Too many pitches [Thursday]."
The injury occurred after a 1-0 pitch to Tyler Colvin and Wilson was clearly bothered -- Buster Posey ran out to the mound, Bochy came on the field. Wilson threw one warmup pitch, stayed in the game and managed the save.
Let's examine a little more closely, though, with the Pitch F/X sequence, via BrooksBaseball.net, and a notation for Wilson's injury by me.
In the ninth inning, Wilson came into the game with the Giants 4-1 lead. He gave up a double to Troy Tulowitzki (five pitches), an infield single to Michael Cuddyer (four pitches), somehow managed to strike out Wilin Rosario (five pitches), gave up a single to Jason Giambi (three pitches), lucked out with a line out to second by Todd Helton (four pitches) and then faced Colvin.
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As you can see, after tweaking his ankle, he only sniffed 90 miles per hour one more time in the inning. He actually walked Colvin with the bases loaded (on five pitches) and somehow managed to get Marco Scutaro to fly out to right on six pitches.
Wilson labored the entire inning, but was clearly not healthy enough to close in the final portion of the inning, when he couldn't generate any velocity as a result of his bum ankle.
He may just be taking Friday off, but this injury could be a bigger cause for concern going forward.
