OAKLAND - After off days, Bruce Bochy occasionally admits that he spent his free hours watching more baseball. He's a fan of the game, whether he's managing or not. On Saturday night, he was able to appreciate a game played well, even if it didn't come with a win.
Bochy mentioned repeatedly that he appreciated how hard the Giants fought despite the fact that they lost 4-3 in extra innings. They appeared to be done about an hour earlier when Alen Hanson struck out, but the third strike was wild and Hanson reached with two outs in the ninth. He scored the tying run on Hunter Pence's double into the bullpen that came with some chair controversy.
"That's what speed does," Bochy said. "Hanson was flying and scored easily."
The Giants did a lot of good things. The bullpen was dominant after Madison Bumgarner lost his command. Brandon Belt hit a homer. Pence had his first three-hit game of the season. Brandon Crawford made two incredible catches on pop-ups. It didn't lead to a win.
"That was a great ballgame," Bochy said. "You hate to say that when you lose, but these guys fought hard."
-- Belt was hitless in 18 at-bats when he took Trevor Cahill deep. He snapped a streak of 63 at-bats without a homer.
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-- The Giants have started switching their shifts this season, with Crawford and the third baseman swapping positions in certain counts so that Crawford can patrol an entire side of the infield. It paid off in the sixth. Matt Olson hit a pop-up toward the bullpen and Crawford took off on a dead sprint.
He snagged the ball about 150 feet from where he started. According to Statcast, Crawford reached a sprint speed of 28.8 feet per second, his fastest sprint of the season on any play.
In the 11th, Crawford went a lot way into right-center for another eye-popping grab. That one saved Hanson, who had missed two earlier pop-ups.
-- Steven Duggar struck out in nearly a third of his at-bats in the minors this season, and we're starting to see some of that up here. Duggar struck out twice in the series opener and twice Saturday. He has at least one strikeout in every game he has played since a promotion, and double-digit strikeouts in five of his eight starts.
-- Evan Longoria (fractured finger) was hitless in four at-bats in his second rehab game. He's 2-for-7 in two games and could play nine innings Sunday in a bid to speed things up.
-- It's not quite Scoreboard Watching Season, but… you're always watching the team atop your division. The Dodgers lost 4-2 to the Brewers, who got two shutout innings from Josh Hader. The controversial reliever's first road appearance will come Thursday in San Francisco, by the way.
