Giants fans aren’t the only ones frustrated after the team’s nightmarish doubleheader Thursday in Philadelphia.
Broadcaster Mike Krukow joined KNBR’s “The Murph & Markus Show” Friday morning to express his exasperation following the Giants’ pair of walk-off losses, results Krukow said were avoidable if not for crucial errors in pitch selection.
“I’m not good at all,” Krukow told hosts Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher when asked how he was holding up after Thursday’s defeats. “I was screaming at the TV set yesterday, and [my wife] Jennifer is looking at me like I’m nuts. And then she comes over and…lo and behold, a couple minutes later she’s screaming at the TV. I think that was indicative of a lot of Giants fans yesterday, as to what they saw.
“What was especially upsetting was they should have won both games. They outplayed the Phillies both ends of the doubleheader and they wind up with what the little bird left on the rock. That’s a frustrating day.”
The Giants were one out away from victory in each game on Thursday but failed to secure either win as the bullpen allowed the Phillies to rally both times.
In his radio appearance on Friday, Krukow first keyed in on Ryan Walker’s ninth-inning pitch sequence to the Phillies’ Bryson Stott in the first game. Walker threw nine straight sinkers to Stott, who eventually laced a triple to tie the game.
“What was upsetting was he threw nine pitches that were the same pitch,” Krukow told Murphy and Boucher. “So, let’s go back and review: what is hitting? Timing. What is pitching? It’s upsetting the timing of the hitter. That’s your goal…when you throw nine [of the same] pitches to a big-league hitter, he is going to have an excellent chance to barrel your ass. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Next, Krukow referenced Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber’s at-bat against Keaton Winn in the ninth inning of the second game, with the Giants again one out away from a win.
“Number one, they’re facing Schwarber when they shouldn’t have,” Krukow said. “He should never have been pitched to with an open base, but okay. Now you’ve got Keaton Winn out there, a three-pitch guy: fastball, a slider and a split. Well, what did he throw him? He threw him seven splits, the same speed.”
Schwarber doubled in the tying run on the seventh pitch, and the Giants would go on to lose in 10 innings, prompting Krukow’s impassioned critique.
“To me, these are questions that have to be answered,” Krukow concluded. “And I don’t think they can be explained by the current philosophy, and I think that has to change.”
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