Giants: No single player can be responsible for 16-30
On Sunday, after Santiago Casilla blew his seventh save try and the Giants lost to the Cubs in 13 innings, I responded to a tweet with what I thought was a fairly non-controversial statement.
The original tweet said, "These extra innings of baseball on getaway day brought to you by blown saves leader Santiago Casilla."
Manager Bruce Bochy would be committing malpractice if he did not look at other alternatives for the ninth inning.
[...] those who think Casilla is the only reason the Giants are three games out of first place as they open the Rockies series are blinded by their rage toward one player.
The Giants are 16-30 since the All-Star break.
Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who surely will get $50 million plus in free agency this winter because of his shutdown work in the ninth inning, has six blown saves for the season.
Yeah, the Giants' championship formula is great work from the starter, getting a lead however small, then getting shutdown relief.
At some point, though, your chances of winning are greatly enhanced if you can provide the bullpen a two-run lead instead of one now and again, if you can win a rout now and again.
The Giants have played 48 one-run games in 2016, tied with the Mariners for most in the majors.
[...] their overall record would be better if they played more two-run games.
If you blame Casilla for all the team's ills and do not point to Brandon Belt's .204 average since the break, or Buster Posey's streak of 142 at-bats without a homer, or the struggles that Hunter Pence and Joe Panik had when they came off the disabled list, and so on, then you are not looking at the entire picture properly.
Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.