For a second time in as many chances, a Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher who came off the disabled list endured a rough first outing. Hyun-Jin Ryu took his lumps against the Colorado Rockies last Thursday at Coors Field, and on Monday night it was Brandon McCarthy’s turn at AT&T Park.
It wasn’t all negative for the right-hander, who threw two hitless innings. McCarthy allowed a one-out single in the third and shortly after a game-tying blooper to left field. The San Francisco Giants then scored four runs in the fourth inning.
That was a combination of decent contact and well-placed balls. Thus, McCarthy was uncertain what to make of the inning and overall start, via SportsNet LA:
“(Buster) Posey hit his ball hard, and (Mac) Williamson at the end. Other than that, not a lot of loud contact. Just quality aiming, I guess. …. I’ll see if there were execution or errors in [the fourth inning]. It was kind of a blur. I kept trying to make pitches, and couldn’t really seem to make any headway.”
The Giants opened the fourth with a quartet of consecutive hits. The last of which was an Eduardo Nuñez broken-bat grounder that carried up the middle and into shallow center field. Corey Seager retrieved the base hit and threw to McCarthy in the middle of the diamond.
Buster Posey scored easily from third base, but McCarthy’s cutting off the throw to home plate also allowed Brandon Crawford to score even though there was some hesitation as he rounded third.
McCarthy’s wits were momentarily thrown off because of his attempt to dodge the shattered bat that flew in his direction. The 33-year-old equated the sequence to a mental lapse on his end.
The loss was McCarthy’s first in six starts this season; the Dodgers are 4-2 in his games.
