Desperately chasing a playoff spot in the National League, the Giants can’t afford to make many mistakes down the stretch.
On Tuesday night, it was miscues by home plate umpire Jeremy Riggs that cost them greatly.
Trailing by three runs in the ninth inning Tuesday night at Petco Park, San Francisco loaded up the bases with no outs against new San Diego Padres closer Josh Hader.
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After Austin Wynns drew a walk to bring home a run, J.D. Davis stepped in and was called out on strikes in a quick four-pitch at-bat.
Two of the strike calls were outside of the zone, including the final pitch of the at-bat that sent a disgruntled Davis back to the dugout. Both of those missed calls were ruled the game's most impactful mistakes by the Umpire Scorecards account on Wednesday morning.
Riggs' job behind the plate Tuesday night favored San Diego by +0.88 runs.
Hader had trouble locating the fastball all inning. He threw 37 pitches while only recording two outs, the most pitches he has thrown while not finishing an inning in his career.
San Francisco Giants
San Francisco went on to tie the game in the ninth, only to watch Manny Machado blast a game-winning three-run homer off Tyler Rogers in the bottom half of the frame.
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The Giants and Padres wrap up their three-game series at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday. Tune in to NBC Sports Bay Area at 12:30 p.m. for “Giants Pregame Live.”