28 years ago, American fell in love with a half-human, half-vampire leather-clad vigilante pledged to fight the undead. And Janzen Tidwell’s fell in love with the middle name “Blade.”
Wesley Snipes’ character is a Daywalker, meaning that unlike the vampires he hunts, Blade doesn’t suffer the debilitating effects of sunlight that vampires face. It gives him a valuable tactical advantage against the bloodsucking hordes, especially since he’s also unaffected by garlic or silver.
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Sadly, that is not the case for Blade Tidwell of the San Francisco Giants, who has seen his team lose both games he’s started during the day. Tidwell gave up six runs in 4.1 innings and walked five against the Colorado Rockies in a 13-7 loss August 16, in a game that began at 1:05 PM. Thursday in Pittsburgh, Tidwell walked in a run and let another in on a bases-loaded walk in the first inning, ultimately driving a stake in the heart of his team’s chances to win, in a 5-2 loss.
Although, if the Giants had been wielding wooden stakes Thursday, they would have flailed ineffectually, delivering weak contact to the vampire’s chest or missing his heart entirely. They faced six different Pittsburgh Pirates relievers and collected only two hits, one of which didn’t leave the infield. Giants hitters did draw five walks and a HBP, which led to their only rally, a two-run effort in the 7th where Jonah Cox and Turner Hill drew walks ahead of Jung Hoo Lee’s pinch-hit double.
That was the only inning where the Giants got a runner past first base. Lee’s single cut the Pirates lead to 4-1, but runners on second and third with no one out yielded just one more run, on an RBI groundout from Nate Furman.
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If you’re thinking the Giants are walking in a lot of runs this week, you’re right. It’s their third straight game with a bases-loaded walk, though they only had a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in this one. Logan Webb did it twice on Tuesday and Landen Roupp did it on Wednesday.
Still, Tidwell managed to stay out of trouble for the rest of his day, inducing his final batter to hit into a double play to end the 5th. The 6th inning was when the Giants once again forgot how to catch or throw the ball.
Jake Mangum got his revenge for getting drilled, sort of, when he tried to bunt Oneil Cruz over to second. Reiver Sanmartin threw off-target, Bryce Eldridge alligator-armed the catch as Mangum sped down the line, and Cruz came around to score as the ball rolled away.
Mangum would come around to score when Jared Triolo beat out the relay throw on a double play, a call only confirmed after a Pirates replay challenge. Triolo would drive in Mangum with a sacrifice fly in the 8th off Ryan Walker, completing a very strange game where he had two RBIs and a stolen base despite going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Khristian Curtis (1-0) got the first win of his career by throwing 3+ innings in his third big-league appearance. He did get tagged for the Giants’ only two runs, but when a starter doesn’t go five innings, the official scorer has a lot of discretion in who gets the win. Though the trio of Y0han Ramirez, Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery all though a perfect inning, Curtis gets the decision on pure volume.
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Rafael Devers saw his 10-game hitting streak end and struck out three times, reaching 154 whiffs on the season. It doesn’t really matter what kind of outs Devers is making, and he’s still well below last year’s 192 K’s, but it’s really a bummer to watch. Speaking of excessive strikeouts, congratulations to strikeout aficionado Eugenio Suarez, who passed his citizenship test this week!
That absence shouldn’t keep him from passing Justin Upton and moving into 10th place on the all-time strikeout list before the end of the season.
Perhaps realizing that next year’s Giants may end up with a plethora of young outfielders, Jonah Cox showed off his versatility by moving from center field to second base in the 8th inning. Cox successfully fielded the one ground ball hit in his direction and covered first on a sac bunt — and caught the ball!
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Cox probably has a leg up by being both the fastest guy on the team and a right-handed hitter, considering that Lee, Hill, Drew Gilbert, and Pacific Coast League Player of the Month Bo Davidson all hit from the left side. But it certainly doesn’t hurt his value.
After all, a hybrid outfielder-infielder is almost as valuable as a daywalker, with just one downside. Garlic can protect you from a vampire, but Cox is going to need to wear a cup to protect against bad-hop ground balls on the infield.
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