The San Francisco Giants had a brutal bullpen in 2016 that had a franchise record 32 blown saves, and most notably blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning to end their season in Game 4 of the NLDS vs the Chicago Cubs.
Naturally, the Giants made the back-end of their bullpen the team’s top priority in the offseason, and signed free-agent closer Mark Melancon to a four-year, $62 million deal.
Well, Melancon made his debut in the team’s Opening Day game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, and it didn’t go so well. The Giants entered the bottom of the ninth with a 5-4 lead, and Melancon got the first two outs, before allowing a rocket double to Diamondbacks catcher Jeff Mathis (a career .197 AVG, .562 OPS hitter):
That was followed by a game-tying single by Daniel Descalso (a career .667 OPS hitter):
Then the Diamondbacks’ A.J. Pollock singled, and that was followed by a game-winning single from Chris Owings (a career .669 OPS hitter):
Melancon has been ridiculously good over the last four years, with his highest ERA in a season over that span being 2.23 (and it was a sub-2 ERA three times). And there’s no reason to think he won’t be awesome again this year, but surely all Giants fans can think right now is “Not again.”
[CSN Bay Area]