Friday, Jul. 03, 2009

Giants drop the ball

Lewis' misplay in first inning opens floodgates vs. Cards

ST. LOUIS — Everybody tried to make an excuse for Fred Lewis.

Barry Zito mentioned the wind. Aaron Rowand mentioned the glare. And Lewis had his own excuse for failing to catch Skip Schumaker's fly ball in the first inning Thursday night, saying coaches had positioned him a few steps shallow.

Whatever reason, valid or not, Lewis failed to catch the lofty fly ball. It put immediate pressure on Zito and the game unraveled from there as the Giants finished a 10-game road trip with a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

After splitting their trip, the players looked forward to a 10-game homestand to take them into the All-Star break. But Lewis might not find a happy homecoming at AT&T Park.

The leftfielder with the shaky glove started only two out of seven games in St. Louis and Milwaukee, and he badly misplayed a ball in each of them.

He also went hitless in four at-bats Thursday. And he killed the Giants' only run-scoring rally of the game when he rolled out to strand two runners in the eighth.

Meanwhile, leftfielder John Bowker is hotter than the baked turf at Triple-A Fresno. He entered Thursday with a .355 average. His 12 home runs in June set a Fresno record for any month. He was the top vote getter among coaches and players for the Triple-A All-Star Game.

But if the Giants wanted to swap the two outfielders, they'd have to designate Lewis for assignment and expose him to waivers.

As the Giants dressed to catch their flight home, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said there hadn't been any talk of taking Lewis off the roster. But he also said his cell phone hadn't rung yet.

The Cardinals' three-run first inning began when Zito gave up a single to Brendan Ryan on an 0-2 pitch. Schumaker followed with his high fly into the leftfield corner and Lewis appeared to misread it off the bat, initially jogging after the ball before making a dash as the ball came down. His sliding effort came up short, setting up the three-run inning.

Bochy said he thought it was catchable.

"It looked like he took a circuitous route out there," Bochy said. "He makes some real nice plays, and occasionally, Freddy will misplay a ball. That play, sure, it was a tough play. But it put us in a tough spot.

Lewis made no admissions of guilt.

Instead, he blamed his coaches. Lewis said he would have caught the ball "if I had been in my normal position, but I was moved in. It's a difficult play to make when you're a few steps in. I had a chance to get it, but it was tailing away from me." Told of Lewis' comments, Bochy sat in thought for a moment.

"Well, we don't want him too deep there with lefty on lefty," Bochy said. "So yeah, he was playing in."

After Schumaker's double, Zito intentionally walked Albert Pujols to load the bases. A ground-ball single, a bases-loaded walk and a fielder's choice plated the runs.

Zito said "some funny things happened in that inning," and he thought Schumaker's ball was an out off the bat.

"But I take responsibility for making a bad 0-2 pitch to Ryan," Zito said. "That's my responsibility regardless of what happened with Schumaker."

The Cardinals scored twice more in the fifth, with Ryan's double — on another 0-2 pitch — the key hit.

Rowand, whose two-run homer in the eighth prevented a shutout, stood squarely in Lewis' corner. Rowand said he had trouble seeing the ball in the outfield, too.

"It's tough to judge depth here, and Freddy hasn't been out there in awhile," Rowand said. "You can't fault Freddy. He's doing the best job he can out there, as are we all."