The way the San Francisco Giants are hitting, they have no margin for errors like the one that Miguel Tejada made on Monday night. The third baseman played a grounder like Roger Dorn of "Major League" ? giving it an �ol�! ? in making a costly two-out error in the seventh inning against the Washington Nationals.
Tejada's mistake opened the door for both of the game's runs in the Nats' 2-0 victory. Left-hander Tom Gorzelanny and closer Drew Storen combined on a three-hitter, and Washington somehow improved to 15-15 , while the Giants fell to 13-15 with their eighth loss in 11 games.
Afterward, Tejada seemed pretty testy about his miscue. Imagine Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro's characters having their famous (NSFW) conversation in "Raging Bull."
Tejada was incredulous when his miscue was brought up after the game, telling a reporter: "You asked me the question like we lost the game because of that ball?"
Intense! But Tejada (who later chilled and admitted he should have gloved the grounder) has a point: The Giants scored four runs in four games against the Nationals. They've been shut out three times in a six-game span with, as Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News points out, James McDonald, Jason Marquis and the Mighty Gorzo starting the shutouts. San Francisco's lineup has been weak by any definition.
In the meantime, we spoke to Aubrey Huff, who did what teammates do. He absolved Tejada of blame.
"If that's the play that costs us the game right there, that's everybody's fault," said Huff, who is 1-for-20 on the trip. "A play like that, everybody points to it. But blame the offense. All of us. I'm the worst of it."
(As a fantasy owner of Huff, I can confirm this. His OPS is .547.)
Tejada, who also is batting .211/.245/.295 with one home run in 102 plate appearances, says he hasn't lost confidence in himself. He also still has a sense of humor.
"Never. I never lose confidence," he said. "If tomorrow we play football, I'll probably lose confidence. I don't know how to play football. But I've played baseball my whole career. I believe in God and he gave me a great career. Every day is a new day and I'm starting a new season tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the Giants will be starting that season with Mike Fontenot (God bless 'em) as the regular shortstop. Manager Bruce Bochy used Eli Whiteside as a pinch hitter last night. He's batting .200.
Tejada might need to keep his sense of humor for the long haul. At least there's "The Franchise" on Showtime to keep us glued to the Giants if their post-Series swoon continues.
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