For the San Francisco Giants, catcher Buster Posey is arguably their most important player. He changes their lineup when he is in it and he manages a pitching staff that is very good. But coming back from his devastating ankle injury from last season when he was involved in a home plate collision, he is not all the way back, at least defensively, it seems.
Offensively, he is fine. He had two hits, including a two-run homer. He had four hits for the series.
But defensively, he had struggles, especially on Sunday.
He had four plays that were questionable. First, attempting to throw out Willie Bloomquist stealing, the throw went into center-field for an error. Had the throw been anywhere near on target, he would have gotten Bloomquist out.
On a pop foul, he gave up on the play when he was near the railing.
On a sacrifice bunt, he chose to throw it to third to get the lead runner, but Lyle Overbay slid in safely. In Posey's defense, while the decision was questionable, Overbay made a tremendous slide.
But the biggest play was the run that won the game for Arizona. With the bases loaded and a ground ball hit to third, the play went to the plate for the force and Posey made the catch, but his foot was a couple inches away from the plate. Error, run scores, D-backs take lead and ultimately win the game and sweep the Giants.
It is understandable that Posey might be squeamish at the plate with a runner sliding. However, it was one of several plays. It is going to take time, obviously, but it look like the Giants are going to have to bear with their start player making some mistakes out in the field for a bit.
This time, it was a fortunate thing for the D-backs.
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