Whatever confidence the Arizona Diamondbacks gained from a comeback from a 4-0 deficit to an 8-5 lead in the eighth inning, it vanished into the winds of San Francisco Bay after the Giants scored the next four runs over the game's final three innings. San Francisco hung another gut-wrenching loss on the D-backs in as many days, 9-8 on Monday afternoon.
J.J. Putz needed to have a closer's memory -- a short one -- to finish off a wild game at AT&T Park. Twenty-four hours after giving up the winning hit to Adrian Gonzalez in Los Angeles, Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson called on Putz again to hold a lead in the bottom of the ninth inning.
He couldn't, surrendering a pair of doubles that tied the game at 8. Putz did gather himself enough to not give up the winning run; instead, that fate befell another reliever, Bryan Shaw, who gave up the winning hit to Marco Scutaro with two out in the 10th.
Brandon Crawford led off the 10th with an infield single. He was sacrificed to second, took third on a ground ball out and scored when Scutaro hit a hard grounder past third base.
The Diamondbacks had a chance to put the Giants away in the ninth, but Putz gave up a long leadoff double that almost left the park to Scutaro, then Pablo Sandoval moved Scutaro to third base with a groundout. Buster Posey then doubled in Scutaro before Putz got out of the inning.
The Diamondbacks trailed 4-0 after one inning, but scored two runs in the fifth inning and five in the sixth to take a 7-4 lead. Up 8-5 with their best reliever, David Hernandez, on the mound, the D-backs were in a good place, it seemed.
Hernandez got the first two outs, then gave up a double to Hector Sanchez, an RBI double to Crawford and an RBI single to pinch hitter Brandon Belt.
The D-backs lost their third straight to fall to 66-70, while the Giants moved to 77-58 and will at least maintain their 4 1/2 game lead in the NL West..