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Giants snatch defeat from jaws of victory in 5-4 loss to Rox

San Francisco can’t hold lead, loses second game in a row since trade deadline
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FILE: San Francisco Giants outfielder Steven Duggar takes a swing against the Tampa Bay Rays at Oracle Park on April 5, 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. (Chris Victorio

The Giants got a satisfying debut from new second baseman Scooter Gennett, a heady re-debut from center fielder Steven Duggar and an eye-opening return to Coors Field for Mike Yastrzemski on Friday.

They just didn’t get a win.

Two days after a trade deadline that saw San Francisco load up for a final playoff run with Bruce Bochy and Madison Bumgarner, while stocking their minor leagues for the future, the Giants lost their second straight game and dropped back to .500 with a 5-4 come-from-ahead loss to the Colorado Rockies.

The loss was the first one for San Francisco that included a blown save by it’s NL-leading bullpen since July 13 at Milwaukee. The Giants (55-55) had come back to win both blown leads since that game, but couldn’t do it again on Friday.

After falling behind 2-0 on a second-inning Tony Wolters single and a third-inning Trevor Story homer that just eluded a leaping Steven Duggar’s mitt, San Francisco crept back in the fourth.

Yastrzemksi led off with a four pitch walk, and with one out, Colorado starter Peter Lambert uncorked a wild pitch that just skittered away from Wolters. Yastrzemski alertly broke for third, got his hand under the tag and kept his foot on the bag as he overslid it. He scored on a Brandon Crawford fielder’s choice.

In the top of the fifth, Duggar — called up after Dereck Rodriguez was sent down — laid off a 2-2 fastball just inside on the sixth pitch of the at-bat. It was the type of at-bat he went down to Triple-A to have, and on the next pitch, Duggar — who said that being sent down in June was the best thing that could have happened for him, long-term — singled to right on a changeup.

Duggar rode home on a first-pitch Austin Slater triple high off the right field wall, tying things up at 2-2. Next up was Yastrzemski.

After going 9-for-20 at Coors last month with three doubles and two homers over a three-game series, Yastrzemski crushed a 1-2 fastball off the facing of the third deck — an estimated 472 feet away — for a two-run homer, putting the Giants ahead.

In the top of the sixth, Rockies center fielder David Dahl went down in a heap after catching a knuckling fly ball by newly-acquired Giants second baseman Scooter Gannett, looking like he got his right cleat caught in the turf. He was carted off the field in visible pain. Duggar doubled with two outs, and Slater was walked, bringing starter Shaun Anderson to the plate. He stranded both.

Anderson faced one batter in the bottom of the sixth and gave up a single, meaning the Giants had to dig into their bullpen early in what’s expected to be a grind of a series at altitude. Right on cue, Ryan McMahon crushed a Sam Selman center-cut fastball over the center field wall for a two-run shot, tying things up once again.

Reyes Moronta allowed the first three men to reach in the seventh, allowing a run on a double by Ian Desmond to break the tie. The Giants were able to limit the damage when, with one out and Andrew Suarez on the mound, a Daniel Murphy grounder into a drawn-in infield saw Gennett fire home and nip Trevor Story. Story nearly slid around the tag from Buster Posey, but he was called out on replay review, and then Suarez got McMahon — who had reached all three times at the plate — looking at strike three.

With two outs in the eighth, San Francisco had a chance to tie things up again, when Gennett went down for a shin-high changeup for his first hit as a Giant, a double into the right field corner. He was stranded as Duggar — the only Giant with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 — flied out to right.