The Giants led the Padres 4-1 entering the ninth inning on Tuesday night.
Final score: San Diego 6, San Francisco 4.
Ryan Schimpf's three-run blast with two outs and two strikes prevented the Giants from gaining a game on the Dodgers in the NL West.
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"Okert comes in in a two-out situation and faces a left-hander and throws four fastballs in a row and the fourth one gets hit out of the ballpark," Mike Krukow explained on KNBR 680 on Wednesday morning. "And you're thinking, 'Why? Why not one breaking ball in the dirt?' And everybody's thinking the same thing, and everybody in that clubhouse is thinking the same thing. So just a brutal loss."
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The Giants have lost 10 games this season after leading by three or more runs. In 2014 and 2015 combined, they lost seven such games.
"It will definitely test your mettle as a group, because everybody walks out of the ballpark last night scratching their head," Krukow said. "That game was in the win column. They had big-time momentum, they played a clean game, they got a nice start out of Albert Suarez, they did a really good of getting men on base to lead off an inning -- something they couldn't do the night before -- just a clean game..."
San Francisco Giants
Left-handed relievers Javier Lopez and Will Smith pitched the sixth and eighth innings respectively.
Bochy could have used lefty Josh Osich (who warmed up early in the game) in the ninth, but elected to go with Okert.
"He (Bochy) didn't have one bit of hesitation mentally putting Okert in the game, and the reason for that, is he's been throwing the ball great," Krukow answered. "He was a confident pitcher ... I have no problem with that. I don't think anybody in that clubhouse had a problem with him giving the ball to Okert. Okert wanted the ball.
"I think the only thing you can go back and second guess, is in a 1-2 count after seeing three fastballs, do you go out of the strike zone and throw something and just change the sightline? Just throw a breaking ball in the dirt ... if you're in the big leagues, you should be able to make that pitch below the strike zone."
With the Mets and Cardinals winning on Tuesday, the Giants lead New York by 1/2 a game for the top wild card spot, and are just one game ahead of St. Louis for the second spot.