How many times have we seen this before?

Derek Norris trots in the winning run after Santiago Casilla balks it in.

The Giants are either ahead or tied in a close game only to have Santiago Casilla mess things up. Again.
Saturday we saw it yet again. The Giants and Padres were deadlocked at 5-5 for several innings until Buster Posey helps put his team on his back with a go-ahead home run only to have Casilla blow it in the worst fashion I’ve ever seen and honestly,I’ve seen enough.

As soon as my four eyes saw Casilla on the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, I didn’t think a W was coming to the Giants. Instead,my thought was “I wonder how badly he’ll screw this up for us” and I think deep down,his teammates felt the same way.
Casilla had Corey Dickerson behind in the count before giving up a single to him and gave up a single to Derek Norris. Then Norris,who is slow as fuck, stole second base because Casilla had no clue Norris was going to. The game was tied at 6 when Adam Rosales made contact after being down 0-2 in the count. Then the winning run comes in when Casilla fell off the mound and decided to go through his throwing motion in the process and the game is over. Casilla did not record a single out in his performance on Saturday.

Giants fans,we’ve seen this before when Armando Benitez did nearly the exact same thing in May 2007 in a game against the Mets where he balked in the tying run and gave up a walk-off homer to lose the game for San Francisco. It was his last game in a Giants uniform. Nine years later,here we are again.

So why is this so upsetting? Because the Giants have 18 blown saves this season,leading the league. Casilla owns five of them. If this team is planning on making October an orange one, that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I know that Bruce Bochy said that there won’t be any closer change,but there needs to be one and I think the front office is looking to make that change now more than ever if they weren’t before. Fans like myself have wanted a closer change for some time now and if a guy like Sergio Romo,who was throwing some absolutely nasty stuff last night by the way, is the answer in that role, I’d be fine with that. If it’s a closer brought over via trade,that’s fine,too.

When you trot out your closer to finish a game, you as a fan should feel comfortable and confident with that guy in that role because you feel like he will get the job done and seal the victory. With Casilla,I don’t feel that. As I mentioned before, it was a “I wonder how badly he’ll screw this up for us” feeling and while I know it’s not doom and gloom for the Giants right now as they still own baseball’s best record despite losing two straight games after the All-Star break, I worry about how October will go down if they stand pat.

When it comes to Santiago Casilla,honestly,I’ve seen enough.