All-Star closer Camilo Doval falls apart in wild ninth inning as SF Giants lose to Mariners

SAN FRANCISCO — The game was too fast for Camilo Doval on Monday night.

The San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners were tied until the Giants’ All-Star closer blew the game in the most bizarre fashion.

Failing to control the running game, Doval allowed four runs in the ninth while Blake Sabol’s three-run home run in the bottom of the inning wasn’t enough as the Giants lost a 6-5 heartbreaker in front of a sellout crowd of 40,691 at Oracle Park.

“What can I tell you? It wasn’t my day,” Doval said afterwards.

Recently named an All-Star for the National League, the 25-year-old entered with the score tied, 2-2, and promptly allowed a leadoff single to Mike Ford.

There was some controversy when the next batter, Ty France, appeared to get hit between the knob of the bat and his bottom hand. But the call was upheld after a long review by the umpires, putting two runners on with nobody out and the go-ahead run in scoring position.

That brought up the nine-hitter, Kolten Wong, and the entire stadium knew a sacrifice bunt was coming.

To defend it, the Giants were to execute the wheel play, a basic play in baseball when the middle infielders rotate to the corners to cover first and third, while the corner infielders crash the plate and attempt to field the bunt as quickly as possible. The goal? To get the lead runner at third base.

Wong’s first bunt attempt went foul while Brandon Crawford and Brett Wisely rotated from shortstop and second base to third base and first base, respectively. But on the next pitch, Crawford rotated to second base instead of third, leaving third base wide open. Pinch runner Jose Caballero stole third easily. Giants manager Gabe Kapler said it was Doval’s responsibility to step off and throw to second for a pickoff attempt, but that never happened. The Giants also changed their defensive alignment, Kapler said, but there was miscommunication.

Doval was supposed to be “queuing on the middle infielders and he wasn’t able to react in time,” Kapler said.

With the bunt play no longer in effect, Wong hit a weak grounder to LaMonte Wade Jr. at first base, but Wade took a chance and threw to third. Caballero beat the throw and everybody was safe. The bases were loaded. Nobody was out. And Doval couldn’t stop the bleeding.

J.P. Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to score Caballero, then Julio Rodriguez smoked a two-run double, stole third and Teoscar Hernandez drove him in.

“Things sped up a little bit,” Kapler said of Doval.

Doval has also struggled this year to adjust to the new pitch clock.

“The one thing to remember is Camilo is an All-Star and is one of the better closers around baseball, that’s abundantly clear,” Kapler said. “He also has a little bit of work to do in terms of slowing things down and remembering that he’s controlling the running game.”

It was a shame to waste a heroic effort from Sabol, who had a breakout night at the plate after a pregame hitting lesson from Barry Bonds. He blasted a two-run shot off Mariners starter Bryan Woo, an Alameda High graduate making his sixth big league start, to give the Giants a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

And then in the ninth, with the Giants trailing 6-2, Sabol was down to two strikes with two outs and two runners on when he walloped another high fastball over the center-field wall to bring the Giants within one.

Wilmer Flores came off the bench with a pinch-hit single to put the tying run on base, but Crawford struck out swinging to end the game. The Giants are now 2-5 this season when tied after eight innings.

They wasted a strong outing from Logan Webb, who struck out 11 while holding the Mariners to two runs in 6 2/3 innings. It was Webb’s third game with at least 11 strikeouts this season, tied for second-most in the N.L. behind only Arizona Diamondbacks righty Zac Gallen.

The Giants will start right-hander Keaton Winn against Mariners righty Logan Gilbert for a 1:35 p.m. PT game on Tuesday.