It was out with the old and in with the new for the San Francisco Giants and their bullpen over the winter. 

After leading the league with 30 blown saves in 2016, most notably that crushing blown lead in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the NLDS, the Giants let veteran free agent relievers like Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla walk so they could go with younger arms like Derek Law and Ty Blach. The club also signed veteran closer Mark Melancon to a four-year contract. 

Those moves were supposed to fix San Francisco’s bullpen. And they still might. But on Sunday, the Giants dealt with more of the same as both Law and Melancon blew saves in the team’s Opening Day loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks (ARI 6, SF 5). Check out the pitching lines:

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

M. Bumgarner

7

6

3

3

0

11

D. Law (BS, 1)

0

3

1

1

0

0

T. Blach

2/3

0

0

0

0

0

H. Strickland

1/3

0

0

0

0

0

M. Melancon (BS 1, L 0-1)

2/3

4

2

2

0

1

Yes, Law gets a blown save despite pitching in the eighth inning. He’s the setup man and he was not going to pitch the ninth, but as far as the save rule is concerned, he entered a save situation. That’s why you see so many setup man who are, say, 3 for 10 in save chances each season. It looks like they can’t handle the pressure of closing when it’s really nothing more than the silliness of the save stat. Setup man can get blown saves, but not saves.

Anyway, Melancon allowed four straight hits, all with two outs, to blow the save and the take the walk-off loss in the ninth. A Jeff Mathis double and a Daniel Descalso single tied the game. Chris Owings ended it with a walk-off single. Here’s the game-winning hit:

The Giants managed to lose even though Madison Bumgarner hit not one, but two home runs. Crazy.

Needless to say, Melancon did not make a great first impression with his new team. The Opening Day loss doesn’t mean the signing is doomed to fail, however. Blown saves happen. Melancon has an excellent track record -- he saved 147 games with a 1.80 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in 290 innings from 2013-16 -- so chances are he’ll right the ship and soon.

For now, Sunday’s loss is little more than a harsh reminder the Giants suffered some seriously excruciating late-inning losses last season. It’s still a little too early to say last year’s bullpen problems have carried over into this year, however.