Giants hit lowly feat in 5th straight loss

SAN FRANCISCO » All Alex Cobb could do was bury his head in the grass.

The unluckiest pitcher in baseball — really, there are stats to back this up — had just been burned again, tripping and falling to the grass fielding a soft comebacker from Brandon Nimmo. The ball is expected to be a hit only 9% of the time, and this would be one of those times. Nimmo’s dribbler was already the Mets’ fourth infield single of the game. Cobb remained splayed on the infield grass for a few extra seconds as he watched the speedy leadoff hitter sprint past the bag.

As it turned out, Nimmo’s single would be the one that didn’t come back to bite Cobb on Monday night, but the misfortune of San Francisco’s starting pitcher proved too much to overcome as the bangedup Giants lost their series opener to the Mets, 13-3, extending their losing streak to five games.

Cobb struck out seven and walked none, but his ERA swelled ever higher, to 6.25, after allowing six runs on 10 hits — four that didn’t leave the infield and another that blooped in to left field — over six innings. Yet, his expected ERA, according to Baseball Savant, sits at a sparkling 1.75, and to boot, Cobb threw the fastest pitch of his career — 96.6 mph — past Starling Marte for one of those seven punchouts.

Brandon Crawford’s tworun home run in the second inning was all the Giants could muster off Mets starter David Peterson, sending San Francisco to its fourth loss in four games since returning to Oracle Park. The Giants have been outscored 38-15 over the course of their five-game losing streak.

At the quarter-mark of the season, the Giants have lost five games in a row twice, something they didn’t do once during their 107-win campaign last season. Their loss, coupled with a Dodgers win, sent them a full 6.0 games back of Los Angeles in the NL West standings, a gap that never grew to more than 4.5 games last season.

During both losing streaks, the Giants have missed at least seven players to various ailments. On Monday, Austin Slater (left wrist inflammation) became the latest player to hit the injured list, joining LaMonte Wade Jr. (left knee inflammation), Curt Casali (concussion) and Brandon Belt (right knee inflammation) just in the past four days.

The injury voodoo to strike the Giants could rival only their starting pitcher’s bad luck to start this season, which would border on comical if it weren’t so cruel.

In one start (May 1 vs. St. Louis), Cobb was burned by one misplay that extended an inning and ended his outing. In his last start (Sunday at Colorado), Cobb had stymied the Rockies for five innings before serving up a home run.