Pirates trounce Giants, 10-5
SAN FRANCISCO — As the San Francisco Giants’ highestranking executives looked back on the 2017 season last October, they termed it an “aberration” and felt convinced every break that could have gone in their favor instead went the other way.
How else could they explain a 98-loss season for a club three years removed from its third World Series title of the decade?
While the Giants have been fortunate on a few occasions in 2018, the seventh inning of Thursday’s 10-5 loss was a reminder of just how cruel baseball has been to the franchise of late.
Facing a 3-2 deficit, the Giants watched a pair of former Gold Glove winners open an inning with back-to-back errors and a few bloop singles fall in against Mark Melancon. Although Joe Panik and Evan Longoria should have made tough plays to start the frame, their miscues set the stage for a five-run inning that put another must-win game out of reach for the Giants.
Although the Giants have dealt with their fair share of injuries and classic cases of bad luck this year, the franchise is nearly 50 games under .500 since the 2016 All-Star break and can’t point to innings like Thursday’s seventh as irregularities.
With a defeat Thursday, the Giants have lost five of six and fallen two games below .500. Their narrow window to make a run toward a playoff spot continues to dwindle, as San Francisco now sits 7 games out in the division and wildcard races with 46 games to play.
Even an impressive pitching staff has begun to struggle of late, including Thursday’s starter Andrew Suarez.
Suarez and fellow rookie Dereck Rodriguez were the two most reliable arms in the Giants’ rotation heading into the All-Star break, as the duo racked up quality starts and appeared poised to secure starting roles heading into 2019.
But while Rodriguez has continued to shine and garnered more consideration for Rookie of the Year honors, Suarez has sputtered and turned in several disappointing outings.
After posting a 2.79 ERA in the nine starts leading up to the All-Star break, Suarez entered Thursday’s game having allowed at least eight hits in each of his past three outings.
The left-hander’s ERA took consecutive hits in the top of the second against Pittsburgh,
as catcher Elias Diaz and first baseman Josh Bell smashed home runs on backto-back pitches. Diaz’s 379-foot two-run shot to left field put the Pirates on the board before Bell stepped in and hit a first pitch slider 17-feet further to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-0.
For a Giants team that scored a combined two runs in a two-game set against the Houston Astros this week, the early deficit appeared especially daunting.
Since the All-Star break, San Francisco has been limited to two runs or fewer in five of the team’s 17 games and hadn’t scored more than three runs in its previous five games.
Although Pirates right-hander Ivan Nova entered with a 4.49 ERA this season, the Giants didn’t record their first
hit until the fifth inning when Austin Slater roped a single into left center field. Nova became the seventh different starter to open with three hitless innings against the Giants in 18 games since the break, but left fielder Alen Hanson finally drove in the team’s first run with an RBI triple following Slater’s single.
The Giants continued their efforts to close the gap as rookie Steven Duggar hit a two-strike single into center field to drive in Hanson and cut the Pirates’ lead to 3-2. Although Duggar advanced to third later in the inning, former Pirates star Andrew McCutchen grounded out to end the inning.
With the tying run on base and oneout, Bruce Bochy elected to pinch hit for Suarez, who allowed three runs over five innings and finished the night with three straight scoreless frames. While the rookie straightened things out, the Giants’ offense didn’t score again until the ninth inning and the defense racked up three errors in its final three innings in the field.
The slow start and fifth-inning rally highlighted the turn the Giants’ season has taken. Although the franchise’s front office recommitted to its veteran core following a 98-loss season, most of the team’s regulars are still struggling at the plate.
The three Giants players to reach base for San Francisco in the fifth inning are all in their first full season with the club, as Slater and Hanson are both 25 while Duggar, 24, is the youngest player on the club. The energy and production the trio has offered the Giants over the past month has been critical, especially as several of the players the team planned to rely on at the beginning of the year have had difficulties living up to expectations.