Giants fall further back after blowout loss
SAN FRANCISCO (TNS) – As the Giants’ highest-ranking 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. Though 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.
Though 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 Allstar 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 seven San Francisco Giants second baseman Joe Panik makes an error during the seventh inning of Thursday’s 10-5 loss to the Pirates at AT&T Park.
games out in both 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 Suárez.
Suárez and fellow rookie Dereck Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez has continued to shine and garnered more consideration for Rookie of the Year honors, Suárez has sputtered and turned in several disappointing outings.
His ERA took consecutive hits in the top of the second against Pittsburgh, as catcher Elías Diaz and first baseman Josh Bell smashed home runs on back-to-back pitches.
Alen Hanson hit an RBI triple and rookie Steven Duggar hit a single into center field to drive in Hanson and cut the Pirates’ lead to 3-2 in the fifth.
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 Austin Slater and Hanson are both 25 while Duggar, 24, is the youngest player on the team. 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.