At 100-game point, little reason to cheer
The Giants’ front office, filled with experienced and successful baseball executives, has expressed a vision that this team can compete in 2018, maybe even contend, while keeping the core largely intact.
That picture is blurrier to the untrained eye. The Giants played their 100th game Sunday, losing their 62nd. They are far too deep into the season to say their players are “slumping.”
Brandon Belt looks as lost as he ever has. Brandon Crawford cannot crack .230. Hunter Pence has not hit a homer at home. Pitchers continue to make two-strike mistakes that allow opposing hitters to prove that home runs are possible at AT&T Park. Series after series the Giants lose to teams with more pop and speed.
One of those teams, the Padres, beat the Giants 5-2 Sunday to take three of four in the series. San Diego has won 17 of its past 23
meetings with San Francisco since the Giants won the first nine last year.
Perhaps the Giants’ moves by next Monday’s nonwaiver trade deadline will offer a snapshot of which avenue they take to change the mix before Opening Day 2018, but they need help on the field from players with long-term contracts who are going to be part of the Giants’ future.
Manager Bruce Bochy’s frustration was palpable after his offense got shut down by another pitcher with an inflated ERA, rookie Dinelson Lamet, Wil Myers homered for the third straight game and Hector Sanchez hurt the Giants again with the last of three consecutive doubles in a fourrun fourth against Ty Blach.
“For some reason, our starters have not pitched well against these guys,” Bochy said. “They’ve given up their share of home runs. Myers, Sanchez, they’ve killed us. On top of that, their starter has good stuff, but he’s got a six ERA and the heart of our order went 1-for-16. “That’s not going to work” The coaches, who are not being blamed for this mess, are at wit’s end.
Bochy has a lineup that cannot do what opponents seem to accomplish often: get the bat head through the zone quickly enough to pull the ball with power.
One stat is illuminating: Myers has five homers at AT&T Park this season. Only one right-handed Giants hitter has more than two:backup catcher, Nick Hundley, with three. The only other current Giants hitter with more than a single right-handed homer at home is Buster Posey, with two.
That is not going to fly in a ballpark that favors righthanded power.
Myers homered on a changeup from Blach in the first inning. Walking Myers seemed like a good idea with one out in the fourth, but that backfired, too, when Hunter Renfroe, Jabari Blash and Sanchez hit consecutive doubles, followed by a Cory Spangenberg single, that suddenly turned a tie game into a 5-1 San Diego lead.
Like Matt Moore on Saturday, Blach overcame his one bad inning and kept the Giants in the game. The difference Sunday was, the Giants could not mount another comeback.
Rookie second baseman Miguel Gomez had a nice afternoon with a double and single, and Eduardo Nuñez continued to swing his way out of town with three more hits. But he also made an inexcusable blunder on the bases that cost the Giants their last best chance to come back.
With two outs in the seventh, Blash dropped a Belt fly to left. Nuñez left from first base and stopped running when he thought Blash would catch it. Nuñez compounded his mistake by restarting his engine after the ball fell and going for third, where he was nailed to end the inning with Posey on deck as the potential tying run.
“That can’t happen,” Bochy said. “Just run. He knows it.”
The only blessing for the Giants was the speed of the game. It was over in 2 hours, 48 minutes after the teams played a total of 8 hours, 43 minutes and 23 innings Friday night and Saturday.