Strikeouts are becoming a worrisome tendency
PHILADELPHIA — The unmistakable whiff of whiffs wafted through the cool spring air at Citizens Bank Ballpark on Tuesday night.
The Giants struck out 17 times in a 4-2 loss to the Phillies, which gave them consecutive defeats for the first time in more than three weeks.
Only once in the first 60 seasons of San Francisco Giants baseball had they struck out that many times in a nineinning game, and it took Sandy Koufax to do it in 1959. This year, Giants hitters already have two 17-strikeout regulation games.
For the second night in a row, a Phillies starter established his career high, Zach Eflin with
nine on Monday and Aaron Nola with 12 on Tuesday.
The way Nola threw he could have notched a dozen strikeouts against many teams. Still, the Giants are proving to be a good mark for pitchers with swing-and-miss stuff.
Even before Tuesday night’s game the Giants had the fourth most strikeouts in the league (320). Last year they had the second fewest (1,204).
Nola elicited 26 swings and misses in seven innings, the sixth time a starter has recorded at least 15 in a game against the Giants. The Giants were so victimized just 12 times last season.
Rising strikeouts has been a game-wide trend the Giants had managed to avoid. It comes with bigger swings and more upper-cutting in a homer-happy era, and a seemingly endless supply of relievers who throw 95 mph. Also, the art of shortening up with two strikes is going the way of the rotary phone.
“It’s a little bit surprising, as many strikeouts as we’ve had,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’ve run into some very well-pitched games against us here. Both starters had good stuff and were hitting their spots.”
Nola lowered his ERA to 2.05 in his 12-strikeout effort. Reliever Edubray Ramos struck out two, Tommy Hunter one and Hector Neris two in earning his seventh save.
The obvious question surrounding the Giants’ increase in strikeouts is, why? Has there been a shift in philosophy toward bigger swings, as in the rest of the majors?
“It’s not like there have been meetings saying we should go at it differently,” catcher Buster Posey said after he struck out twice in four at-bats.
The personnel is different, and the three new hitters — Evan Longoria, Austin Jackson and Andrew McCutchen — are among five Giants who have struck out at least 30 times. Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt are the others.
Jackson, who fanned in all three at-bats Tuesday, leads the team with 35 strikeouts in 85 at-bats.
During their run of 12 victories in 16 games, ending with the sweep at Atlanta, the Giants hit well enough to counter the effects of their strikeouts.
Homers have been their ally, but not in two losses here that ensured the end of their series win streak at five. The Phillies have out-homered the Giants 7-1. Pablo Sandoval hit his first career pinch homer in the eighth inning Tuesday with the Giants down 4-1.
Derek Holland allowed solo homers by Aaron Altherr and Jorge Alfaro, who were hitting .205 and .215 respectively, on curveballs. Holland found by reviewing video that he was slowing his delivery on offspeed pitches, a “tell” that Phillies hitters might have used to their advantage.
Holland allowed three runs in five innings. Cory Gearrin started the sixth and gave up Philly’s only cheap homer of the series, a Carlos Santana flyball that caught the front of the right-field bleachers.
As always, Holland took the blame despite the Giants’ inability to produce runs.
“If anything we’ve got to point fingers at me,” he said. “It’s the home runs that cost us.”