Bullpen struggles in place of Snell
Seven relief pitchers pressed into service with lefty scratched
In the competitive NL West, this pitching staff is supposed to distinguish the San Francisco Giants from the herd.
Through little fault of his own, Blake Snell’s unorthodox introduction to San Francisco is at the forefront of what has been an inconsistent showing from the pitching staff so far this season.
Snell will be sidelined for several weeks — from experience, he assumes he will need more than the designated 15 days to heal — with a left adductor strain. The injury adds another hurdle for Snell, who was trying to tweak his way out of a rocky start to the season worsened by the complications from a truncated spring training.
His absence alone also digs the rotation further into a hole. With Snell out, Alex Cobb’s return pushed back to late-May, at least, and Robbie Ray out until mid-season, the Giants’ bounty of starters is temporarily down to four: Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks and Keaton Winn.
On short notice with Snell down on his scheduled start day, the Giants threw a bullpen game together that resulted in an uncompetitive 8-2 loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park.
With off days on Thursday and Monday, the Giants can comfortably skip Snell’s next scheduled start and stay in rotation. But what happens after that? Wednesday’s loss and the handful of games this season the bullpen let get out of hand indicate the Giants are more
likely to call up a starter from Triple-A Sacramento and steer clear of bullpen games — a more common strategy in previous seasons — until Snell returns.
“That’s been a problem, we give up too many runs in games where we’re not using key guys,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Those guys just have to pitch better. Today’s a tough day in the fact that everybody down there knows they’re going to pitch. But you need contributions from everybody and trying to minimize how many times you face certain guys in the order. It got away from us with (Sean) Hjelle and (Landen) Roupp, next thing you know it’s an uphill battle.”
The Giants went into the series finale with an opportunity to sweep and got off to a promising start with anointed opener Ryan Walker, who pitched a clean first inning.
Things got out of hand soon after.
Hjelle surrendered the first three runs on two home runs over his 22⁄3 innings. The first was one of Francisco Lindor’s two homers in the game — a two-run shot in the third inning on an 0-2 knuckle curve. The second was a solo blast to Tyrone Taylor.
“It’s just a couple of pitches, that’s what happened to a couple of guys today,” Melvin said. “Overall he’s having to cover almost three innings there, gave up a couple hits and a walk but homers tend to do some damage.”
Roupp — who was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento on Tuesday night only to be recalled less than 24 hours later with Snell’s injury — also allowed three runs. Making his Giants debut in the ninth inning, Mitch White surrendered Lindor’s second home run, another two-run blast to right field.
The loss wasn’t all on the mound, as the offense fumbled chances to keep the team in the game against former Giant Sean Manaea. An opportunity to take an early lead presented itself with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, but Thairo Estrada and Tyler Fitzgerald popped out consecutively before Nick Ahmed’s flyball ended the inning.
The following inning, Austin Slater and Wilmer Flores drew back-to-back walks to lead off, but Slater got picked off at second — one of many unforced errors the Giants have committed this season on the basepaths — and Manaea retired the side.
Fitzgerald’s solo home run in the seventh off Reed Garrett — who hadn’t allowed an earned run this season until then — provided the Giants’ first run. LaMonte Wade Jr. scored from third on an error in the ninth inning for the Giants, who went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The six-run loss sits in stark contrast to the two previous wins against New York that looked more like the Giants’ blueprint for success. Webb spun together eight scoreless innings a night after Winn allowed one run over six, both pitching performances magnifying the big hits that came along.
Uncompetitive games like Wednesday’s have dragged the pitching staff’s collective ERA to 4.74, the fifth highest in baseball, with a more promising 3.96 FIP (fielding independent pitching). Until the leaks get patched up, the pitching staff is still just pretty on paper.
Briefly: Estrada left the game in the sixth inning with hamstring tightness, Melvin said. The move, Melvin said, was mostly precautionary. “He wanted to stay in the game, but we wanted to be proactive,” Melvin said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”