NOTHING’S GOING RIGHT ON OFFENSE
Lack of right-handed power is apparent again in shutout loss
SAN DIEGO >> A stray rumor floated through the Twitterverse on Wednesday, and it made absolutely no sense: The Giants have expressed trade interest in Detroit Tigers outfielder Justin Upton, according to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports.
Huh? Upton can opt out of the remaining four years and $88 million on his contract after the season. He has a partial notrade clause. And given that he has said on the record that he dislikes hitting at AT&T Park, the Giants are probably on his verboten list. None of it computes.
Then you look at the lineup that Giants manager Bruce Bochy rolled out against a left-handed pitcher in a 5-0 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. And the rumor begins to make all the sense in the world.
Bochy’s No. 2 batter, Kelby Tomlinson, hasn’t hit a home run all season. Neither has the No. 3 batter, Gorkys Hernandez. It is not a small sample, either. They have 468 plate appearances between them.
His No. 5 hitter was his backup catcher, Nick Hundley.
Not only was Bochy forced to put Pablo Sandoval in the lineup despite a .105 average from the right side, but he also started him at first base — a position he had not played since the day in 2012 when he tore his hamstring while doing the splits on a stretch at the bag.
If their lineup were any lighter, they’d have chartered a glider
back to the Bay Area.
The Giants’ best righthanded hitter, Buster Posey, was out of the lineup for a third consecutive day because of a bone bruise in his left thumb. He could return Thursday when the Giants begin a four-game home series with the St. Louis Cardinals. But his presence only goes so far.
Has the Giants’ total lack of right-handed power ever been more apparent? While the rest of baseball is smacking Top Flites to the apron, the Giants are a few yards in front of the tee box sitting one. It makes it awfully hard to compete night after night unless they receive a three-hit shutout, like the one Jeff Samardzija provided on Monday.
Despite that strong series opener, the Giants failed to win a series against the Padres for the eighth consecutive time. They didn’t get a single RBI from a righthanded hitter in the final five games of this trip while dropping series at Arizona and San Diego. Their road series record this season is 3-17-2.
Padres left-hander Travis Wood worked out of jams and even hit a home run — his first since last October, when he was pitching for the Cubs and took George Kontos deep in the NL Division Series at Wrigley Field. Jose Pirela also homered off Ty Blach as the fourth-place Padres improved to seven games better than the lastplace Giants in the NL West while beating them for the 11th time in 16 games this season.
Unlike the Padres, the Giants will not seek to start over this winter and fill out their roster with organizational leavings in the Rule 5 draft.They will turn over rocks while trying to find an impact source of righthanded power for 2018. Some of them will be boulders.
No wonder Upton’s combination of power and solid defense interests them, even if it’s hard to imagine the two parties matching up. Even if Upton does become a free agent, the Giants know they will be stuck in the same bind as usual, having to overpay relative to market value to get a hitter to come play at AT&T Park. Call it Rowand’s Razor. Perhaps they were just trying to scour some advance information on Upton’s interest in coming to San Francisco.
And you can bet the Giants will all but bug the offices of the new ownership in Miami to ascertain their appetite for trading Giancarlo Stanton. There are plenty of impracticalities to a deal with the Marlins, too, but the Giants will be motivated to try. Ditto for the Blue Jays and Josh Donaldson.
Sometimes you go for a test drive and surprise yourself by taking it home, whether you can afford it or not.
There will be options on the free-agent market, too. While it wouldn’t be the most creative move, the Giants could always sign Todd Frazier to play third base and use Sandoval off the bench.
The rest of Wednesday’s game was about as thrilling as you might expect between two clubs that entered the day a combined 74 games out of first place.
Blach pitched well other than the two home run balls in 5 2/3 innings; his third run scored on Kyle Crick’s wild pitch. Blach also went 2 for 2 at the plate.
There were a number of crisp defensive plays, too. Shortstop Brandon Crawford had to treat Tomlinson like a high hurdle while they converged as he picked up a ground ball. Center fielder Denard Span made a sliding grab.
Blach and Joe Panik combined on the most remarkable play of the night, when the pitcher kicked a comebacker and the second baseman made a diving stop before gathering himself to throw out Yangervis Solarte in the second inning.
“It reminded me of the play he made for me at Triple-A last year,” said Blach, of the oft replayed highlight on a ball that first baseman Kevin Frandsen deflected. “That was fun to see.”
But the Giants stranded eight runners in the first five innings and failed to score against a left-hander who threw 97 pitches in 4 1/3 innings. It was just the fourth time in the last 25 seasons that a major leaguer threw that many pitches, recorded 13 or fewer outs and allowed no runs.
Blach ignited the Giants’ best chance when he doubled in the fifth inning. They had the bases loaded with one out after Tomlinson walked and Hernandez singled. But Hunter Pence struck out and Hundley grounded out.
Sandoval had a chance with two aboard in the eighth, but he struck out against Padres left-hander Brad Hand.
Sandoval said his shoulder feels fine and he isn’t deterred by the lack of right-handed results.
“It’s a process,” Sandoval said. “I have to keep working. I’m feeling better every day. Before, I had to do it because of my shoulder. But it feels good now.”
• Johnny Cueto threw well in his side session and as long as he comes out of it with no issues, he would be activated and return to the rotation Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Bochy said.
The Giants plan to employ a six-man rotation for at least one turn, Bochy said.