Giants are two games over .500, but in fourth place and looking for answers
SAN FRANCISCO >> On an afternoon the Giants honored members from their 1989 pennant-winning team, the result mirrored the World Series of 29 years ago.
Athletics win convincingly, Giants fade quietly.
This series wasn’t an A’s sweep like 1989, but Oakland still won two of three after the Giants took Game 1 of the Bay Bridge series Friday night. This weekend also marked the first home series San Francisco dropped since April 8-10 against the Diamondbacks.
The Giants were 10-0-2 in their 12 home series since before losing Sunday’s rubber match.
They enter the All-Star break at 50-48 after a 6-2 loss Sunday, sitting fourth in the NL West but only four games out of a division lead and four from a wild-card berth. It’ll take much more than the Giants offered Sunday to reach either of those points, though, as the iffy pitching and stagnant bats that sent the Giants into the hiatus with a thud would only make matters worse in the second half.
“We’re gonna have to get some guys hot,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We had some guys that had a tough series here.”
Andrew Suarez had gone six consecutive starts allowing two earned runs or fewer, and he’d allowed four or more in only one of 10 starts this season. That hiccup came June 8 against the Nationals when he allowed four runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 9-5 Giants win. The left-hander threw four scoreless in five innings of work on Sunday. It was the one outlier that proved too much for the Giants to overcome, a fourrun fourth inning for the Athletics with the Giants holding a 1-0 edge.
Five straight A’s reached base in the inning, the last four via singles, and the last three of those driving in runs.
“I just left a few balls up,” Suarez said. “They just put it in play, two bloopers and two ground balls ... it happens.”
With the exception of Chase d’Arnaud, the Giants’ bats didn’t seem up to the task of clawing back. d’Arnaud drove a solo shot to center in the bottom of the sixth for his second home run of the month, but not much else surfaced from the home lineup. Only three players, d’Arnaud, Brandon Crawford and Gorkys Hernandez, registered hits. The Giants stepped to the plate only twice with runners in scoring position on the afternoon.
A’s reliever Lou Trivino threw 36 pitches on Saturday night, but he needed only 12 to retire the Giants in the eighth a day later. Alen Hanson led off the eighth with a fourpitch walk, but pinch-hitter
Pablo Sandoval grounded into a 4-6-3 double play the next batter. Oakland added an insurance run in the ninth, and All-Star closer Blake Treinen mowed down the heart of the Giants’ order to shut the door.
• In the first 10 seasons of his major-league career, Jeff Samardzija never spent a day on the disabled list.
Samardzija earned a reputation as an iron man, tossing at least 200 innings in five straight seasons and building credibility as one of the most durable starters in baseball.
The Giants placed Samardzija on the disabled
list for the third time this season Sunday with right shoulder inflammation that hasn’t subsided since spring training.
Samardzija missed the first three weeks of the season with the injury and rushed through a minor league rehab assignment to rejoin a Giants team that lacked depth. As Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto dealt with their own injuries, Samardzija made eight largely ineffective starts that suggested he was pitching through pain.
After the right-hander finished up a brutal first
inning against the Rockies on May 29, the Giants pulled Samardzija from the game at Coors Field and placed him on the disabled list again.
Following an absence that lasted more than a month, Samardzija returned to the Giants after completing a rehab assignment that needed to be extended due to his inability to work deep into games.
Samardzija’s latest stint with the Giants lasted just two starts, as he struggled with both command and velocity in a four-inning outing against Oakland Saturday.
Bochy announced the decision to send Samardzija to the disabled list Sunday, admitting the veteran is dealing with the same issue that’s plagued him since March. Bochy said Samardzija will meet with team doctors and likely have an MRI, but the club has not discussed surgery as an option for treating his ailing shoulder.
“During this break, at some point he’ll take a bullpen and we’ll see if the shoulder is doing better,” Bochy said. “It’s just got some inflammation in there now. So that’s the next step.”