Stratton’s struggles resurface; Belt’s season likely over
Giants send Belt home to have knee evaluated
SAN DIEGO >> With a violent swing of the bat, Giants pitcher Chris Stratton delivered the type of twostrike, two-out hit most of the club’s position players have struggled to produce this season.
Stratton’s second-inning double cleared the bases to give the Giants the early lead.
It was the perfect tonesetter for a team trying for a sweep. But Stratton soon found himself in a troubling situation, and he didn’t escape it Wednesday in an 8-4 loss.
Those three runs weren’t the only ones Stratton was responsible for in the inning. When he returned to the mound for the bottom half, Stratton surrendered five runs including a go-ahead two-run blast to Padres third baseman Wil Myers.
“You’ve just got to find a way,” Stratton said. “They cut the lead to 3-3 there, and that’s fine. You’ve got a runner on first with one out, you’ve got to get a double play, and I throw the worst pitch of the night to Myers.”
Stratton had never recorded an extra base hit until Wednesday, but he has suffered through his share of challenging innings this season.
After a five-run first-inning against Arizona on Aug. 3 forced the Giants to send Stratton down to Triple-A, the right-hander ironed out his mechanics under the direction of roving instructor Ryan Vogelsong. Stratton returned to the majors with a newfound sense of confidence and impressive command that reached a peak in his last start, a two-hit shutout of the Colorado Rockies.
Stratton’s outing against the Padres was an obvious valley.
“He was just missing his spots by a pretty good margin and that’s unlike him,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Especially with the way
he’s been throwing the ball. That caught up with him.”
The inconsistencies are frustrating for the starter and the franchise, particularly because Stratton is far from a lost cause. In his previous five starts, Stratton posted a 2.10 ERA and turned in four quality starts during a stretch that inspired confidence he may be able to hold down a spot in the club’s 2019 rotation. But after lasting just three innings against the last-place Padres, Stratton could do himself a big favor by silencing San Diego next week at AT&T Park as the season comes to a close.
“You can always look back on today’s game and figure out what you did wrong and try to improve on it,” Stratton said. “I just don’t think my fastball command was very good, and two-strike pitches weren’t very good.”
After four scoreless innings from the Giants bullpen, Ray Black gave up a three-run homer to Padres shortstop Freddy Galvis that put the game out of reach in the eighth.
Pitching wasn’t the only issue for the Giants on Wednesday, as an offense that’s functioned more like a car leaking oil than well-oiled machine couldn’t take advantage of several chances with runners in scoring position. The Giants went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position, failing to seize opportunities with less than two outs in the third and sixth innings.
Shortstop Brandon Crawford finished 3 for 4, but he could only do so much for an offense that’s missed another Brandon.
Before Wednesday’s game, Bochy announced first baseman Brandon Belt flew back to San Francisco to have his right knee evaluated by team doctors. Bochy said Belt’s season is “most likely” over and that surgery could be immi- nent for a player who has suffered a series of unfortunate injuries throughout his career.
“He’s going to get looked at by our docs and see where he’s at with this knee,” Bochy said.
After tearing the meniscus in the same knee in 2015, Belt had his knee cleaned out in an operation at the end of the season.
Rookie Aramis Garcia started in Belt’s place and crushed an opposite field home run to cut a two-run deficit in half in the eighth inning, but the Giants couldn’t complete another comeback at Petco Park.
Garcia’s homer was his third since the Giants called him up to replace catcher Buster Posey, who had season-ending hip surgery Aug. 27.