‘Spoiler’ role doesn’t suit these slumbering Giants
With sweep of deflated foe, Cardinals move closer to second NL wild-card spot
ST. LOUIS >> The Giants lacked any desire to embrace the “spoiler” role.
After trading Andrew McCutchen and losing Steven Duggar and Buster Posey to season-ending surgeries in the final week of August, the Giants’ roster had been decimated and the team’s spirits had been deflated.
They were left with little ammunition to spoil any playoff hopes, but if they showed up to auditions for the job anyway, the Giants would not be receiving a callback.
Their flaws and shortcomings were once again exposed Sunday in a 9-2 defeat to a St. Louis Cardinals club that used the three-game series to move closer to securing the National League’s second wildcard berth.
“They’re well-balanced, good pitching, good arms, their guy today (Miles Mikolas) has had a big year for them and he threw the ball well,” manager Bruce Bochy said of the Cardinals. “We really had a tough time with him. That’s a tough lineup.”
The Giants hadn’t been swept in St. Louis since 1995, but in the San Francisco era, they’ve never suffered through a September as miserable as this one. Every Giants team since 1958 has won at least seven games in September, but this year’s club must win three of its final six at home to avoid setting a new franchise mark for late-season
futility.
The club should be eager to return to AT&T Park after concluding another dismal year on the road. For the first time since 19841985, the Giants have lost 50 road games in consecutive seasons as four straight defeats to end their trip brought the team’s road record to 31-50 in 2018.
Since the 2016 All-Star break, the Giants own a 72128 record away from the pitcher-friendly confines of AT&T Park, which gives the franchise a .360 winning percentage in those games. Over a 162-game stretch, a club that wins 36 percent of its games would finish with just 58 victories.
The Giants are promising significant offseason changes and plan to shake up the core of the roster, but management hasn’t given any indication the franchise will consider a full-fledged rebuild.
One of the primary reasons San Francisco doesn’t believe a teardown is the way to go is the success the team’s young starters have had. Rookies Dereck Rodríguez and Andrew Suárez have emerged as potentially critical assets for years to come, and it was Suárez’s turn to pitch Sunday.
Though Suárez pitched well, Bochy removed him after the left-hander logged just five innings and allowed two earned runs. Suárez picked up two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 fifth, but when it was his turn to hit to lead off the sixth, Bochy sent a pinch hitter to the plate.
“We’re down two runs, we’re not doing anything offensively so we’ve got to try to get something going offensively there,” Bochy said.
By the time Suárez was out of the game, the Giants’ offense had only provided him with one hit of support, as catcher Nick Hundley doubled in the top of the fifth off Mikolas. Though shortstop Brandon Crawford smashed a tworun home run in the seventh, it came after the Giants’ bullpen allowed the Cardinals to break open the game with a five-run sixth.
Suárez was pulled after throwing 77 pitches, marking the second consecutive start the Giants have removed him in a situation when Bochy is inclined to let a veteran stay in the game.
In the rookie’s last outing, Suárez was pulled with two outs in the bottom of the eighth despite holding a lead over the Padres and having thrown just 87 pitches.
Sunday’s outing marked the fifth consecutive game in which Suárez was limited to 95 pitches or fewer, but after making his 28th start, Suárez leads all National League rookies with 158.0 innings this season.