Giants’ defensive woes return, costs them series sweep vs. Twins
MINNEAPOLIS — The Giants’ disastrous defense from last season had so far been a nonissue through their first 48 games of 2023. It returned with a vengeance Wednesday afternoon, as San Francisco committed a trio of errors and could have been credited with more while failing to complete a sweep of the Twins.
It was sloppy effort all around from the Giants (2425), who lost 7-1, and fell back under .500. They have not owned a winning record since Aug. 17 of last season.
But rather than wallow, the Giants took solace in the stark contrast the error-filled loss provided to their much-improved play this season. The loss was only their second in their past nine games, and it was their first three-error game of the season, after committing at least that many four times in 2022, when they ranked near the very bottom of the league in most defensive metrics.
“Not our best defensive game,” manager Gabe Kapler said, “but a good reminder that we have been playing good defense for the majority of the season. That obviously wasn’t good enough. A really good opportunity to flush it immediately and not dwell on it at all.”
“For sure a frustrating day,” added starter Anthony DeSclafani, who allowed seven runs but only four earned. “But more importantly we’ve been playing really good baseball. So we’ve just got to throw this one out and get ready for Milwaukee.”
DeSclafani allowed a pair of home runs, hit a batter, issued a pair of walks and threw two pitches past catcher Blake Sabol, one wild pitch and one passed ball, that each also led to runs. Without a good feel for his slider and while experimenting with a new curveball grip, the seven runs allowed by DeSclafani were a season-high, but the four credited to him matched only his second-highest total of the season, raising his ERA to a still-solid 3.43.
The Twins also committed a pair of errors, but the Giants ensured they wouldn’t be as costly as their own.
San Francisco’s trouble with timely hitting over the first two games of the series — a combined 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position and 17 men left on base — only worsened Wednesday. The Giants left 15 men on base and managed only two hits in 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Only in this game, they didn’t get the solid pitching and defense that had driven them to wins in seven of their past eight games and were kept in the park for the first time this series.
The Giants put 10 men on base in the first five innings, advancing seven of them into scoring position, but managed to push across only one run. For the second straight game, they forced Minnesota’s starter — San Anselmo’s Joe Ryan on Wednesday — to throw more than 100 pitches and knocked him out of the game after five innings.
Twice they came up empty despite runners on second and third with no outs, and they failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity in the sixth.
Brandon Crawford led off the sixth against reliever Brock Stewart with a double, and San Francisco eventually loaded the bases with no outs and the middle of its order due up. But Thairo Estrada struck out, Mitch Haniger popped out to second, and Michael Conforto grounded out softly on the first pitch he saw.
Crawford committed one of the Giants’ three errors in a two-run third inning, and Conforto misplayed a line drive in right that started a two-run rally in the second. Second baseman Brett Wisely was responsible for the other two errors, which led to both of the second-inning runs.
DeSclafani had already recorded a pair of strikeouts for the first two outs of the
third when Crawford was eaten up by a relatively routine grounder off the bat of Kyle Farmer. DeSclafani plunked the next batter, Willi Castro, and Brett Wisely muffed an even easier grounder from Matt Walner, which snuck into right field and allowed Farmer to score and Castro to advance to third.
Wisely intercepted Sabol’s throw on a double-steal attempt by Castro and Walner — a designed play — and his throw back to the plate would have been in time to nab Castro, but it sailed wide and Sabol was unable to corral it.
DeSclafani allowed two of the three hardest-hit balls of the game to consecutive batters to lead off the second inning. The first, a 109.6 mph rocket from Castro, fooled Conforto into charging too hard, and the ball sailed over his head and to the wall. Walner immediately drove him in with a 112.9 mph double into the right-field corner and scored the second run of the inning on a sac fly, after advancing to third when Sabol allowed a third-strike knuckle curve to Michael A. Taylor sneak away.
The Giants’ shortstop defense has been the worst in the majors this season, mostly due to Crawford, but the rest of the team had been a net positive entering Wednesday, according to Defensive Runs Saved. In fact, the right side of the Giants’ infield ranked tops in the National League entering Wednesday’s game.
It will take at least a series win in
Milwaukee for the Giants to return home with a winning record, which will require much cleaner play than was on display Wednesday.
Tuesday: Good times roll for Giants, evening record at .500 with comeback win against Twins
MINNEAPOLIS — The good times kept rolling Tuesday for the San Francisco Giants, who won for the seventh time in eight games, beating the Twins, 4-3.
Alex Cobb overcame a pair of home runs, and Michael Conforto provided a crucial one of his own in the seventh inning as San Francisco (24-24) evened its record, pulling to .500 for the first time since the sixth game of the season. Camilo Doval closed it out for his National League-leading 13th save.
The pitching matchup pitted Cobb, the National League ERA leader, against the hurler with the lowest ERA in the American League, Minnesota’s Sonny Gray.
While Gray was the only starter to emerge still holding the crown, the Giants chased him in the sixth inning and took the lead against the Twins’ bullpen.
Besides the two home runs — a tworun shot in the first inning from Byron Buxton and a fifth-inning solo shot off the bat of Michael A. Taylor — Cobb was efficient and completed seven innings while allowing only the three runs on the two long balls. His ERA rose from 1.94 to 2.17, second in the NL, trailing only Atlanta’s Bryce Elder (2.06).