Sweep caps historically awful start to season
DENVER — Manager Bruce Bochy sat in the visiting manager’s office at Coors Field after Sunday’s 8-0 loss, which completed a horrible trip to Denver on and off the field, and said, “We’re not very good.”
The words floated in the air for a few seconds before Bochy sensed what he had said and added, “Right now.”
“I’m not saying we’re not good,” he said. “We are. But we’ve got to find a way to step it up.”
Bochy and the 25 players in the room will have to forgive the faithful for being skeptical that the Giants can step it up. This is not just a bad start. It’s historically bad.
The Giants are 6-13 after being swept at Coors for the first time since 2002, matching their worst 19-game start in at least 115 years, last accomplished in 1983.
If nothing else, the Giants are making it easy on future historians to demarcate what is turning into a disastrous season.
They started with a 2-5 opening trip in which they blew eight leads, then followed with a 3-4 homestand that included Jarrett Parker’s broken collarbone and Buster Posey’s concussion.
On Sunday they concluded a 1-4 trip that will be remembered for Madison Bumgarner deciding it would be fun to ride a dirt bike.
Now the Giants go home for their first series against the Dodgers, whom they will play
in seven of their next 10 games and 13 of the next 23.
Maybe they need a dose of Dodger blue.
The Dodgers are not playing their best ball either, and facing them at AT&T Park often brings out the best in the Giants. They seem to play better, clearer ball in an energized ballpark, especially early in the season.
The Giants took three of four at AT&T the first week last year. They were 4-10 in 2015 when they hosted the Dodgers for three and swept them. When the Giants practically needed to sweep the Dodgers over the final weekend last season to reach the playoffs, they did.
“That’s a big series no matter what time of year we play it, no matter how the teams are doing,” Brandon Belt said. “Hopefully that can be one of those series that gets us locked in, too, and get us that momentum going forward.”
They say momentum depends on the starting pitchers. It would help if a rotation sporting a league-worst 5.02 ERA stopped allowing big innings and a lineup that has scored four first-inning runs all season could give the starters a lead so they do not feel they have to pitch a shutout every night.
“We need to go out there, play a little smarter, a little cleaner,” Jeff Samardzija said after he fell to 0-4 after allowing seven runs in 51⁄3 innings. “Just get back to Giants baseball, which is why we’ve been so successful: Get on base, get ’em over, get ’em in, 1-2-3 innings out of the pitchers.
“It can be better in all facets. I think everyone in here knows we’ve got to win some games.”
Bochy is in a leadership pickle. He does not want his players to feel the weight of that 6-13 record and think it’s the end of the world. But he also wants to see urgency.
“What you have to be careful of, you can’t let any complacency get in,” he said. “‘It’s early. We’ll be OK.’ I don’t want to hear that either.”
Bochy felt enough urgency to shake up his lineup Sunday. Belt played left field for the first time this year, even shifting to right for two innings. Eduardo Nuñez led off against the first of four consecutive left-handers the Giants will face. The result was a combined six-hit shutout by rookie lefty Kyle Freeland and two relievers.
There are so many ways to describe the embarrassment of this series for the Giants. Here is one: They were outscored 26-8, and the Rockies batted around in each game.