No relief:
The Giants head to the All-Star break with a four-game skid after falling 10-8 to Miami in 11 innings.
The commentators on a national radio show had a macabre segment Sunday morning. They tried to divine the contending team most susceptible to a Giants-like tumble when baseball resumes after the All-Star break.
So now the Giants are the standard by which collapses are measured.
With Sunday’s 10-8, 11-inning loss to the Marlins, who swept the series at AT&T Park, the Giants mercifully entered the All-Star break after a 34-56 half that left them 27 games behind the first-place Dodgers, a number almost too staggering to comprehend in July.
Since last year’s break, when the Giants had the best record in the majors, they have played the equivalent of a full season and gone 64-98.
One hundred losses remains on the table, to the chagrin of the faithful, everyone in the clubhouse and the man responsible for the Giants’ daily fortunes.
“We’re used to winning,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “This isn’t a lot of fun.”
Asked what he would do during the break, Bochy said he would try to relax some, watch Buster Posey catch in the All-Star Game and “try to figure out something that makes us better. That’s my job.”
Bochy and his coaches can
work only with the talent they are provided, and sure, many of the players who had subpar halves can improve because they were good not that long ago. Shortstop Brandon Crawford should not have the worst on-base percentage in the league.
Better coaching and concentration can go only so far for a team this bad. The front office bears the ultimate responsibility for a return to contention that it believes, perhaps too optimistically, can be achieved next year.
Dealing Johnny Cueto to a contender for prospects would be one step, but the opt-out in his contract and his 4.51 ERA this season are not helping. Scouts who saw Cueto allow six runs in six-plus innings Sunday would be hard-pressed to recommend him with a bullet.
Cueto conceded his control is off and said the time he lost in spring training tending to his sick father in the Dominican Republic partly caused a two-run jump in his ERA from this time last year, when he started the All-Star Game.
“That was very difficult for me,” Cueto said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “At the same time, I was glad I was able to miss spring training because my father is still alive.”
To get better, the Giants need to understand what has gone wrong the past 162 games. Injuries have played a role, but not as much as declining performances by core players.
Though last year’s secondhalf struggles were laid at the feet of a bullpen that led the majors in blown saves, the offense began its decline then, too. The Giants have regressed from 4.7 runs per game in the first half of 2016 to 4.0 in the second half to 3.9 in the first half this year.
The 2017 rotation, which got four starts from Madison Bumgarner before his dirt-bike accident, has the fifth-worst ERA in the majors, at 4.95.
The bullpen improved by one measure despite Mark Melancon’s injuries and ineffectiveness. The Giants’ 34 percent blown-save rate ranks 16th in the majors — no great shakes, but far better than 2016 (41 percent). On the other hand, only three teams this year have allowed a greater percentage of inherited runners to score.
The most damning 2017 stat is run margin. The Giants have allowed 99 more runs than they have scored. That partly reflects the pitching decline, but also the team’s inability to tap into a record year for home runs. The Giants have hit the fewest in the majors and been out-homered by opponents 101-75. The Giants are last in the majors in slugging during a slugging era.
The Giants had their skeptics entering the season, but even they would not have envisioned this team being second worst in the majors at the break, ahead of only the rebuilding Phillies.
“I don’t know if anything in this game surprises me anymore,” said Bumgarner, who is expected to rejoin the rotation Saturday. “We’ve seen so much. Everybody knows anything can happen. But it’s obviously not what we want. It’s not what anybody in here wants.”