Blach and S.F. just aren’t in command
PHOENIX — Ty Blach is scuffling for the first time in his rookie season, which might not be the worst thing. All young’uns go through this. Better now than next year, when the team hopes to be playing for something.
For a contact pitcher like Blach to succeed, he needs to get groundballs, have taut defense behind him, limit walks and keep the ball in the yard.
The walks have not been an issue, but the rest has. In Friday night’s 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, Blach allowed a threerun homer for the second consecutive start.
Last time it was unknown quantity Rhys Hoskins, who is getting better known with every ball he hits out. On Friday it was MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt, who reached 30 homers for the first time since 2015 with his third-inning drive to left on a hanging changeup.
After surrendering nine homers the first four months of 2017, Blach has been tagged for five in August. Four have come in his past three starts, which have yielded 16 earned runs in 161⁄3 innings.
This nouveau home run era can be death on pitchers who rely on contact instead of strikeouts if they are not spot on. Blach is not Jeff Samardzija. He has to be himself.
But the left-hander could help his cause immensely if he found a strikeout pitch, and there are those in the clubhouse who believe he has the tools. Blach said he is working with his coaches on mechanical changes to “get back to making quality pitches.”
“You’ve got to take it as a learning experience, being able to pitch up here, pitch against the best hitters in the world,” Blach said. “There’ve been a lot of positives. I’ve just got to keep building on those and get better.”
Friday night’s start was the best of his past three, even if he allowed four runs in five innings. Blach rebounded after the four-run third with two shutout innings. He got Goldschmidt to ground into a double play to end the fifth.
The Giants’ defense has not been Blach’s friend. Last Saturday, Denard Span lost a flyball in the twilight to start a big inning. On Friday, Span let a Chris Iannetta bloop single roll past him, allowing Iannetta and David Peralta to take an extra base.
Unable to pitch for a double play, Blach allowed a run on a slow roller that third baseman Pablo Sandoval whiffed on as he tried a barehand grab and throw. That tied the game 1-1 ahead of the homer.
“He’s had two or three games like this where we’ve just not played our best defense behind him, and it’s cost him runs,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “There’s been some bad luck for Blachy.
“He’s young. He’s learning. Overall, he’s done a good job.”
Giants hitters did well to force an early exit from Zack Greinke, who did the Greinkiest thing imaginable by donning a Players Weekend jersey with “Greinke” on the back. (Blach went with “Preacher,” a nod to his religiosity.)
Brandon Crawford started three scoring rallies with a single and two doubles and is officially hot. He is batting .452 in a season-high nine-game hitting streak. Sandoval aided two rallies with singles and scored from first on a Nick Hundley double to left-center.
Hundley also drove in a run with an infield out and got a third run home with a groundball that shortstop Ketel Marte booted for an error.
But the top four Giants hitters went 1-for-16, a tough way for an offense to make its nut.
Joe Panik came off the concussion list and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and double play, missing a long home run by a few feet of foul territory.