Pitchers pay price as skid reaches 6
MIAMI — The Giants have lost six in a row by a combined score of 59-17. They have been blown out 45-11 in the past four.
They played three of the worst games in the Bruce Bochy era over the weekend at home, against Arizona, then proved in an 11-3 loss to the Marlins on Tuesday night they can be equally bad on either coast.
Miami has the worst record in the National League and by far had scored the fewest runs. Against Jeff Samardzija, Nick Vincent, Derek Holland and Sam Coonrod, the Marlins scored 6.7 percent of their current season total of 164.
The Marlins had one home run all season with multiple runners on board. In the opener of a three-game series against the Giants, they celebrated three-run homers in successive innings by Jorge Alfaro against Vincent and Garrett Cooper against Holland.
San Francisco pitchers have
allowed the most runs in the league with two outs (127) and with two strikes (119). All three of Miami’s homers came with two strikes and the pitcher ahead in the count.
These are numbers one expects from the worst team in the league, a fate the Giants are nearing.
These are numbers that have gotten coaches fired midseason in other organizations.
These are numbers that can send a team into a mental tailspin, which is bad enough in August and September but can fracture a clubhouse irreparably this early.
This is what the Giants desperately need to fix, starting Wednesday night, when Madison Bumgarner takes the mound.
Outsiders might call the Marlins “lowly,” but other “lowlies” can’t.
“I don’t think we’re in position right now to look at other teams and say they’re struggling,” third baseman Evan Longoria said. “We’re kind of on the same boat.”
Actually, the Marlins have bailed a lot of water out of their craft. They have won eight of their past 11 and stand 2½ games behind the Giants.
“It’s tough right now,” Longoria said. “There’s no other word to describe it. Obviously, everybody’s frustrated. But the message in the clubhouse has got to be, ‘Show up every day with the same mind-set. Try to forget about the day before and just try to get on a run.’ ”
Longoria acknowledged that the Giants are playing a little tight.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Go out there and try to have fun and play loose,’ ” he said. “But when things aren’t going well, it’s hard to do.”
This one literally could not have started better for the Giants. Joe Panik homered on the game’s first pitch, from Trevor Richards, who then allowed one more hit through seven innings.
By the fifth, the Giants were down 7-1. Samardzija and Vincent allowed all seven runs with two outs. Vincent left the game with an apparent injury to his right pectoral muscle. He will have an MRI exam Wednesday and is expected to go on the injured list.
If two-out RBIs are grating, two-strike RBI hits are driving manager Bochy up a tree. The Giants have allowed 119 of those.
“That’s just poor concentration and execution,” Bochy said. “There’s no excuse for that.”
Samardzija suggested that being overly aggressive is a factor. Pitchers don’t like walks, he said, but sometimes they are better than giving up what he called “silly hits and silly runs.”
“Obviously, everyone’s aware of how it’s going,” he said. “As a starting pitcher, you get that one day to go out there and do your job. You’re watching how it’s going and kind of champing at the bit to go out there and throw up a bunch of zeroes and get a big win. Unfortunately, it didn’t roll that way today.”
Or the game before, or the four before that.