Giants’ chances blown away
CHICAGO » The comeback tale pitcher Jeff Samardzija is writing is one of the most unlikely, impressive stories in all of baseball this season.
If the Giants want to reassert themselves in the National League wild- card race, they’ll need to spin a narrative that’s even more compelling.
Samardzija continued one of the best stretches of his career Thursday with seven dominant innings of one-run ball against the Chicago Cubs, but the Giants (63- 65) failed to score in a 1- 0 defeat that clinched a devastating three- game sweep.
“I think we missed an opportunity, but I don’t think it’s crippling,” Samardzija said. “I think we’ve kind of shown here over the last couple of months that we can hang around and play some good ball and then we get hot.”
After beginning the day five games out in the wildcard race, the Giants made a daunting uphill climb even steeper with their fourth consecutive loss.
Almost every ball hit in the air this month has forced pitchers to take a deep breath, but the starters in Thursday’s game were concerned for a different reason. Instead of whipping their heads around to see if a batted ball would carry over the fence, Samardzija stood on the mound and watched his outfielders take a history lesson.
If there was any doubt, the Giants now understand Chicago’s “Windy City,” nickname is well- deserved.
With the Giants trailing
1- 0 in the eighth inning, shortstop Brandon Crawford launched a high flyball toward the right-field wall against reliever Brandon Kintzler.
“With Craw’s ball, that ball is out the last two nights,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
Crawford’s long drive hung up in the air, but eventually caromed high off the ivy lining the wall and dropped to the warning track as the shortstop settled for a triple. A night after the Giants slammed four homers in a 12-11 loss, they watched pinch-hitter Austin Slater strand the potential tying run at third base with a strikeout.
“That’s the spot to hit homers at this park, straightaway right, rightcenter,” Crawford said. “But with the wind blowing the way it was today and not really getting all of it, I hoped it had a chance, but didn’t really think it would.”
On a day when the wind took players on circuitous routes around the Wrigley Field outfield, the sun wreaked havoc, too.
After Samardzija retired the first nine hitters he faced, the right-hander induced a leadoff flyball from Jason Heyward in the bottom of the fourth. Center fielder Kevin Pillar shielded his eyes from the sun and appeared to be in position to make a play, but Pillar lost the ball in the sky and it dropped to the outfield grass for a single.
“It was sun,” Bochy said. “He was there, he was trying to do all he could to catch it. Hopefully, he’d find it coming out of the sun, he just couldn’t do it.”
The Cubs’ next hitter, Nick Castellanos, hit a routine groundball to Crawford that the traditionally sure- handed shortstop bobbled.
“When it kind of kicked up off the grass, I realized I wasn’t going to go to second, I was going to go to first,” Crawford said. “I just kind of got that inbetween hop and never got it cleanly into my throwing hand.”
Samardzija still had a chance to erase the defensive miscues after Wednesday’s hero, Kris Bryant, hit into a 6- 4- 3 double play, but he left a 1-2 fastball over the inside corner of the plate to Anthony Rizzo, who drilled a go-ahead single up the middle.
Rizzo’s single was the second and final hit the Giants allowed.
“This game is funny,” Samardzija said. “You can go out there and have a terrible game and give up five and get a win and it can go the other way, too.”
Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks carved up the Giants’ lineup like a seasoned butcher, slicing his way around the bottom of the strike zone with remarkable precision.
Hendricks didn’t throw any of his 106 pitches faster than 88.7 mph, but induced 15 whiffs and limited the Giants to three hits over seven shutout innings. A night after San Francisco hit four home runs against Yu Darvish, the Giants had no answer for the soft-tossing Hendricks.
Hendricks wasn’t necessarily better than Samardzija on Thursday, but he benefitted from a defense that helped keep the Giants off the bases for much of the afternoon.
Samardzija has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his past 10 starts, posting a 2.00 ERA during that span. Since July 1, few pitchers have been tougher on opponents than Samardzija, who lowered his season ERA to 3.44.
After making just 10 starts due to a shoulder injury that cost him most of last year, Samardzija is enjoying his best season since 2014, the only year in which he was named an All- Star.
“It’s a great story, isn’t it?” Bochy said. “What he’s done, how well he’s pitched, how consistent he’s been, it really is.”