Giants blasted by Padres; A’s get win.
Giants fall to 0-5-1 in past six series at park they once ruled
SAN DIEGO >>There are dozens of ways to measure the struggles the Giants have dealt with since the 2016 All-Star break, but no place more suitable to assess their current state of affairs than Petco Park.
With a 10-1 loss on Sunday afternoon, the Giants secured a series defeat against a team that didn’t enter the season with a realistic chance of contending in the National League West.
A stadium that was once the Giants’ home away from home has turned into a house of horrors, haunting the club each and every time it comes to town.
In their last six series in
San Diego, the Giants are
0-5-1.
“Two of the games we weren’t in really and today we got knocked out of that game,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s disappointing.”
After cruising to a 7-0 shutout win in the series opener Thursday, the Giants dropped three straight games, including Sunday’s drubbing that was out of hand by the middle innings.
Though the Padres won just four of their first 14 games this season, they had no trouble finding success against a Giants team that has not won any of their five series this year.
With their top three projected starters, a key set-up man and their closer all on the disabled list, the Giants’ pitching staff has been decimated.
“I think it showed a little bit today that we’ve been nicked up with this pitching,” Bochy said. “It showed up a little bit.”
The Giants’ lineup is full of healthy and able players with long track records of producing runs, but neither the pitchers nor the offense
proved capable of handling San Diego on Sunday.
In his second career start, rookie Tyler Beede tossed a pair of scoreless innings before his command evaded him with two outs in the third.
Beede was one strike away from retiring the side in order when he suddenly couldn’t find the strike zone. A walk to Freddy Galvis led to a first-pitch single by Franchy Cordero. The next hitter, Christian Villaneuva, smashed a two-out, tworun double into the gap to push the Padres in front 2-1.
It wasn’t the only bit of damage Villanueva did.
After the Padres broke open the game against Beede in the fourth, Villanueva led off against reliever Josh Osich in the fifth. Osich’s first pitch was right over the heart of the plate, and Villanueva crushed it off the Western Metal Supply Co. building beyond the left-field fence.
A rough start to the season continued for Osich, who allowed three hits, two runs and a walk in 1 1/3 innings of work.
The Giants’ pitching was hardly the only issue Sunday, as their lineup couldn’t figure out deceptive Padres’ rookie Joey Lucchesi. Lucchesi, a Bay Area native and Chabot College product, racked up a careerbest nine strikeouts in his fourth Major League start, easily outdueling Beede in a matchup of top prospects.
Lucchesi carved through Giants hitters with a low-90s fastball and a tough breaking ball that kept his foes off balance. In his six innings of work, Lucchesi allowed only two Giants players to reach second base.
Beede, on the other hand, allowed five runs and was informed he would be optioned to Triple-A Sacramento after his start. Bochy said Beede improved upon his debut, but the Giants need his command to be more consistent.
“I have a lot of confidence coming out of these two starts,” Beede said. “It’s just a matter of going down there and refining some things and being able to come back and be more competitive.”
While the club’s recent trips to San Diego have allowed the Padres to flaunt their youth and potential, the inconsistencies of the Giants’ established core have largely been exposed in the San Diego sunshine. Though San Francisco is the team brushing up against the luxury tax threshold and the Padres are the ones with a bottom-five payroll, it’s clear which club looks faster and more athletic.
“They’re aggressive, they’ve got some talented, young and athletic guys,” Beede said. “They’re certainly a good lineup and you know, hopefully next time we play them we can shut them down.”
In the coming days, the Giants expect Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija to return to the mound, and by the middle of the year, ace Madison Bumgarner should be eating innings, too. Any number of the players hitting 50 to 60 points below their career averages can break out of an early funk and help string together a handful of wins, too.
But dating back to the 2016 AllStar break, the Giants are 100-149, losing nearly 60 percent of the games they’ve played.
They’re hoping for a spark, anticipating a spark and very clearly needing a spark. San Diego just wasn’t the place to find it.