Giants make a game that had no business being interesting interesting…and still lose
The moment is finding Christian Koss.
Bases loaded on Tuesday, he delivered a game changing grand slam.
Bases loaded in the 2nd today — his first at-bat of the day — he punched an RBI single to right.
Bases loaded with 2-outs in the bottom of the 9th — the tying run 90 feet from home, the winning run not far behind that — Koss flared one to his sweet-spot in shallow right-center…and it was caught.
An 8-7 loss to drop the rubber match. A cruel ending given how this midday finale against Arizona got started. At one point down 6-runs to the Diamondbacks as early as the 4th inning, the San Francisco Giants chipped away at their division rivals’ lead as a sculptor would approach a slab of marble. A slow, deliberate carving with a rally in the second, a 2-out, 2-run double by Heliot Ramos in the 4th, another Jung Hoo Lee shot in the 7th, a bases-loaded walk in the 9th.
To come up short after coming so far…that’s particularly cruel. Imagine if Rodin had given “The Thinker” a hat? — that is in some very small way what happened to the Giants on Wednesday. Genius, sublimity — just missed. So close, and yet so far.
So what helped establish the so far?
Jordan Hicks, a professional hole-digger. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits with a walk and a single strikeout while throwing just 2+ innings — the shortest outing in his brief career as a starter.
A solo shot by Ketel Marte certainly didn’t help his now infamous 12-plus ERA in the 1st inning, but what caused the most damage came in the 2nd. The first five Diamondbacks hitters reached base, including four straight hits — all well struck grounders that found gaps and holes through the infield. Hicks might not have made it out of that frame if not for an unassisted double play by David Villar at first that downgraded a bases-loaded, no-out SNAFU into an unfortunate, but manageable conundrum with just two runs scored.
But the hit parade continued in the 3rd, and with two singles to lead off the frame Bob Melvin had seen enough, pulling Hicks after just 51 pitches.
It’s the shortest leash we’ve seen for a Giants starter so far, and maybe the first sign that patience is starting to wane for Hicks as a member of the rotation. Asked about it in his post-game interview, Melvin avoided eye contact, repeating curtly that the game had just ended, the game had just ended.
Though the player who is possibly the best option to usurp Hicks’s role didn’t do himself any favors when he came in to mop up the mess in the 3rd.
Over 10 games and 20.1 innings pitched so far, Hayden Birdsong had allowed just three earned runs. Four pitches into his relief appearance today, he grooved a 1-2 inside fastball to someone you don’t want to throw inside fastballs to.
One swing and Eugenio Suárez turned his baseball bat into a can-opener and tore the lid off of Oracle Park. A 3-2 lead became a 6-2 one, and Ketel Marte added on with his second homer of the game in the 4th.
Of course this was not a due-or-die rotation audition for Birdsong, but it was a chance to provide a direct and stark contrast to Hicks for the powers that be. It didn’t take. Both were forgettable. Birdsong’s command was off from the first at-bat. He couldn’t find the zone and had to work from behind in most counts. In 1.1 innings, Birdsong had doubled his earned-run total. He hit a batter and walked two, needing 65 pitches to get through three innings of work.
By the time the Diamondbacks were through with Hicks and Birdsong, they had hit three homers, plated 8 runs, collected 13 hits and put 17 runners on base. Everyone in the Arizona line-up but number 9 hitter Jose Herrera had a knock, and even he found his way on base twice with a pair of walks.
An unfortunate tandem performance by some key arms that created something ultimately insurmountable.
But oh man, the Giants sure did try to surmount it. Spencer Bivens, Erik Miller and Ryan Walker worked around two hits and three walks over four scoreless innings to stop Arizona’s scoring.
Heliot Ramos knocked in three through the first four innings, going 2-for-4 on the day and improving to a .405/.460/.714 slash line over 50 plate appearances in May. Jung Hoo Lee lined his second Oracle homer in as many days to lift the Giants within two in the 7th.
San Francisco put up five unanswered runs from the bottom of the 4th on, but couldn’t cash in a sixth. Not that the opportunities weren’t there to come up with the decisive knock. They put the tying run on base in the 8th and 9th innings, and stranded 11 runners. They went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Three of those at-bats went to the guy you’d want to hit in those situations as well. The Giants’ RBI man Wilmer Flores, batting second in the line-up, went 0-for-3 with RISP ending the inning all three times. In the 2nd, Flores popped out with men at the corners; he struck out in the 4th with a runner on second; and with runners at second and first in the 8th, he popped out again.
But at the end of the day, what’s worse: a blowout loss, or dropping a barn-burner? It isn’t really up for debate. As frustrating as it is to lose a one-run game (the Giants have lost 5 in May, and 4 in the last week), it’s preferable to the other option, that is the lifeless contest, baseball as punching a clock, the Rockies. No thanks. Yes, it’s a bit maddening that they can’t spread their run support around or link up decent pitching with decent hitting, but the Giants, even when not at their best, are making things interesting.