The defense appeared to lose sight of the ball in this one
For all of the San Francisco Giants’ early season woes, the defense has never been anything to gripe about.
Nick Ahmed’s plummeting hitting line has been cushioned by him scampering around the left side of the infield as one of the best shortstops in the game. Jung Hoo Lee’s frustration with his bat pulling home runs juuuusssst foul, or with his liners’ inability to find grass in the gaps has been mitigated (slightly) by his skill at passing on that exasperation to others.
Do unto others…exactly what is being done unto you is, I believe, the phrase.
JHL runs like the wind and makes the catch pic.twitter.com/bpi6qClBNt
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 4, 2024
Then there’s Matt Chapman, who is in a two-strike count in the on-deck circle and appears to be swinging a bat with the same magnetic charge as the baseball, always has backhands behind the bag and short hops to scoop to console him.
But last night against Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies, there was no comfort to be found on the diamond for Chapman.
With two runners on, no outs and a surprising 2-0 lead in the 3rd, San Francisco’s offense seemed poised to actually chase a starter from the mound. Nola had thrown 46 pitches the previous inning while walking four batters and giving up a 2-run double to Thairo Estrada.
Estrada gets the Giants on the board pic.twitter.com/S6A2lI5Q9I
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 3, 2024
Somehow Philadelphia’s right-hander wriggled off the hook by the inning’s end, but found himself right back on it again after singles from Michael Conforto and Tom Murphy to start the 3rd. About a hit away from knocking him off the mound again, San Francisco couldn’t deal the lethal blow. Instead, Chapman rolled a 2-1 curveball to Alec Bohm at third for an easy 5-3 double play. A life-raft for Nola—he wasn’t long for the game due to his pitch count, but was able to eat-up one more inning before Philly’s scarcely seen bullpen took over.
As for the Giants’ third baseman, things just got worse. With a throwing error already to his name, Chapman knotted himself up under a trailing pop-up to shallow left off the bat of Kyle Schwarber. What should’ve been the all important first out in the 3rd against Philly’s brutish top of the order instead clanked off Chapman’s glove and kick-started a three-run inning.
All the stress and negative energy dealt to Nola in the first two innings transferred to Jordan Hicks with that error. After a three pitch see-ya to Trea Turner, Hicks missed on four straight to Harper, advancing Schwarber into scoring position from which he promptly scored on a Bohm single. Another walk put the lead run on second, and Brandon Marsh promptly obliged with another single.
The Giants 2-0 lead a half-inning before—full of excited resting energy, ready to bloom—swiftly stunted and trampled on. A double-play to kill a rally on one side of the ball and a costly error to start one on the other—Matt Chapman had no place to hide.
The follies on defense weren’t over. Hicks nearly squirmed his way out of the bottom of the Philly dogpile with two quick outs in the 4th, but a single by Trea Turner got him by the ankles and dragged him back into the mess. Of course, a single by Turner means a stolen base by Turner. That’s to be expected—what happened after that, wasn’t at all.
In a full count to Bryce Harper, Hicks spun maybe one of his best splitters of the night. The bottom just fell out of it, but 80 stressful pitches into his night, the location was off, up instead of down. Murphy, who was catching after Patrick Bailey left in the 2nd with an injury, over-corrected. The splitter, maybe half-a-stitch above the letters, was not only called ball four, but kicked off Murphy’s glove and shot towards the Phillies’ dugout. Turner took third easily, and seeing home open and unguarded, just went for it. He beat Hicks’s tag by a toe. A decisive toe, the biggest toe in the game.
Trea Turner just scored from second base on a passed ball pic.twitter.com/QWo1C1rVXd
— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) May 4, 2024
Now as fans, it’s our sacred duty to dole out blame. Who’s at fault? Hicks? He threw the mislocated splitter—though it doesn’t seem exactly fair to blame him for throwing such a dynamic pitch in such a high-leverage situation. Jon Miller on the radio broadcast pointed out that if Hicks had covered home earlier instead of bolting for the plate when Turner did that in itself might have been enough of a deterrent to keep the runner on third. I agree with that—but after dealing with the absolutely insane zone established by home plate umpire Brian Walsh that night, I don’t blame Hicks for taking a moment to cock his head and look quizzically in at Big Blue there and wonder what the hell was wrong with that one?
No, at the end of the day, Murphy, as the catcher, just needed to catch the ball.
The splitter may have been an optical illusion, and with the strike zone what it was, he might have felt an added pressure to really frame the thing, but missing it that badly is inexcusable. The throw back to Hicks with Turner coming in—also bad. Murphy’s relay went to Hicks’s glove side, up the first base line. Catching the ball was the easy part. With it in hand, Hicks had to blindly whirl around, locate home, find a leg, and apply the tag.
I get that Turner going was a surprise but note that the catcher isn’t scrambling to recover the ball or throwing from his knees. Murphy had his feet planted, the plate was in front of him—he just sailed it, throwing it to where Hicks was rather than where he’d be. An accurate throw, and Turner is out without fuss.
It was Hicks’s shortest outing of the season and his command slipped again. He threw 88 pitches through four innings, but hung with the “L” he’s pretty low on the list of responsible entities.
Hicks’ stuff is downright nasty pic.twitter.com/o5c03hTGNE
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 3, 2024
At the end of the day, the San Francisco Giants scored 3 runs again. They’ve scored 3 runs in five games since the Pittsburgh series, and in those games they’re 3 – 2, which is a testament to the quality of their pitching and defense. The offense hasn’t plated more than 3 in a game since April 23rd (a drought a game shorter than Chapman’s extra base-hits).
The errors were undeniably a large cost in this one, but they needn’t have been. The Giants went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, and only one of those hits drove in runs. Chapman’s rally killer in the 3rd took the wind of their sails, but Sean Hjelle, Luke Jackson and Taylor Rogers combined for four shutout innings, keeping them a base runner and one swing away from tying the game.
They got runners…just not the swing.
Jorge Soler had an opportunity at the plate in the exact situation the Giants are paying him millions of dollars to produce in. Down two runs with the bases loaded and no outs in the 7th—prime slug-time or, at the very least, prime hit-the-ball-far-enough-to-advance-the-runners-time. But, in desperate need of a crooked number, and once again on the precipice of getting it, Soler did the second worst thing he could’ve done and grounded into a double-play.
At least, Chapman had the excuse of being baited on an ankle-high Nola curveball. The culprit that sawed Soler’s bat in half: a 98 MPH fastball over-the-plate and belt-high. High velocity but poorly located, a pitch Soler has obliterated in the past, but couldn’t get it out of the infield last night.
Soler has had 33 plate appearances with runners in scoring position so far this season—tied with Estrada for most on the team. He’s batting .115 (Estrada not much better at .167) with a .504 OPS and just four RBIs. Two of his three hits have been singles. Relative to the rest of the league in the same situation, his sOPS+ of 39 is dismal. Soler’s OPS with the bases empty: .833 (sOPS+ 145). The Moment continues to go out of its way to meet Soler, and El Crudo so far has botched the introduction.
Blurred Vision: the reason for Bailey’s consequential exit, the eyesight of the home plate umpire, Matt Chapman seeing double on a dizzying pop-up, Murphy trying to wrangle Hicks’s splitter, the pair of costly double-plays hit into, or my above screen-grab. All of it has got to be corrected—San Francisco’s margin of error is just too small.