The pink bats for Mother’s Day finally brought some offense… but it still wasn’t enough for a win
You don’t score runs, you lose. You score runs, you lose. So it goes for the San Francisco Giants who dropped Sunday’s finale against Minnesota 7-6, mercifully ending a weekend to forget.
There’s a lot to go over in this one, but let’s start with the end.
Ryan Walker, brought on to protect a one-run lead in the 10th, needed unproductive outs. After Tyler Rogers struck out the side in the 9th, San Francisco relievers were on a 5-K streak when Walker took the mound. More whiff would’ve been more than welcome, but that’s been a source of Walker’s 2025 struggles.
In 2024, his 32.1 K% was one of the best in baseball, while his 28.4% whiff-percentage on swings was solidly in the 74th percentile. Qualities you want in a closer especially when trying to navigate the tight, no-nonsense situations that come up in this era of the Manfred Man. Command has been the talking point for Walker as he’s tried to iron out his wrinkles, but really the issue has been his inability to miss bats. So far his Whiff% is down 10-percentage points from last season. His K-% has similarly dropped from 32% to 25%. Walker’s still excellent at avoiding the barrel and producing weak contact — but that increase in contact is hurting him. We saw it in Anaheim, and we saw it again on Sunday.
Right from the start, the frame was doomed. In a 1-2 count, Walker’s way-away sinker was poked into left to set-up runners at the corners.
On one hand, that’s just a brutal break. Brooks Lee was playing a hot hand, with two hits, including a 2-run homer, already in the game. He was looking to the opposite field, he got a pitch that was conducive to that approach so he threw the bat out there. Two pitches later righty Ryan Jeffers tied up the game with a grounder to third that caromed off Matt Chapman and forced him to first. In a 1-2 count, righty Royce Lewis rolled a grounder to second so poorly hit, Christian Koss’s only play was to first. Two instances that aren’t totally on Walker. If Chapman fields that grounder the runner on third doesn’t advance. If that ball’s hit a little harder to Koss, it’s an inning ending double play.
Again ifs. The Giants had more Ifs than runs this weekend. What happened, whether it’s fair or not, is Walker got beat by balls in play. Against that first batter — when an unproductive out is essential to stranding the Manfred Man — he gave up a hit. That Lee single swung the probability pendulum in favor of Minnesota and set-up the rest of the frame’s frustrations. With arm-side advantage, a ground ball tied the score, and then against back-up defender Dashawn Keirsey and his .067 batting average, Walker still couldn’t miss a bat.
This game was never about Ryan Walker — he just happened to be the man in the spotlight when the inevitable happened. Frankly, they’re playing with the purposefulness and relentlessness the Giants had a couple weeks ago.
The dread crept in after Erik Miller couldn’t record an out in the 6th, leaving the mound with a run already in, the lead lost, and the bases still loaded. Even with Camilo Doval throwing water on the rally, the Twins still eked out another run, claiming their first lead of the afternoon. Before that too, Minnesota never gave the Giants much breathing room. Heliot Ramos’s mammoth 2-run homer to right-center in the 4th was promptly answered by Lee in the bottom half of the same inning off Landen Roupp. Mike Yastrzemski’s self-manufactured run in the 5th, reclaiming some of San Francisco’s initial three-run lead, was nullified quickly by a run sparked by Minnesota’s bottom of the order.
Minnesota just never let-up, and when the Giants took their foot off the gas in the 6th, the Twinkies took the inner lane. All series they converted inches into miles.
Three losses, the first series sweep (not counting the short two-gamer in San Diego) suffered by San Francisco, and all of them uniquely tough to swallow. This one might’ve been the worst for me considering how it started, how after days of misery on offense, the bats finally appeared somewhat locked in. And against arguably the Twins best starter in Pablo López — go figure.
The 1st inning was an inning of firsts for the offense this series: the first frame with multiple base-runners, the first multi-hit inning, the first walk issued, the first time a base runner scored in the series (not counting homers). Ultimately, the one run against López was a bit of a let-down, but beggars can’t be choosers. The top of the line-up did something! It was cause for celebration. The positive energy continued in the 4th when Matt Chapman lined the first pitch of the inning off the 23-foot high wall in right-center for a lead-off double. On the next pitch, Ramos cleared it by plenty.
Hanging a crooked number on a Twins starter — who said it couldn’t be done? López hadn’t given up more than two earned runs in a start all season, the Giants stuck him with four. The line-up appeared to be finally waking up, blooming in the unseasonably warm spring, hatching like the 10,000 million bajillion mosquito larvae that are soon to haunt the Land of 10,000 Lakes, finally pestering and annoying and making life a little less comfortable for the opposing pitcher. They worked walks, put the ball in play, swiped bases, executed hit-and-runs. Four of the six innings López was on the mound, San Francisco’s lead-off man reached base — a miraculous feat given that it happened just twice across the previous 18 innings.
Ramos especially was playing like a man on a fire. Steam whistled out of his ears every time the baseball came in his direction. A 3-for-3 night last night became a sleep-less one after getting picked off third in the 8th. The frustration focused him. He came to the ballpark ready. Again, he was not retired at the plate in 5 appearances, going 2-for-2 with a HR, 1B, SF, BB and HBP. On top of that, he laid out for two incredible defensive plays in left to slow down burgeoning rallies in the 4th and 5th.
All for naught. The Giants threw everything they had at the Twins in this one. They rolled out six pitchers, made three substitutions, shuffled around the defense, sacrificed their DH spot, BoMel even got himself ejected arguing a checked-swing call, and the club still went home empty handed.
Sorry moms.