Foul ball = strike out

Lee striking out on a foul pretty much sums up the Giants’ night against Nathan Eovaldi and the Rangers

Mike Yastrzemski tapped a baseball into his crotch;

Jung Hoo Lee somehow struck out fouling away a pitch.

These insults to injury sum up Friday night’s offense in a nutshell (pun absolutely intended).

A 2-0 loss, the San Francisco Giants fourth shutout of the season, served up by a dominant performance by Texas Ranger pitching led by veteran Nathan Eovaldi.

On the dark side of the mound, Justin Verlander’s first win as a Giant remains elusive, through no fault of his own. He went 6 complete again for his second consecutive start, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out 5. Wyatt Langford saw two pitches from Verlander and roped them into the outfield for two doubles — one for an RBI, and one that set-up another. Those blemishes blossomed into fatal blows as the Giants right-hander’s positive outing was ultimately out-done by his counterpart.

Eovaldi gave up just 3 hits and a walk while striking out 7 through 6 complete innings and seemed to get better as the chilly night wore on.

The offense’s best chance was in the 1st. A brassy first ups that ended up being all sound but no fury.

Willy Adames, Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman all produced exit velocities higher than 102 MPH with nothing more than a Lee single to show for it. Adames punched one to the wall in center (out in 2 of 30 ballparks, .850 xBA) that exploded off the barrel but held up in the sea air. Chapman shot one through Eovaldi’s legs (and right into the shifted defense) that had the starter nervously dancing his way back to the visiting dugout.

It was the most un-settled Eovaldi would be for the rest of the game. He’d give up just two more hits over the next five innings: an Adames single in the 3rd (that left his bat at exactly the same 103.7 MPH EV as the flyout in the 1st) and LaMonte Wade Jr’s lead-off single in the 5th. Wade advancing to second on a wild pitch was the first and last time a Giant would stand on second base. The subsequent two at-bats with runners in scoring position yielded nothing — even with Tyler Fitzgerald brandishing his brand-new “torpedo bat” which we quickly learned comes with no guarantees and is nothing like getting the “aluminum power” power-up in Backyard Baseball. The bat is no more greater than the man, and the man couldn’t help but let loose some unbalanced swings, producing two groundouts and a fly out with a max exit velocity of 84 MPH.

No shade to Fitzgerald, though. San Francisco could’ve had a line-up of bowling pin barrels and PC power-ups, and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference against Eovaldi’s splitter. 5 of his 7 K’s came by way of the split, all hacking, including a stretch of four of five hitters spanning the 3rd and 4th innings. He sent Yaz flailing over one. Lee’s helmet went flying after waving after another. Chapman chased one that nearly bounced on the plate. No one could square the thing up. The pitch elicited 6 whiffs, 6 fouls, just 4 balls in play with a max exit velocity of 91 MPH.

After wrecking havoc the second time through the line-up, the splitter became a shadow pitch as Eovaldi navigated a third time against the top of the order. Anticipation and worry over covering the split kept hitters on edge, and he capitalized on the unease. Eovaldi struck out the side in his final frame — the loud contact produced by Adames, Lee, and Chapman in the 1st a mere echo dissipating into the night.

In a 2-0 hole and desperate to get something going, Adames waved over a splitter that he should’ve used a golf club to hit. In an early hole, Lee fouled off two early splitters, then spat on a cutter inside and curveball in the dirt which ostensibly set-up the split again. Lee knew it was coming. The 40,000 plus in attendance and I, sitting on my couch at home, knew it was coming. Under our collective breath, we all advised: Be ready. Anything down, don’t swing. And Lee didn’t — the problem was Eovaldi didn’t throw a splitter, but a cutter that stayed up, casually strolling across the plate for the second out of the inning. Chapman, hyper-vigilant against the split, exposed himself to the cutter. He didn’t chase a split to work the count full — but looking for pitches down, trying to stay back on that off-speed, meant he was under and late on a middle-middle cut-fastball that blew past him at just 92 MPH.

Ranger relievers picked up right where Eovaldi left off, allowing just one hit while striking out 6 over the final three innings to keep the seemingly slim 2-run lead well out of reach.

Any hope of mounting a comeback in the bottom of the 9th died with Lee’s phantom Hit-By-Pitch, strike three swing. Swinging through a ball that hits you has got to be one of the worst feelings a hitter can experience in a batter’s box — but striking out on a pitch that should’ve hit you, and instead miraculously and improbably, you hit it, but you hitting the baseball was so miraculous and improbable that four professional eye-users (i.e. umpires) couldn’t see it, who decide after much performative deliberation [UMPIRES (in unison): Uhhhh…do you guys know what happened?] that no Jedi-level laser deflection would be physically possible, so you’re just out… that’s got to be a worse feeling.

I guess they just assumed the ball hit his face, and then ricocheted into the Giants’ dugout? I guess they assumed Lee was the toughest, most bas-ass guy in baseball who can take a pitch off the chin and not even say ‘boo’, and not even bleed… Shouldn’t they take Lee’s contact rate into consideration? Shouldn’t this play be reviewable? Shouldn’t Bob Melvin be able to run out with one of the numerous dugout tablet iPads and show the umpires in regular speed, in slow-motion, frame-by-frame the ball hitting the bat?

The reality is we should be grateful. Grateful that Lee prevented serious injury (even though he was punished for it). Grateful too that we have something to grumble and gripe about, something to pin our Friday frustrations on.