Giants don’t hit, lose in extra innings, rinse, repeat

The Giants wasted a great start against the Padres, then lost a one-run game in the 10th inning. No, we didn’t just cut and paste this from Monday’s recap.

On the positive side of Tuesday night’s game, Landen Roupp had a great start, Heliot Ramos hit his 11th home run. Patrick Bailey reached base twice and raised his batting average to .191 and the San Francisco Giants held the San Diego Padres scoreless for 8 ²⁄₃ innings. On the negative side, Manny Machado went 4-for-4, including a two-run single with two out in the 9th inning, the last 20 Giants batters went hitless, and the team lost their second straight game in extra innings, 3-1.

With two outs and Brandon Lockridge on first base in the 9th inning, Camilo Doval walked Fernando Tatis, Jr. on four pitches. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, and Doval walked Luis Arraez to bring up Machado with the bases loaded. Doval hung a slider, Machado singled to left, and Tatis easily beat the throw home to send the game to extra innings.

In the 10th, Spencer Bivens retired the first two Padres he faced before Jake Cronenworth singled home ghost runner Jackson Merrill. It’s pretty easy to score an automatic runner from second in the 10th inning, as long as you aren’t the San Francisco Giants, or Bob Melvin doesn’t waste an out bunting the runner to second, as he did again Tuesday night in another scoreless 10th.

The Giants got runners on first and second with nobody out in the second inning, but Jerar Encarnacion grounded into a double play. In the third, Patrick Bailey doubled off Padres starter Ryan Bergert and Heliot Ramos followed by blasting a home run to deep center to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.

After Wilmer Flores singled, Matt Chapman doubled and third base coach Matt Williams tried to murder Flores by sending him home. Granted, the novelty of seeing anyone in a Giants uniform rounding third base may have been so exciting that Williams couldn’t help himself, but Flores did not help himself with one of the worst slides you’re going to see.

The Giants challenged the call, arguing that catcher Martin Maldonado was blocking the plate, but it’s tough to win a challenge when the runner slides like he’s trying to jump out of a moving car.

Given their recent offensive struggles, it was amazing to see the Giants collect four hits in one inning. Unfortunately, they’d only have four baserunners in the next seven innings, and one of them was a freebie in extra innings. Bergert would go five innings, giving up six hits, two runs, two walks, two Ks, and a home run. After that, three Padres relievers held the Giants hitless with only a single walk, with the highlight being Sean Reynolds’ three-inning relief stint.

Roupp deserved better Tuesday night, but so have all of the Giants pitchers during the team’s 16 straight games scoring four or fewer runs. The 26-year-old lowered his ERA to 3.18 with 6 ¹⁄₃ shutout innings, giving up only four hits and walking two Padres while striking out five. He got some help from his defense, too.

In the third inning, Matt Chapman turned an Arraez line drive to third into a double play. In the fourth, one of Machado’s four singles and a walk to Gavin Sheets put two runners on, but Encarnacion tracked down a Xavier Bogaerts fly ball to the right field gap with an impressive-if-awkward-looking catch.

While Roupp was very solid, every relief pitcher had an adventurous appearance. Erik Miller came in with one out in the 7th, then loaded the bases with two walks and a hit-by-pitch before escaping the inning. Tyler Rogers gave up single to Machado and Merrill in the 8th, but Chapman helped snuff out the rally with a 5-3 double play.

Then Doval…well, we discussed that above. That was his third blown save of the season, while Bivens dropped to 1-2, as Rob Manfred’s pet extra innings project is brutal to the statistics of relief pitchers.

While the Giants did finally get a hit with a runner in scoring position on Ramos’ homer, they went 1-for-6 overall. Pitching good, hitting bad, that’s the story of the 2025 Giants.