The Giants failed to set the tone early in the series finale against Sean Manaea and the Mets
After taking the first two games of the series against the Mets, the San Francisco Giants had the opportunity to claim not only their first series sweep, but their first 3-game winning streak of the 2024 season.
The good times appeared primed to roll with a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the 2nd against a clean-shaven and shorn Sean Manaea.
Back in his old stomping grounds, the southpaw seemed eager to treat the club to a late-lunch, setting the table for them with two walks and a Matt Chapman single. All the bats had to do was sit down and eat.
Instead…well, they forgot how. They took their eyes off the chairs, missed them completely, held the fork by the tines. An early opportunity to set the tone for the game and they popped it up.
An inside sinker Thairo Estrada would typically feast on was lifted harmlessly into foul territory beyond the first base bag. Another uninspiring offering to Tyler Fitzgerald in a 3-2 count didn’t clear the range of shortstop Francisco Lindor in shallow left.
Nick Ahmed came up as San Francisco’s last hope in the inning. The shortstop had come through with a 2-out, bases-loaded single in the 2nd inning of Monday’s game that gave Keaton Winn a lead he never forfeited. Ahmed was also consequentially pulled from a similar position in the 7th inning of Sunday’s game. A swap for Jorge Soler that didn’t raise eyebrows at the time, proved costly when not only did Soler ground out to end that inning, but Fitzgerald as the replacement at short missed a catch in the 8th that set-up two insurance runs for the D-Backs.
I imagine Ahmed was none too pleased with Sunday’s pull. At the time, he had 6 hits in 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position, and with 2-outs, he was 9-for-30. The 2-run single on Monday bumped up his average with runners in scoring position to .389 with a .945 OPS. Going into his AB on Wednesday, Ahmed was 5 for 10 in 2-out, RISP scenarios.
Ahmed worked the count in his favor, got a hittable outer-third, low-90s sinker from Manaea, but the shortstop couldn’t do anything with it. A fly to center—an out too late—ended the inning.
Two walks to leadoff the 3rd looked promising at first, but a rally never materialized after Austin Slater was picked off at second for the first out of the inning. Michael Conforto quickly followed with a K, and Soler popped up to second.
In the 5th, it looked like again the Giants would get a bases-loaded chance against Manaea after one-out singles from Slater and Flores, and an inside-sinker appeared to graze Michael Conforto’s hand. After a abhorrently long umpire review, the HBP was overturned. Conforto had to strap back on his arm guards and batting gloves only to wave at the next pitch: a looping sweeper for strike-3 that ended up being Manaea’s last toss of the day.
The Mets’ starter walked 4, gave up 4 hits and put himself in 10 3-ball counts over his 4 ⅔ innings of works, yet for all his sloppiness, he kept the Giants from making hard contact and moving runners without his permission. The lineup went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.
The offense performed like they had just played 13 baseball games in a row—which they did, in fact, do. Sluggish, dull, and late against a starter dealing out his less-than-best stuff—it’s not the best television. All the slow builds and underwhelming rallies pieced together by the offense with no results—and for the Mets, the opposite. They waved their bats and conjured runs from thin air.
With Francisco Lindor over a 0-2 barrel with two outs and a man on first, Sean Hjelle was already halfway to the dugout before the shortstop skied an inside breaking ball onto the arcade in right. A 2-0 jump in a blink of an eye. Tyrone Taylor would smoke another Hjelle curve over the wall in the 4th to make it 3-0.
Then, a ball that left Pete Alonso’s bat at a speed slower than a Manaea curveball somehow knuckled under the glove of Estrada and set up a two-out 3-run rally off Landen Roupp in the 5th that essentially ended the game in New York’s favor.
By the 6th, Kruk and Kuip were at their best perusing the sparse day-baseball crowd for cute babies, stern-looking couples with opposite team allegiances, and nacho-eaters. Not much else was going on. The excitement of potentially watching Blake Snell finally takeoff and the disappointment of him being sent back to the terminal had long since dissipated. Drowsiness had set in at Oracle. The seagulls swirled. For viewers at home, laundry was folded.
It all started with a Tyler Fitzgerald home run pic.twitter.com/SukfFEkF9G
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 24, 2024
The remaining innings Bob Melvin used for players to get their reps in. On-field laundry, if you will.
Tyler Fitzgerald moved in to play second and homered off reliever Reed Garrett. Michael Conforto would salvage a 3-K day with a double in the 7th—a threat never fully realized when Soler, once again, ended an inning with runners on base. Luke Jackson, who hadn’t pitched since Opening Day, threw a scoreless inning, and newly acquired Mitch White did not, allowing a 2-run homer to Lindor (4 for 5 on the day) to bookend New York’s scoring.
8 – 2 final.
Off day tomorrow.