Stripling’s homer troubles flare up again in SF Giants’ loss to D-backs
The San Francisco Giants built an early lead with home runs from Michael Conforto and Joc Pederson, while LaMonte Wade Jr., J.D. Davis and Casey Schmitt all continued their hot hitting, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Diamondbacks for a second straight game.
Another rough outing from Ross Stripling sent San Francisco (17-21) to a 7-5 loss.
The home run ball continued to haunt Stripling on Friday.
Handed a 3-0 lead to start the second inning, after a clean first from John Brebbia as the opener, Stripling allowed two home runs that quickly erased the advantage. It was all too familiar of a feeling for Stripling, who has now allowed 10 homers in his first eight outings in a Giants uniform.
Tagged for four runs on five hits over 3⅓ innings, Stripling’s ERA increased to 7.22. In 28⅔ innings this season, he has allowed only two fewer home runs than he did in 134⅓ innings in 2022 and, with two more walks Friday, is nearly halfway to his walk total from last season.
While left-hander Alex Wood was activated from the injured list before the game, manager Gabe Kapler opted to go with Stripling after Brebbia and later stuck with the right-handed approach, turning to Jakob Junis after Stripling.
It wasn’t until the seventh inning, trailing 6-4, that Kapler turned to Wood, who made his first relief appearance since 2020.
Returning from a three-week absence caused by a hamstring strain after only one rehab start, Wood allowed the Diamondbacks to push across an insurance run on four hits and a walk. Working with a limited pitch count Friday, Wood is expected to assume his normal slot in the starting rotation going forward, which should allow Stripling to work through his homer problems out of the bullpen.
The second home run surrendered by Stripling came off the bat of a familiar face.
Evan Longoria was all smiles as he returned to high fives in the D-backs dugout in the third inning. On the eighth pitch of his at-bat, Stripling fired an inside fastball, and Longoria turned on it, twisting a high-arcing shot around the left-field foul pole. The home run, which put the D-backs up 4-3, was Longoria’s fifth of the season and his first hit against his former club.
Rookie Dominic Fletcher, Arizona’s No. 9 hitter, was responsible for four of the D-backs’ other runs with a three-hit performance. After Stripling allowed the first two batters he faced to reach base, Fletcher sent a 2-1 slider over the center field wall for his first major-league home run, tying the score at 3. He drove in two more against Junis with a bases-clearing double in the sixth.
With two swings from Longoria and Fletcher, the Diamondbacks erased the 3-0 lead the Giants built with two long balls of their own.
Wade extended his on-base streak to a career-best 18 games with three hits, including a leadoff single in the first inning. Pederson quickly brought Wade home and put the Giants up 2-0 with his fifth home run of the season, a 112-mph rocket into the right field seats.
Conforto, stuck in a season-long slump, extended the lead to 3-0 with a solo shot to center on the 12th pitch of his at-bat in the third. After snapping a 17-game homerless drought on Wednesday, Conforto slugged his second homer in three games. The $36 million free agent signing, however, is still batting .173 and has only one extra-base hit besides his six home runs.
Part of a two-hit effort, raising his average to .302, Davis drove home Wade for a second time with a line drive up the middle in the fifth, tying the score at 4.
Trailing 7-4 in the eighth, the Giants threatened but only pushed across one run. Rookie Casey Schmitt hit safely for the fourth consecutive game to begin his career, ripping a double into right field that drove home Joc Pederson. But with Schmitt representing the tying run on second base with one out, pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores grounded out and Bryce Johnson went down swinging.