SF Giants can’t protect another early lead, drop fourth straight game
PHOENIX — For the second time in the last four days, the Giants have scored four runs in the first inning against a left-handed pitcher. For the second time in the last four games, the Giants failed to protect that lead.
The Giants’ playoff odds further dwindled on Tuesday night at Chase Field as they dropped their fourth straight game, a 6-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks (77-75) as Jordan Lawlar delivered a walk-off single. With the Mets beating the Padres, San Francisco (75-76) is three games back of the third and final NL wild card spot with 11 games remaining and on the verge of being swept.
“All these games we lose like that are frustrating, especially against a lefty,” said manager Bob Melvin. “We had a tough time with him last time. To be able to score four in the first and another one in the third, then after that, it didn’t even feel like we had a baserunner.”
Rodriguez turned in one of his best starts of the season when he faced San Francisco at Oracle Park last week, pitching 6 1/3 shutout innings with six strikeouts as the Giants failed to complete a sweep. On Tuesday, by contrast, the Giants jumped on Rodriguez from the jump by putting up a four-spot.
Heliot Ramos began the night with a double, and Rafael Devers followed with a single. Matt Chapman drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly, Wilmer Flores followed with an RBI single and Jerar Encarnacion drove in two with a double. Before Tristan Beck threw a pitch, San Francisco owned a commanding 4-0 lead.
The rest of the Giants’ night was tranquil. Wilmer Flores hit a solo homer in the top of the third, his 16th home run of the season, but San Francisco totaled just three hits after the first inning. Those five runs wouldn’t be enough against this Diamondbacks offense, which plated three runs off Beck and two against Trevor McDonald to tie the game at five after five.
“Certainly looks like that when you go down that quickly,” said Melvin when asked if his hitters were being overly aggressive. “It puts a little pressure on the pitching to go right back out there too.”
Neither San Francisco or Arizona scored in the sixth, seventh or eighth, but the Giants gifted the Diamondbacks their share of extra opportunities.
In the seventh, with one out, runners at the corners and José Buttó on the mound, the Diamondbacks’ Blaze Alexander hit a sharp grounder to Flores, who appeared to tag first before firing home. Geraldo Perdomo was out by about 10 feet, but Flores never tagged first before throwing. Instead of an inning-ending double play, it was two outs with runners on first and second for Lawlar.
Buttó escaped the inning without allowing a run thanks to another oddity. When Lawlar hit a chopper to the infield’s right side, Flores collided with Alexander while going for the grounder. Flores still stayed with the play and fired to Buttó, but first base umpire Dan Merzel deemed the play dead and called runner’s interference.
“In Flo’s case, he’s trying to get the out at home, so you can understand you’re not perfect — the priority is getting the out at home,” Melvin said.
The Giants had to work around another self-inflicted wound in the eighth. Buttó fired an errant throw into right field on Alek Thomas’ bunt, allowing Thomas to advance to second with no outs. Thomas moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Ryan Walker entered with two outs and kept the game scoreless by getting Ketel Marte to ground out.
San Francisco’s luck ran out in the ninth. Corbin Carroll began the inning with a single, and Walker walked Gabriel Moreno to put runners on first and second with no outs. Alexander laid down a sacrifice bunt, but the Giants didn’t record an out when second baseman Casey Schmitt didn’t get his foot on the bag when covering first.
Schmitt’s mistake immediately proved costly. With the bases loaded, Lawlar tapped a check-swing grounder past Walker’s glove. Since the bases were loaded — not second and third with one out if Schmitt recorded the out — the speedy Carroll ran on contact. Flores fielded and fired home, but with Carroll’s speed, the Giants had no shot at getting the force.
“There’s a lot of new things for Casey at second base, but one of them is that he’s got to get on the bag,” Melvin said. “Obviously he didn’t, and that was huge.”
The Giants found themselves within arm’s reach of catching the Mets and snatching that final wild card spot following Patrick Bailey’s dramatic walk-off grand slam. They’re now on the verge of being swept, an outcome that would drop their slim odds closer to zero.