SAN FRANCISCO–The old saying goes, “Hitting is contagious.”
If that’s the case, then slumps are too.
For the second straight day and the fourth time in a five-game homestand, the San Francisco Giants failed to tally more than a pair of runs in Wednesday’s 7-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
Bruce Bochy’s ball club dropped to an abysmal 6-33 when scoring fewer than four runs this season, and after Wednesday’s defeat, the Giants’ skipper admitted the team’s inability to drive runners in is haunting a struggling lineup.
“The spirit just picks up when a guy comes through with a hit with men on base,” Bochy said. “It just does a lot for a club and when you continue not to get those hits, sure, I think it can bring a club down, it can get discouraging. So that’s going to be the key for us to climb out of this and starting playing better ball.”
The spirit never picked up for a Giants team that found itself in a 4-0 hole by the end of the third inning, and finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Even though San Francisco scattered 10 hits, including eight against Royals’ right-hander Jason Hammel, the Giants never made the game competitive, leaving runners in scoring position in six different frames.
The loss dropped the Giants 15 games below .500 on the season, and in their last six defeats, San Francisco has scored a combined 10 runs.
Bochy said after Wednesday’s loss he was encouraged by some of the at-bats his hitters took, but was disheartened by the team’s failure to make solid contact when it mattered most.
“We had plenty of hits today, we just didn’t get the big hit to keep things going and that gets contagious,” Bochy said. “You know, you get one and the guys loosen up a little bit and it starts happening. But this club has been through it, they’ve been through a lot. It’s not like they should be feeling pressure.”
Perhaps the Giants’ hitters should be feeling the pressure, though, as their starting pitchers have had little room for error.
On Wednesday, right-hander Johnny Cueto suffered through what Bochy termed “an off day,” as he allowed three home runs in the first three innings against his former club and was saddled with his sixth loss of the season.
Cueto has hardly been as sharp as San Francisco was hoping for this season, as his earned run average climbed to 4.57 after he allowed five earned runs against Kansas City.
In a two-game homestand against the fourth-place team in the American League Central, the Giants were walloped, losing a pair of games by a combined score of 15-3.
Before the team departed for Colorado on Wednesday evening, both Bochy and Cueto said they were impressed the Giants’ fans were still showing up in droves to support them, especially considering the quality of baseball the team has played in its last two homestands.
“It really surprises me but then again it shows how good of fans we have here in San Francisco,” Cueto said. “We just have to keep playing, I know that we’re not playing good baseball right now but eventually we’re going to come out of it and we’re going to start playing good baseball.”
With Wednesday’s defeat, the Giants have now lost seven of their last eight games at AT&T Park, mustering nine runs in the seven losses and 13 runs in the lone victory.
In that win, which came on Sunday against Minnesota, Buster Posey delivered a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning that sparked a four-run rally. In the eighth, left fielder Austin Slater slammed a three-run triple into right center to help cap off a five-run frame. As Posey and Slater proved, hitting can be contagious, but as the Giants continue to demonstrate, so too are slumps.
“It’s frustrating, obviously,” Slater said on Wednesday. “Scoring runs is what we’re trying to do and when you’re not getting them across it’s tough leaving guys on. I know I left like three or four on so you know, it’s one of those days, it’s frustrating and you’ve just got to get after it tomorrow.”
Off to Colorado
- Prior to Wednesday’s game, Bochy said the Giants expect Madison Bumgarner to pitch in a simulated game in Colorado on Friday. After the game, Bochy said the team has been trying to nail down a time that works at Coors Field, and now it looks as if Bumgarner will throw on Saturday. Outfielder Jarrett Parker is expected to be one of the hitters Bumgarner faces.
- Reliever Hunter Strickland pitched for the second straight day, and the Giants are anticipating to hear a verdict on his suspension appeal by Wednesday evening. Strickland is hoping his six-game suspension is reduced to five games, and he will likely begin serving it Thursday in Colorado.
- The MLB Player Draft culminated on Wednesday, as the Giants selected players in rounds 11 through 40. In the 24th round, the team drafted University of San Francisco shortstop Nico Giarratano, the son of Dons’ head coach Nino Giarratano. Giarratano grew up in the city, and played his high school ball at St. Ignatius, where he was a teammate of the Giants’ fourth round draft choice in 2016, left-hander Matt Krook.
