© Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
The San Francisco Giants were not fantastic tonight. The brightest thing about the team was the overwhelming shade of orange dousing their jerseys. Before tonight, their opponent, the Arizona Diamondbacks, had lost five-straight games – a streak which ended tonight, in, let’s say, decisive fashion.
It was, simply put, a historically game for the Giants. The few positives that emerged from this 18-2 were stampeded upon by a wave of negatives. With that in mind, here are 11 notes breaking down the Giants’ debacle of a performance Friday night.
The most opposing runs in Oracle Park history
That’s how bad tonight was. The Giants were blistered by the Diamondbacks, sinking deeper into the abyss of resignation with each inning the Diamondbacks amended their run-scoring total. By the end of the night, that total reached 18, a record at Oracle Park (all prior names included).
https://twitter.com/KO_Crowley/status/1132153458759307269
The runs
Here’s what that run-scoring assault by the Diamondbacks looked like inning by inning. Up until the seventh, the Diamondbacks followed a pattern of scoring the exact number of runs over that number of innings (i.e. one in the first, two in the next two, etc.):
The run differential is a new low
Thanks to that scoring disaster, the Giants have established them in the absolute bottom tier of run differential teams in the MLB, along with the likes of the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles:
Make that -68 and counting… https://t.co/gPFCfCnStY
— Steve Berman (@BASportsGuy) May 25, 2019
No Pablo?
This is not a joke. On a cool Friday night, with a decent number of fans in attendance, and the Giants being fully trounced by their previously slumping opponents, a Pablo pitching appearance would have been a wonderful touch. Nothing was at stake, the result was essentially secured, and as Mike Krukow said, it would have brought some levity to the game. His pitching certainly wouldn’t have been much worse than the pitchers who preceded him. Speaking of them…
The pitching was rough
I’m not going to give a detailed analysis of every pitcher tonight. I’ll just leave you with their lines, all of which are brutal. The only pitcher who secured a clean inning was Derek Holland, who might’ve had a shot at allowing no runs had it not been for a wayward throw by Donovan Solano.
Drew Pomeranz: 2 2/3 innings, 8 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 6 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 home run
Trevor Gott: 2/3 innings, 2 hits, 3 runs (all earned), 1 strikeout, 2 walks
Nick Vincent: 2 2/3 innings, 7 hits, 6 runs (all earned), 2 strikeouts, 2 home runs
Derek Holland: 3 innings, 4 hits, 4 runs (none earned), 3 strikeouts, 1 home run
This Solano error
Without this Donovan Solano error, the Giants would still have been crushed by a team that had lost five-straight games, but they may have avoided setting a stadium-record with 18 runs allowed:
This should’ve ended the inning. Instead it allowed a run, then set up a 3-run homer. The Giants will want to forget tonight pic.twitter.com/SVWeTgEnsY
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) May 25, 2019
Mac can’t connect
It’s hard to watch Mac Williamson at the plate right now. After losing a promising season to a terrifying concussion last year, this was finally his shot. Out of minor league options, this is effectively the last chance he’ll have with the Giants to prove he belongs in the major leagues. Yesterday, he struck out five times in a row. Today, he went 0-for-4, striking out three times. Batting just .120 with a .214 on-base percentage and .200 slugging percentage, he’s running out of time to show he deserves to remain on the major league roster.
Tim Locastro, hitt(by-pitch)ing machine
Just as Jon Miller was talking about Locastro’s penchant for being hit by pitches, Derek Holland threw a ball which was spot on if its intent was to hit Locastro, the Diamondbacks’ left fielder. His intent, was, however, not to plunk Locastro, who took first base for the third time on a hit-by-pitch. That trot to first, as it turns out, tied an MLB record for most times being hit by a pitch in the game.
Postive No. 1: Tyler Austin’s home run
It’s important to note that at one point in this game – way, way back in the bottom of the first inning – the Giants actually led this game, thanks to a 421-foot home run from Tyler Austin. It was Austin’s third home run in as many at-bats:
Dinger alert : Austin hits a 421-foot bomb to center (3rd homer in last 3 ABs) to put the Giants up 2-1 pic.twitter.com/28AEQUTvk8
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) May 25, 2019
Positive No. 2: Steven Duggar’s catch
This was the one defensive play that showed effort and a glimmer of hope, something that was in desperately short supply tonight:
Duggar makes a fantastic lay out catch pic.twitter.com/jYaagG4VId
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) May 25, 2019
Positive No. 3: Pablo’s hitting off the bench
While Pablo didn’t get the shot on the mound like we may have hoped, he continued to stay hot when he entered the game along with Holland in the top of the seventh inning. He singled in the bottom of the seventh, and with his second chance in the bottom of the ninth, he torched a ball off the center-field wall, that teased at a would-be home run:
Well, Pablo’s still crushing the ball pic.twitter.com/NlXrm17cUx
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) May 25, 2019
Bonus: this Giants fan
If you’ve stuck around to get to this point, please enjoy this video of a fan trying and failing to catch a Diamondbacks home run:
Tonight’s #SFGiants game in one video pic.twitter.com/XNZKmSo6Y8
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) May 25, 2019
