Tyler Beede. © Noah K. Murray | 2019 June 5
The Tyler Beede tease was on full display.
The Giants pitching prospect put forth an enticing if frustrating performance Wednesday in the Giants’ 7-0 loss to the Mets at Citi Field in an enticing if frustrating season for the right-hander.
Through three innings, the 26-year-old impressed with both stuff and moxie. He allowed one manufactured run and skillfully danced out of third-inning trouble, when he pitched around slugger Pete Alonso and then induced Robinson Cano into an inning- and threat-ending double play. He got ahead of hitters (eight first-pitch strikes to his first 12 batters faced) until the fourth inning came, when Beede (0-2) unraveled.
The former first-round pick watched a first-pitch fastball to Michael Conforto get blasted 426 feet to right-center to put the Mets up, 2-0. He then threw 13 pitches and just two strikes, resulting in walks to Wilson Ramos and Todd Frazier, before a straight fastball down the middle to Amed Rosario wound up over the right-center wall, digging a 5-0 hole the Giants would not climb out of.
“No question he’s got to figure this out,” manager Bruce Bochy told reporters, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “We all know he’s got the stuff and equipment, but I think tonight was a case of you don’t have to throw the ball too hard to get outs.”
It was the story of the season for Beede, who has a 2.34 ERA in seven starts with Triple-A Sacramento, but has underwhelmed with the big-league club. He was coming off a six-inning, one-run performance against Miami, and in his fifth career major league start – and a day after Bochy recorded his 1,000th win with the club – he missed another chance to record his first career victory.
In all, Beede went five innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on five hits with a worrisome four walks. The outing upped his ERA to 8.15, and the loss snapped a three-game win streak while dropping the Giants to 25-35 in a season quickly becoming more about 2020 (or perhaps 2021) than 2019.
Offensively, the Giants made lefty Jason Vargas look like an All-Star. A lineup sans Buster Posey, who was placed on the IL earlier in the day, could not figure out the soft-tossing lefty, who shut the Giants down for the full nine innings while letting up five hits. The Giants got the leadoff hitter on base four times, yet never had a runner reach third base. Twice double plays erased any semblance of a threat.
“You saw what Vargas did,” Beede told reporters. “He commanded his fastball, changed speeds, got ahead on guys. That’s something I didn’t take advantage of tonight.”
The Giants played like a team ready for this nine-game road trip, in which they are 4-4, to end. They’ll play a rubber match with the Mets on Thursday morning before coming home for a showdown with the Dodgers.