John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
When things go badly for Tyler Beede, they tend to spiral, a weakness that has sidetracked what looked like a promising season for the rookie.
Perhaps the quality is infectious.
Beede’s night took a turn, and then the Giants’ did Monday after a sixth inning in which everything seemed to go wrong in a 6-4, series-opening loss to the Diamondbacks in front of 29,169 at Oracle Park.
A game was lost, as was the momentum from a two-game sweep of the A’s. So, perhaps, was Trevor Gott, the valuable reliever leaving the mound with a trainer. Hopes for an immediate Johnny Cueto return were lost as well on a very poor night for the orange and black.
The Giants (65-66), who straddle .500 like it’s a horse, fell 4 ½ games back of the idle Cubs. They will need rotation reinforcements if they want to hang in the race, and Cueto told reporters in Sacramento he needs another start after pitching 4 1/3 innings of three-earned-run ball at Triple-A Sacramento.
Beede is among the starters Cueto eventually could replace. His night began with such promise, the 26-year-old dealing until there were two outs in the sixth, when a hard-hit grounder from Eduardo Escobar couldn’t be corralled by a shifted-over Evan Longoria, playing second. The first trickle of a flood.
Christian Walker lined a single to right-center. Beede threw a 60-foot curveball, bouncing it over a helpless Buster Posey, Escobar scoring on the wild pitch.
Wilmer Flores singled in a run, with makeshift left fielder Abiatel Avelino throwing too high and Walker sliding under the tag. Fernando Abad had to put out the fire of a 3-1 game.
In the bottom of the inning, the Giants strung four singles and a walk together but scored just once because Avelino – playing because of Mike Yastrzemski’s bruised hand and the Giants handling Alex Dickerson carefully – ran right through Ron Wotus’ stop sign, and Jarrod Dyson gunned him down at home. It changed the outlook of the inning, which ended with the bases-loaded strikeout from Donovan Solano.
It would only get worse an inning later, when Gott – on his 27th birthday – loaded the bases on two walks and a single, the velocity a bit down for what has become a bullpen cog. After his 34th pitch, a trainer immediately walked to the mound and after a brief conversation, the two walked off it together. Gott was on the IL with a right forearm strain from late May into early June.
For those looking for comforting signs, do not look at the Giants’ No. 3 hitter. Posey went 0-for-5 with a two-out strikeout with two on in the fifth of a 1-1 game. In his past couple games, he’s 0-for-10 with five strikeouts. Zoom out and he’s 2-for-22 in six games, his average down to .246.
For those looking for comforting signs, look at a ninth-inning comeback that turn a 6-2 game into a 6-4 game. Look at Beede, himself always looking for encouragement, striking out four, two on a good curveball, another on his go-to fastball and one on a slider. He looked as sharp as he has in about six weeks; he had an 8.23 ERA in his past six starts.
Control has been an issue, and Beede not only walked none, he got first-pitch strikes on 18-of-23 hitters.
But the discouraging sign has become a Beede hallmark: When something goes wrong, it goes very wrong. That was the Giants’ night.