Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants raced off to a tie for the NL’s best record in April by beating up on teams that good clubs eat up, going 9-4 against the Marlins and Rockies.
With each game at Petco Park (and eventually Dodger Stadium), they hope to prove they can hang with some of the best the league has to offer. They are doing that, though they’re having more trouble proving they can actually beat them.
The Giants will lose this series in San Diego, dropping a second straight that was in doubt until late, 6-2, on Saturday, another entertaining and well-played game but another one in which their offense did not come up with enough timely hits to topple a rising superpower.
The Giants (16-11) and Padres (16-12) have played five games this year, and this is the first that has been decided by more than two runs because of an eighth-inning San Diego rally. The clubs entered the series with the two best ERAs in baseball, and the opening two games have lived up to that hype.
The Giants’ offense posted a few threats but did not follow through on enough. In the two games, they have had 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position and just one RBI — a Darin Ruf single to left in the fifth that scored Anthony DeSclafani. That inning was the Giants’ lone productive one, the eight-batters-to-the-plate rally including Mauricio Dubon’s first home run of the season.
The pulse was appreciated after fourth-inning disappointment, when the Giants loaded the bases for Wilmer Flores, who grounded into an inning-ending double play. They left six on base in the game.
The fifth-inning run was the last the offense would be heard from. The Giants did not put a ball in play in the seventh and eighth innings, striking out six straight times against the San Diego bullpen. In all, they struck out 12 times against Blake Snell (five innings, two runs, one earned) & Friends.
DeSclafani’s most impressive Giants outing was his last one, a 100-pitch shutout of the Rockies in which he was in command throughout. This start was a different flavor against a different quality of opponent, but still one the Giants enjoy.
DeSclafani had allowed five runs in 30 innings all year, then allowed three without recording an out. Manny Machado crushed a no-doubt three-run shot off a curveball, and DeSclafani did not throw another curve.
He also did not allow another run in his six innings and surrendered just one more hit. He was efficient (just 76 pitches) and pitched more to contact than overpowering an excellent San Diego offense (three strikeouts, just five swing and misses). And yet, he kept the ball heading south, getting nine ground balls to four flyballs, and showed a variety of ways of recording outs.
In the sixth, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a nubber down the third-base line that prompted DeSclafani to sprint off the mound, pounce on it and throw in one motion. He made it look easy, nabbing the speedy star at first.
After he left, Caleb Baragar and Zack Littell fought through struggles but still pitched a scoreless seventh. The Giants hope Littell can be a reliable righty, which is the same hope they have had for Camilo Doval, whose first pitch of the eighth was a home run to Jurickson Profar. Doval and Jose Alvarez combined to allow three hits and three runs.
The Giants couldn’t do damage against former Giant Pierce Johnson in the ninth, going quiet when the Padres got loud. After a brilliant April, they Giants will hope their May improves.
