Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants lost a key contributor, and then they lost a game.
They did not lose a series or the division lead, and it’s hard to lose faith in a team that continues to play well even with a bloated injury list.
The Giants fell, 4-3, to the Cubs on Sunday afternoon, dropping the finale of a series in which they had taken the first three games. 14,089 fans witnessed the letdown, which featured a Johnny Cueto decision backfiring and Buster Posey dropping a ball at home plate. It happens.
The defeat marked the Giants’ (37-22) third loss in 12 games, and they still hold the NL West lead over the Padres (two games) and Dodgers (three games).
Despite the loss, the Giants took a series from the Cubs without Brandon Belt, without Mike Yastrzemski, without Tommy La Stella, without two-sixths of what could be their rotation, and now without Evan Longoria, who will miss 4-6 weeks with a shoulder strain after his collision with Brandon Crawford on Saturday. There were several more step-ups on Sunday, including an excellent performance from Conner Menez out of the bullpen and more great two-way play from LaMonte Wade Jr., but the Giants made one too many mistakes.
Cueto probably should pitched around Patrick Wisdom, quickly a Giants killer, before the St. Mary’s alum knocked his second homer of the day, a two-run shot, in the fourth. With the bases loaded in the fifth, Mauricio Dubon could have thrown higher to Posey, who also could have caught the low throw for the force. The error was charged to Posey, and the Cubs took a lead they would not give up. Perhaps Ron Wotus was too aggressive in the second inning, when he waved Posey home, and Jason Heyward’s arm won the race.
The amount of good baseball the Giants have been playing, though, makes errors like these more forgivable.
The Giants’ offensive effort started off sizzling before it cooled. Wade homered for the second straight day, this one an opposite-field shot, off the first pitch he saw from Kyle Hendricks. They added another run in the inning when Donovan Solano singled in Posey — a positively aggressive wave from Wotus — and a third run in the second, when Posey’s two-out RBI single drove in Dubon (but Posey was then thrown out at home on an Alex Dickerson single).
LaMonte Wade Jr. just hit an opposite-field home run on Kyle Hendricks’ first pitch 😳
Jon Miller on the call ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/pcQO6aendJ
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 6, 2021
And that represented the end of the Giants’ scoring. They didn’t record a hit in the fourth, fifth or sixth, as Hendricks shut them down. They put two on in the seventh but couldn’t get a run home. Dubon nearly homered in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel, but Kris Bryant made a nice play at the left-field wall.
Cueto was not terrible but not quite solid, either, finishing with four runs allowed (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings. He would have been much better if he did not have to deal with Wisdom, who’s from Murrieta Valley.
The Cubs’ third baseman made a definite impression, hitting two home runs in the game and three in two days. His first of the day came in the second inning and followed a wayward throw from Wilmer Flores to Wade at first, but Wade made a swipe tag, which saved a run as it turned out.
His second of the game may have arisen from Cueto’s refusal to give in. There were two outs and Ian Happ was on second, with seemingly little reason for Cueto to pitch to the one Cubs hitter who has been doing damage. And yet he challenged Wisdom, who saw a hanging slider and drilled it 422 feet to center to tie the game at 3.
The Cubs took the lead for good in the fifth, when Hendricks — yep, the pitcher — doubled to left, before Anthony Rizzo smashed a hit up the middle that Dubon could not stop. With runners on the corners, Cueto got the ground ball he was seeking from Javier Baez, a slow roller to Dubon, who came home and fired a bit low, and Posey couldn’t catch it. The error went to Posey, and Cueto lost the lead and his spot on the mound.
Menez came on with the bases loaded and struck out Heyward and Wisdom. He got six outs on the day without allowing a baserunner, and the southpaw has now pitched six innings without getting touched this season. Without the DFA’d Scott Kazmir and Nick Tropeano, Menez has emerged as quality bullpen depth or as a starting option.
Yet his work and Wade’s would be in vain. It is hard to shrug off big-league losses, but they happen sometimes, even to the 2021 Giants.
