© Stan Szeto | 2021 Sep 4
The Giants out-hit the Dodgers on Saturday night, nine to six, but only plated one run in LA’s series-evening victory. SF’s lack of timely hitting Saturday wasn’t an outlier, rather a consistent attribute of the ballclub for the past week.
In the last seven games, San Francisco has hit 10-for-74 (.135) with men in scoring position. They’ve been able to put runners on base, but the clutch hit has been missing.
“It feels like we’re able to put, like, mini rallies together, but we’re not able to get the big hit that turns into a big inning for us,” Kapler told reporters postgame. “It’s a big key to our success and part of the reason we’re up and down right now.”
That .135 average got pulled down Saturday, as SF routinely got runners on base and in scoring position, but failed to drive them home over and over again in the 6-1 loss. In total, the Giants went 1-for-8 with RISP.
Evan Longoria went 0-for-2 in those situations. Mike Yastrzemski struck out as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of seventh with LaMonte Wade Jr. on second. Darin Ruf ended the game by grounding out, stranding Wade Jr. on second yet again. Tommy La Stella, Brandon Belt and Mauricio Dubón each went 0-for-1 with a chance to do damage.
Buster Posey, who went 3-for-4 with San Francisco’s only RBI — a first-inning double into the right field corner — said there’s no magic solution.
“You just show up and play,” Posey said. “I mean it’s really as simple as that. You show up and work before the game, and go out and show up.”
The result of a putrid average with runners on second and third is innings with zero or one runs crossing the plate for SF. In the last seven games — five of which the Giants lost — SF has recorded just two multi-run innings. That’s two out of 63 innings.
Those extreme numbers, of course, come in a tiny sample size. But on the season, San Francisco is an average hitting team with runners in scoring position. Its OPS of .762 ranks 16th out of 30 MLB teams, right behind the Milwaukee Brewers and above the Detroit Tigers. Only the Athletics (19th) and Yankees (28th) register lower than SF among expected playoff teams.
The good news, Kapler said, is team-wide ruts like this tend to end quickly. Once SF breaks the ice, he thinks the clutch hits will return in bulk.
“You get one big hit in one big moment and it tends to be fairly contagious,” Kapler said. “We’ve seen that from our group throughout the season. But right now we’re just not getting it done in the biggest moments as we put these mini rallies together. Against a team like the Dodgers, but frankly against any team. To win major league baseball games, you’ve got to drive in runs and you’ve got to have big innings. We’re not doing that right now.”
