Let’s hope this Jock Blog is more of a “Blip on the Radar” Blog, one that ages poorly, , like most of my takes, and we can call delete from our phones in short order.
OK, here goes: this three-game Giants losing skid has my brow furrowed.
Is this little 72-hour bummer — swept in San Diego in two quckies, followed by an inexplicable loss to the inexplicably bad Colorado Rockies — the first sign that pixie dust has an expiration date?
It was easy and fun to gush over the Giants’ 19-10 start, particularly because the 18th and 19th wins were games in which they came from two runs behind and walked off the foe, in this case Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers. Sorry, Boch. Nothing personal. But it was the weekend of Brandon Crawford and the whole thing was yet another reason to celebrate Buster Posey’s fresh reign: consistent lineups, team wide-belief, bullpen excellence and just enough starting pitching to hang around and sweat one out.
“Gritty, grindy bunch” is the phrase Buster used in an MLB Network interview and up until these last three nights, the grit and the grind was real, and it was spectacular.
But on Tuesday night in San Diego, the Padres hit around Logan Webb and even smacked a two-run homer off Randy Rodriguez. In Wednesday’s matinee, youngster Landen Roupp couldn’t get out of the fifth inning and the Giants only mustered five hits. The first foray into the NL West saw the Giants give away two games in the standings to the Friars, a team they figure to be eyeing all summer.
Not to worry. The historically woeful Rockies were due at 24 Willie Mays Plaza for four— count ‘em! — four and given the gritty, grindy Giants ability to handle their business, surely four wins awaited. After all, the Dodgers swept three from the Rox and so did those darn Padres.
Cue Thursday night and the Rockies touching up Tyler Rogers for two in the eighth, Brett Wisely thrown out stealing and a difficult-to-imagine sixth win on the season for the awful Colorado nine: 4-3, bad guys. All of a sudden, the Giants own a three-game losing streak.
In an instant, it’s as if the basement light got flipped and all the cockroaches of the Giants’ first 32 games are scurrying for cover.
Catcher Pat Bailey is hitting .155. LaMonte Wade, Jr. is hitting .123. Only five teams in MLB have struck out more than the Giants. Jordan Hicks and Roupp are toting ERAs north of five. Second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald, one of the brighter offensive spots, fractured a rib and now the two-bag is the province of Christian Koss and Wisely.
It’s not like Triple-A Sacramento is teeming with bats, either. Marco Luciano’s five home runs in 111 at-bats is the most notable statistic. He’s also hitting .234 and has struck out 40 times. Everyone’s one-man franchise savior, Double-A first baseman Bryce Eldridge, just returned from injury, has only 25 at-bats, and despite a first at-bat home run that wowed social media, has struck out 11 times. Posey said on our show that Eldridge is “a long ways away” and needs “a lot of reps”, tamping down that speculation.
All righty, then.
It’s only three lousy games, right? But something about losing to the purple-clad Rockies felt a tad deflating. Colorado had lost 12 consecutive in The City, and owned just one road win this season. Now they have two. And three more cracks at the Giants.
If the season ended today, the Giants’ .594 win percentage would net them the second wild card spot in the National League. Pretty cool, right?
Let’s see if the grit and the grind can make sure it stays that way. Let’s make this a bad take Jock Blog.