© Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Tuesday night was a ton of fun – if you’re a fan of the Atlanta Braves. If you happen to be a Giants fan, well, there’s some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the Giants lost their 10th-straight game 4-1 and still have yet to win a game in the month of September. The good news is that there’s a day off on Thursday.
While the Braves moved another step closer to securing the National League East division title and Mike Foltynewicz threw a complete game, the Giants (68-78) are on their worst downslide since 1996, when they also lost 10-straight games.
If the Giants lose again tomorrow, it would be the first time the team lost 11-straight games since 1951 – as the New York Giants. The franchise record is 13-straight losses, which has happened twice, both in 1944 and 1902.
The result of the game wasn’t surprising given that the Braves and Giants are on virtually opposite trajectories. Still, the performance was especially dull and devoid of many real nuggets of positivity.
Andy Suarez put in a respectable performance, allowing three earned runs and six hits over six innings of work. He had allowed just three hits and a run through four innings, but Ronald Acuna led off the fifth inning with a triple and Charlie Culberson – replacing an injured Johan Camargo – teed off on Suarez for a two-run homer to give the Braves a 3-0 lead.
One of the few uplifting moments outside of Suarez’s night was a single from Aramis Garcia, who continues to hit well in his young major league career while his counterpart Chris Shaw (both players made their debuts on August 31) went hitless for the eighth time in his nine major league games. He remains with just one hit – a pinch-hit solo home run against the Colorado Rockies on September 3.
However, with two outs in the ninth, Evan Longoria singled to center and stole second base without being challenged. Brandon Crawford followed suit to score Longoria and prevent a shutout.
Foltynewicz tormented the Giants on the mound for nine full innings, allowing just six hits and striking out seven Giants batters. While the Giants failed to accomplish anything productive offensively, Gorkys Hernandez snagged the award for weirdest moment of the night in the eighth inning.
Hernandez snapped his bat which went on nearly the same flight path as the ball towards shortstop, leaving Dansby Swanson with no play.
Bat pulling double duty pic.twitter.com/g9aYtrA44A
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 12, 2018
It was eerily similar to a play that faced Oakland A’s shortstop Eric Sogard in 2013. Sogard was able to catch the ball on a line, but like Swanson he couldn’t make a play at first.
The excitement from the broken-bat single quickly faded as Garcia and a pinch-hitting Brandon Belt both struck out looking to end the inning. Longoria and Crawford combined for the lone run after that, but the effort was isolated and altogether meaningless.
