Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Tyler Anderson executed, the fastball at the top of the zone and in on lefty David Peralta. With two on and two outs in a third inning in which the Giants were down 2-0, he knew how important it would be to keep the game close, especially with the club’s offense feeble of late.
Peralta did not get his best swing off but still lined one to where Brandon Crawford has made his home. But Crawford wasn’t home. The shortstop was playing on the other side of second against the lefty pull hitter, and the Giants were shift out of luck.
Anderson craned his neck and saw a vacancy, saw another run coming through and saw a single, slamming his mitt on the mound in frustration.
Each game before the Giants’ trade deadline — and now they have just two — matters deeply for a club that wants to stay relevant and ensure it sticks together. After the Giants looked so strong in taking seven straight, they have slumped to three consecutive losses, the latest a 7-4 clunker at Chase Field on Friday night to open their three-game set with the Diamondbacks ahead of Monday’s deadline.
The Giants (15-19), whose bats have been a big story of the season, had one run in three games — albeit two of those were seven innings long — until they awoke in the ninth inning for three runs. The bullpen has solidified, but the rotation has not been as powerful, Logan Webb wild Thursday and Anderson not nearly as effective as he was last week against these same Diamondbacks, who had lost eight straight.
He had pitched a complete game, allowing just one run in 103 pitches, Arizona chasing him outside the strike zone. The Diamondbacks were much more selective this time and found gaps in the defense consistency over the lefty’s 4 2/3 innings in which he surrendered seven runs on nine hits and three walks.
The numbers looked worse than the pitching itself, Arizona mustering just three hard-hit balls off Anderson, who didn’t allow a homer. But their batted balls kept finding holes, Anderson’s irritation clear as he struggled.
Last week the Giants may have been able to withstand an off night from their starter, their offense doing serious damage against everyone, but lefties in particular. But Zac Gallen, who has been so good all year, was excellent for a second straight game against the Giants.
He allowed just five hits and one run in seven innings, the only Giants run coming on an Evan Longoria homer in the sixth. The Giants had gone 20 straight innings without a run until the 301st of Longoria’s career.
The Giants finished with nine hits, pushing their total to 15 over three games, which will win them very few games and has won them zero. They scored three in the ninth, the big blow a one-out Crawford two-run homer, but it would not be enough.
Arizona only needed one big inning off Anderson, their four-run fifth, in which nine Diamondbacks batted and a Nick Ahmed two-run double was their only extra-base hit, doing a job that San Francisco’s offense couldn’t for too long.
The Giants are still hanging around a playoff race in which eight NL teams will qualify, but they’re just half a game away from Arizona in being last place in the division. If they want to force Farhan Zaidi’s hand, they have two games to do it.