Chris Mezzavilla
Steven Duggar was trying to fake out the Diamondbacks.
He ended up deking his own teammate to run them out of an inning and perhaps out of a game that will sting.
The Giants got zero runs from a bases-loaded, no-outs situation and instead got one enormous mental mistake that the Diamondbacks rode to a 6-5 nail-biter on Friday, Madison Bumgarner Eve, at Oracle Park in an inauspicious start to an important six-game homestand.
The Giants (18-21) were on the verge of breaking through in the eighth, two hits and a hit-by-pitch bringing up the sizzling Alex Dickerson. But he lofted a fly ball to too-shallow right, Duggar feigning a tag up but then putting on the brakes after a few steps. The Diamondbacks saw that. The runner on second didn’t.
Mauricio Dubon was halfway to third when he froze and tried to scamper back, but he was doubled up. After Evan Longoria’s ground out, the Giants were still a run down and would go quietly in the ninth.
cmon Dubon! You’re killing us!#SFGiants pic.twitter.com/JqEFjL0kBe
— KXSF Sports (@KXSFsports) September 5, 2020
The Giants threatened all game — they finished with 12 hits, led by Brandon Belt’s homer and RBI double — but they couldn’t turn nice innings into big breakouts. They scored in the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh, but only one each time. They left 10 runners on base and went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, the ill-fated eighth inning encapsulating a frustrating game.
The Giants will play three more with the out-of-it Diamondbacks, who just sold off much of their team at the trade deadline, before a pair with the Mariners, who are only on the very periphery of the playoff race. This is when a team headed to the playoffs feasts, and the Giants could only nibble to start.
The Diamondbacks were on Tyler Anderson, whom they had faced in his past two outings, and kept attacking when Sam Coonrod entered, scoring in the first, third, fourth and fifth. There was plenty of action in so many frames for each team, but the Diamondbacks put slightly bigger innings together, scoring a pair in the fourth and fifth.
Anderson was not bad but also not overly effective. He pitched around a lot of traffic, allowing seven hits and a walk in his four innings, in which he allowed four runs.
In the third, he was victimized by a 109.4-mph shot off the bat of Ketel Marte (3-for-4 with a homer) that Longoria couldn’t handle, becoming a double that made it 2-1 Diamondbacks.
Arizona scored two more in the next inning, when rookie catcher Daulton Varsho singled in a pair to finish the scoring off Anderson, whose rotation spot could be in jeopardy if the Giants deem Drew Smyly, who is not built up, should return soon.
In the fifth, Coonrod appeared to have Christian Walker struck out twice — first on a check swing that was not generous to the Giants, then Walker walking on a fastball that appeared to be on the bottom of the strike zone. Eduardo Escobar followed with a quick double, and the Diamondbacks pushed another across on a sacrifice fly from Kole Calhoun, before Nick Ahmed’s single made it 6-3.
The Giants always seemed to have an answer, though not one that brought them over the hump. Belt, who should not be touched because he’s too hot, doubled in a run in the first and homered in the seventh. In the fourth, Dubon jumped on a hanging curve and drove it to the wall in left, driving in Joey Bart from first and knocking out Arizona starter Taylor Clarke. Donovan Solano, who also helped out with his glove with a sliding play, knocked in a run in the fourth when shortstop Nick Ahmed double-clutched on an infield hit, Solano beating out the throw to allow an also-sizzling Dickerson to score and tie it, 2-2.
So much focus has been on Bumgarner’s much-anticipated return to Oracle Park on Saturday. He certainly would like to continue to lower the playoff odds for a team that’s lost two tough ones back-to-back.