Before Monday’s game, veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado had hit more home runs and driven in more runs against the San Francisco Giants than any other MLB team. Against Monday’s starter Robbie Ray, Arenado had a career slash line of .364/.444/.773. Six pitches into Monday’s game, Arenado had a grand slam and the Arizona Diamondbacks had a 4-0 lead they’d never relinquish in a 12-2 loss.
At least he kept his pitch count down. Ray (3-6) got rocked early and often, giving up 10 runs and 11 hits in 4.1 innings, yielding four runs after two hits and a Matt Chapman error on a difficult ground ball from Geraldo Perdomo led to Arenado’s fourth career dinger off Ray and his 35th career homer against the Giants, which is three more than Paul Goldschmidt and eight more than Max Muncy. (The all-time record belongs to Stan Musial, with 89 home runs against the Giants.)
To add injury to insult, Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames both left the game with injuries. Lee left after suffering a back spasm, and was replaced by Will Brennan in the bottom of the 4th with the Giants already down 7-2. Adames exited after a suffering a thumb contusion on a play where his error scored the Diamondbacks’ 12th and final run. The man who hit that grounder was, of course, Nolan Arenado.
Lee is expected to miss Tuesday’s game while manager Tony Vitello isn’t sure about Adames, who left partly because his team was trailing by 10 runs at the time. It’s an unfortunate hand injury for a player who’s been really hitting, including a walk and a home run Monday.
Adames cut the lead, but the pitching of Zac Gallen kept the Giants bats quiet in six innings where he gave up two runs and four hits. Two of those came in the top of the third inning, when Harrison Bader doubled, Lee singled him to third, and contact master Luis Arraez delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.
But Ray simply wasn’t fooling anyone and his defense wasn’t helping. In the 2nd, a walk, a stolen base, and an Eric Haase throwing error set up a Ketel Marte sacrifice fly, though Ray gave up a triple to Corbin Carroll immediately after. Consecutive singles started the 4th inning, before Tim Tawa delivered a two-run single — before Ray picked him off.
Ray had a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th, lulling Giants fans into a false sense of security before catcher Gabriel Moreno hit a two-run homer, Jose Fernandez singled, and Tawa hit the ball off Ray’s quad on a groundout that ended his night.
The inning got even worse when JT Brubaker entered and surrendered a double to rookie Ryan Waldschmidt, threw a wild pitch, gave up an RBI infield single to Marte and then the vengeful grounder to Adames.
Moreno also got a strikeout on Drew Gilbert later with the shrewd use of an ABS challenge. Moreno and Marte each finished with two runs, two hits, and two RBIs, while Waldschmidt went 3-for-3 with a walk, that RBI double, and two stolen bases. We assume he also bet on the San Antonio Spurs, had at least four of the winning Powerball numbers, and discovered he’s immune to the hantavirus.
The game featured a number of Giants defensive switcheroos, with Schmitt going from left field to shortstop, Jesus Rodriguez pinch-hitting for the shortstop, playing left field, then moving to second base when Gilbert replaced second baseman Arraez. He turned a 5-4-3 double play without issue, showing versatility that might keep him on the roster a while longer.
Bryce Eldridge had a two-hit game and got his batting average (.143) back on the interstate. Harrison Bader hit two doubles in four at-bats and now has a higher slugging percentage than Rafael Devers. Will Brennan got his first hit of the season and looked very handsome in his uniform.
We’re looking for silver linings after a 10-run loss. Who knows? Maybe Arenado tired himself out running the bases and needs to take the rest of the series off instead of crushing the Giants’ dreams, over and over again.
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