SAN FRANCISCO – The red-hot Giants were cooled off in their pursuit of an MLB playoff push Wednesday at Oracle Park with a frustrating 5-3 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Carson Seymour earned his first big league win last Friday in his second career start. He wasn’t close to as successful in his third start. Seymour’s start began with a leadoff home run, and it ended with six hits and four earned runs over 1 1/3 innings pitched.
Offensively, he and the rest of the Giants’ pitching staff didn’t get much help. The Giants were no-hit until Eduardo Rodriguez’ bid ended with one out in the fifth inning. At that point, the Giants already were trailing 4-0.
Rodriguez was sporting a 5.22 ERA on the 2025 MLB season and stifled the Giants up and down the lineup. The veteran left-hander gave up only two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
Though Rafael Devers did drive in two of the Giants’ three runs with a deep double to right-center field in the eighth inning, the Giants’ first three batters – Heliot Ramos, Devers and Willy Adames – were a collective 2-for-13 and totaled five strikeouts.
Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ loss, dropping them to 74-72 on the season.
Seymour’s Rough Start
The Giants’ two MLB All-Star starting pitchers, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, secured a series win to inch San Francisco one step closer to the third and final NL wild-card spot. Seymour, making his third career MLB start, couldn’t complete the sweep.
It was a bad day for Seymour right from the jump. After putting leadoff batter Geraldo Perdomo in an 0-2 hole, Seymour on the fourth pitch of the at-bat hung a sinker right over the heart of the plate. Perdomo made him pay, launching a solo shot 380 feet over the right-field wall.
All Seymour allowed the rest of the inning was a single to right field. The real damage came in the second inning. The Diamondbacks began the top half of the inning reeling off three straight singles to make it a 2-0 game.
A sacrifice bunt brought Perdomo up for his second at-bat, and this time he knocked Seymour out of the game, hitting a sharp line drive to right field to bring in another run and put men on first and third. Seymour faced 10 batters in 1 1/3 innings, fooling nobody along the way.
He now has a 7.71 ERA in 15 innings at Oracle Park this season.
Bats Get Silenced
Through the first two games of this three-game series, the Giants scored 16 runs and hit seven home runs. The Giants’ offense ran out of juice Wednesday afternoon. Their first 14 batters failed to get a hit before Casey Schmitt finally ended Rodriguez’s no-hit bid with one out in the fifth inning.
What looked to be a rally in the making was nothing more than a tease in the bottom of the seventh inning. Adames walked and then was 90 feet from giving the Giants their first run after a single from Matt Chapman, putting runners at first and third with no outs. The Giants then laid an egg.
As Adames begged to cross home plate, Wilmer Flores instead hit a pop fly sky-high to the catcher. The inning then ended when Schmitt struck out and the Giants had a gaffe on the bases, ending with Adames getting in a pickle and being tagged out at home.
The two runs Devers drove in the next inning were simply too little, too late. As was the fight they showed in the bottom of the ninth.
Now What?
There are two critical games the Giants will be watching as the day continues. First, the New York Mets, who came into the day two games ahead of the Giants for the third NL wild-card spot, play the Philadelphia Phillies. Then, the Giants will be glued to what happens between the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds.
The Padres have a firm hold of the second wild-card spot, but the Reds entered Wednesday just one game back of the Giants.
To make matters even more intense, the Giants after a day off will serve as host to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series that starts Friday night. By the sound of things, manager Bob Melvin wants to ensure the trio of Webb, Ray and Justin Verlander toe the rubber against the Giants’ biggest rivals.
Every game will have to be managed like a Game 7 going forward. The Giants will need help from others, but first they’ll have to get back to controlling their own destiny against the Dodgers.
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