Catastrophic blunder dooms Giants in 1-0 loss to White Sox – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

It only takes a split-second for a baseball game to turn on its head, which is exactly what happened during the Giants’ 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday afternoon at Rate Field.

With starting pitchers Robbie Ray and Adrian Houser locked in a scoreless pitchers duel, San Francisco appeared poised to break the deadlock after Brett Wisely and Christian Koss reached base to lead off the top of the sixth inning, putting runners on second and third with no outs and the heart of the Giants’ lineup coming to the plate.

Rafael Devers, the Giants’ star acquisition stepped into the batter’s box with a chance to deliver the kind of game-changing hit that made him such an appealing option for San Francisco.

That cricitcal momentum shift came, but not for the Giants. Devers struck out and White Sox catcher Edgar Quero threw a rocket to third base, catching Wisely off the bag for a strikeout-back pick combination that delivered a devastating blow to the Giants’ chances of scoring.

Heliot Ramos flew out to end the frame, giving the White Sox a critical jolt of energy that carried over into the bottom half of the inning when outfielfer Andrew Benintendi’s solo home run supplied the game’s only scoring.

While Ray dealt yet again (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 6 K) that blast proved decisive in a loss that has become all too familiar as the Giants’ anemic offense was to blame once more.

“Obviously, that’s a tough situation,” Ray told reporters postgame about Wisely getting picked off. “Getting the strikeout and then thrown out at third base, back pick like that is kind of tough because you got a great hitter in Ramos coming up, and he hits a fly ball to center field, that’s a sac fly normally. It did feel like kind of a momentum shift for sure.”

While it was unclear why Wisely was so far off the bag in that situation, Giants manager Bob Melvin clarified how the blunder occured.

“He was trying to get a good jump on a ground ball, but he has got to be able to get back,” Melvin said. “Once the ball crosses home plate, got to be able to get back. He’s trying to get out there and be aggressive and when the ball hits the ground take off and get your best chance to score a run, but have to be able to get back.”

“Robbie pitched so good, gives up one pitch for a homer and we can’t scratch a run across. It’s very frustrating.”

Melvin also alluded to Wisely’s mistake coming as a result of the Giants as a team being more aggressive on the basepaths in an effort to make up for the lack of clutch hits and runs as San Francisco’s offense has sputtered as of late.

“We’re trying to be aggressive and do some things to score some runs, and in this case it backfired,” Melvin said. “So, we got to keep working to take that kind of pressure off ourselves offensively. We got to be able to score more runs than we’ve been doing and put more pressure on the starting pitcher.

“Whether it’s early in the game, whether it’s in the middle of the game — granted [Houser] had really good stuff, he had a really good sinker, it was down in the zone, balls on the ground. But we have to be able to put more pressure on because every opportunity that comes and something goes wrong, it’s magnified, and it comes down to a lack of offense.”

The Giants still have a chance to get out of Chicago with a series win if they are victorious Sunday, but these kind of losses continue to be an issue for a team that boasts a dominant pitching staff that has more than held up its end of the deal this season.

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