For much of this season’s final stretch, the Giants have had their sights on the New York Mets and the National League’s third and final wild-card spot, and they were one win away from overtaking them just a few days ago.
But things have taken a drastic turn since then, and San Francisco now sits three games behind the Mets — with the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks between them — after a 6-5 walk-off loss Tuesday night at Chase Field.
All manager Bob Melvin could do was repeat his exasperation after the Giants’ fourth consecutive loss, which came after San Francisco failed to record a hit past the third inning and committed two errors against their NL West opponent.
“It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating,” Melvin told reporters after the loss. “All these games we lose like that are frustrating, especially against a lefty we’ve had trouble against, and had a tough time with him last time. To be able to score four in the first, get another one in the third. After that, [it] didn’t even feel like we got a base runner.”
For all of the trouble they’ve had with left-handed pitching this season, the Giants jumped on Diamondbacks southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez early with a four-run first inning.
Wilmer Flores, who started at first base with top prospect Bryce Eldridge on the bench, tagged the lefty for another run with a solo homer in the third for his second RBI of the night.
But after that, Melvin was right — the Giants didn’t even reach base. Tristan Beck made his first start of the year and surrendered three earned runs in three innings before the Diamondbacks scored two off Trevor McDonald in the fifth.
All of the sound defense that has contributed to San Francisco’s late-season playoff push flew out the window in the loss. Flores didn’t touch first base on a would-be double play in the seventh, and José Buttó committed a throwing error in the eighth; while neither impacted the score, the infield oddities foreshadowed the game’s end result.
On another peculiar play in the ninth, Jung Hoo Lee didn’t run down the line on a groundout to first base after he thought the ball hit his foot.
And then, in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Walker gave up a single and a walk before Casey Schmitt failed to touch first base on a sacrifice bunt by Diamondbacks third baseman Blaze Alexander, which loaded the bases. Jordan Lawlar then tapped a soft ground ball past Walker for the walk-off win.
“All these losses are frustrating,” Melvin said. “To lose like that where a ball doesn’t … even leave the infield, it’s really frustrating. We’ve got to step on the bag at first. Got to make a cleaner play. You know, as far as going by [Walker], it’s just, yeah …
“There’s a lot of new things for Casey at second base, but one of them is he’s got to get on the bag. And obviously he didn’t, and that was huge part of the inning right there.”
With the loss, the Giants now are back below .500 at 75-76. With less than two weeks left, nothing is impossible, but the confidence that helped them surge up the wild-card standings and saw them celebrating after a walk-off grand slam last Friday appears all but submerged.
They have 11 games to find it.
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