Minimal scoring is the norm more often than not so far for the San Francisco Giants, and with the team somnolent again to start things Saturday, Logan Webb was up to the challenge.
The Giants’ top starter allowed one run in the second, got a double-play ball to prevent a bigger inning and left with his team holding the lead, but the bullpen, and the defense, couldn’t hang onto the slim edge in falling 5-2 to the Mets, San Francisco’s third loss in a row.
More fiery than San Francisco’s offense: manager Tony Vitello, who showed some of the spirit he was known for at Tennessee, drawing his first career MLB ejection in the eighth when Jerar Encarnacion was called out for failing to run inside the runner’s lane. Encarnacion did not interfere with fielding the ball or with the throw, making it an unusual call.
New York, which showed a flair for stringing hits together in each of those three games, cobbled together five in a row in the eighth against Keaton Winn and Erik Miller en route to four runs. The big blow in the inning: right-handed hitting Luis Torrens’ two-run pinch-hit double off lefty Miller. That was the third time in 10 games the Giants have had a lefty reliever give up a costly hit to a right-handed hitter: Aaron Judge’s homer of Ryan Borucki in the season-opening series against the Yankees and Tyrone Taylor with a pinch-hit homer off Ryan Borucki on Saturday.
Matt Chapman made his second error in as many days in the eighth inning, a throwing error that allowed Mark Vientos to take second after an RBI single. Vientos then scored on Marcus Semien’s double. Chapman also inexplicably tried to steal second in the ninth inning, his team down three, and was thrown out, outside the norm for a usually savvy baserunner.
Mets starter Kodao Senga, like Nolan McLean on Friday, had a no-hitter in the works for long enough to make things interesting. The Giants didn’t get a man aboard until Luis Arraez, the only consistent hitter in the order so far, singled to lead off the fourth and Chapman promptly hit into a double play.
In the sixth, San Francisco eked out enough to snap a 17-inning scoreless streak. Patrick Bailey, struggling even more than most of the Giants’ quiet bunch, hit a dink to left at 63 mph that fell in to lead off the sixth, and with two outs, Chapman doubled to left, tying the game.
Rafael Devers, playing in the field for the first time this season, blooped a single to center, and Chapman, going hard with two outs, came around to score.
Of course things weren’t easy from there for Webb. The Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh — a walk and a catcher’s interference accounted for two baserunners — and Webb got New York’s leadoff hitter, Francisco Lindor, to bounce out to second on an 0-2 changeup.
Webb came out after seven innings and 92 pitches, 12 fewer than his previous outing at San Diego. He allowed seven hits and the one run; he walked one and struck out three.
San Francisco has failed to score more than three runs in six of seven home games.