Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero celebrates his solo home run off Giants starting pitcher Robbie Ray in the fourth inning of the Rays’ 3-0 win Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Shane McClanahan exults after his defense turned a double play against the Giants during the fifth inning Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As this misfire of a week continues for the San Francisco Giants, Friday’s fumble came from the lineup, which, for the second time on this trip, scored zip.
Left-hander Shane McClanahan worked six scoreless innings to help the Rays stop San Francisco 3-0, the Giants’ climbing shutout count is now a big-league high seven in 32 games, and the team is now also last in a category you’d never want to be on the wrong end of: Their 104 runs are the fewest in the majors. The Mets entered Friday with the second fewest, at 106.
Homers? Last: 19. Walks: last, and by a lot: 66, with Arizona next at 83.
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The Giants’ seven shutouts are their most in the first 32 games since 1976, when they were shut out eight times in that span.
“We just got to turn it around,” said starter Robbie Ray, who has been on the mound for three of those zero-Giants runs games. “We’ve got a lot of good hitters in this clubhouse, a lot of guys that have track records of being good hitters. And you know, it’s just one of those things where maybe a little bit of sense of urgency is needed.”
Manager Tony Vitello said that sense is already there, behind the scenes, in numerous meetings and drills pregame, but Vitello emphasized it’s a new month, and, he said of Ray, “I get where he’s coming from. I think part of it is when you’re in the league long enough, my sense is from being around these guys, that they’re very good at turning the page and understanding there’s a length of a season, you can’t freak out about this or that.”
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Is this sleepwalking offense a feature-not-a-bug situation? Some capable hitters are well under their projected stats, even noted slow starters such as Rafael Devers and Willy Adames. Track records point to both turning things around, but currently they’re back-to-back in the lineup and while both delivered singles Friday, they came in different innings.
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San Francisco
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
30
0
6
0
0
7
Ramos lf
4
0
0
0
0
1
.282
Chapman 3b
4
0
0
0
0
2
.271
Arraez 2b
4
0
1
0
0
0
.305
Schmitt dh
3
0
1
0
0
0
.301
Devers 1b
3
0
1
0
0
1
.207
Adames ss
3
0
1
0
0
1
.197
Lee cf-rf
3
0
1
0
0
0
.297
Encarnacion rf
2
0
0
0
0
1
.200
b-Gilbert ph-cf
1
0
0
0
0
0
.279
Bailey c
2
0
1
0
0
0
.149
c-Brennan ph
1
0
0
0
0
1
.000
Haase c
0
0
0
0
0
0
.333
Tampa Bay
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
27
3
5
3
0
6
Simpson lf
3
0
1
1
0
1
.314
Caminero 3b
3
1
1
1
0
1
.256
Vilade 1b
3
0
0
0
0
0
.344
Díaz dh
2
1
1
1
0
0
.330
a-Aranda ph-dh
1
0
0
0
0
0
.220
Williamson 2b
3
0
0
0
0
1
.250
DeLuca cf
3
0
0
0
0
0
.283
Fraley rf
3
0
0
0
0
2
.250
Fortes c
3
0
0
0
0
1
.276
Walls ss
3
1
2
0
0
0
.186
San Francisco
000
000
000_0
6
0
Tampa Bay
010
101
00x_3
5
0
a-grounded out for Díaz in the 7th. b-grounded out for Encarnacion in the 8th. c-struck out for Bailey in the 8th.
LOB_San Francisco 3, Tampa Bay 1. 2B_Arraez (3), Walls (2). HR_Díaz (4), off Ray; Caminero (8), off Ray. RBIs_Díaz (20), Caminero (15), Simpson (6). SB_Walls (4). CS_Simpson (3). SF_Simpson.
Runners left in scoring position_San Francisco 0; Tampa Bay 0. RISP_San Francisco 0 for 1; Tampa Bay 0 for 0.
GIDP_Ramos, Encarnacion.
DP_Tampa Bay 2 (Caminero, Williamson, Vilade; Williamson, Vilade).
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
6
4
3
3
0
5
102
2.70
1
1
0
0
0
1
21
2.51
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
6
5
0
0
0
5
73
3.91
1
1
0
0
0
0
14
6.75
1
0
0
0
0
1
10
3.24
1
0
0
0
0
1
12
3.18
ABS Challenge_Caminero (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Simpson (Strike-Confirmed); Adames (Strike-Overturned to Ball); McClanahan (Ball-Confirmed); Ray (Ball-Overturned to Strike).
Umpires_Home, John Bacon; First, Hunter Wendelstedt; Second, Nic Lentz; Third, Vic Carapazza.
T_2:03. A_13,330 (25,025).
Adames was one of the Giants’ best hitters in the early going, which is not the norm for him, but, he said after Friday’s game, his annual slow start popped up anyway.
“I got excited. I was like, ‘Hey, it’s April 10, April 12, and I’m hitting like, 300! What’s going on?’” said Adames, who’s back down to .200. “And then it just went down normal. April just sucked me down again.
“But it’s a new month. Obviously, the mentality is still positive, and I’m in a better place mentally than last year because I know it’s going to come around.”
The Giants also were coming off that awful walkoff-loss times two doubleheader Thursday, and while the clubhouse was upbeat before the game, the lineup looked a little lifeless at times. McClanahan was responsible for some of that, but once he was out of the game, there were too many poor at-bats.
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“Yesterday was a tough day, but then the travel and everything, we got here so late, I think the guys were just tired,” Adames said. “They didn’t think about it, but obviously it was tough to get walked off twice in one day. I think obviously the energy was a little down, but it will be a better day tomorrow.”
For the second game in a row, third-base coach Hector Borg made what appeared to be the wrong decision; in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader in Philadelphia, Borg held up Drew Gilbert when he looked as if he’d score easily in the 10th on Heliot Ramos’ single off Bryson Stott’s glove at second. Friday, Borg went the other way and urged Luis Arraez toward third on his liner down the right-field line; Arraez was out by several feet.
Vitello thought the bullpen mounds down the line in foul territory played a role on the decision, saying the ball “rolled on the other side of the mound, so it looks like it’s about to be chaos, and next thing, you know, it’s a clean pickup, a clean relay. He was obviously out by a good measure.”
It’s not uncommon for third-base coaches to overcompensate for a potentially overcautious decision with an overly aggressive one, and, Vitello said, he believes the pressure might play a role for everyone given the desire to turn things around.
“I think all of us have been at a point where the stress gets to you,” he said. “I had several conversations today, some business-esque, some casual, and the one thing that kept coming up, in a very sincere fashion, is everyone believes in this team. That’s a good thing on the end of trying to get the thing in the right direction and having confidence. It makes it a bad thing when you don’t get as many positive outcomes as you want, because everyone knows we’re better, and that stress starts to squeeze you a little bit.”
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Ray started for San Francisco and zipped through a solid performance, allowing solo homers to Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero, plus a sacrifice fly from Chandler Simpson. Ray has a 2.95 ERA and probably should have more than two wins, except for his lack of run support — in five of his seven outings, he has gotten no more than one run from his teammates. Friday, he gave up just four hits and didn’t walk a man in 6⅓ innings, and he struck out five.
“It feels terrible when you see a guy like Robbie always dealing and fighting every pitch and we can’t put up runs for him to have his back,” Adames said. “Even last year, it was the same story with him. We couldn’t put runs for him. I don’t understand why.”
McClanahan allowed five hits and struck out five and in the one inning the Giants actually had a man in scoring position for longer than a half second (Arraez technically hit a double before getting thrown out at third), McClanahan got Jerar Encarnacion, a right-handed hitter, to bounce into a double play, one of two he induced.
San Francisco is 0-4 on the trip and has dropped nine of its past 12 away from home overall.