Giants plan to call up top prospects Bryce Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez<\/a> from Triple-A Sacramento to help the offense ahead of Monday\u2019s series opener against the Padres, league sources confirmed to this news organization.<\/p>\nThis marks the first time that the Giants (13-21) have gone winless on a trip of at least two teams since July 2022, when they were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. And whether it\u2019s the offense\u2019s alarming cold spell or the bullpen\u2019s sudden struggles, the six losses alone don\u2019t fully encapsulate the brutal nature of this last week.<\/p>\n
For one, three of the losses on this trip were of the walk-off variety. That includes both ends of Thursday\u2019s doubleheader, which marked the first time that the Giants have been walked off twice in one day since 1956. And on all three occasions, the walk-off defeats were preceded by San Francisco\u2019s bullpen failing to preserve a one-run lead.<\/p>\n
Sunday afternoon was Walker\u2019s first appearance since blowing a save in Game 1 of the doubleheader, and the cross-firing right-hander squandered another lead by allowing the game-tying run in the eighth. In the bottom of the 10th, Jonathan Aranda hit a bloop single off Caleb Kilian to score the winning run.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the matter of the offense, which remains the worst in the majors. Over six games against Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, San Francisco\u2019s offense only scored nine runs and didn\u2019t hit a single home run. And of those nine runs, five of those runs were scored in Game 2 of Thursday\u2019s doubleheader.<\/p>\n
The Giants remain last in the majors in runs per game (3.11), home runs (19), walks (69), and steals (nine). They\u2019re also 29th in OPS (.642) behind only the New York Mets (.628).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there were two at-bats that were stacked together that were quality at-bats,\u201d Vitello said of Sunday\u2019s offense. \u201cThere were a couple of at-bats, if you\u2019re going based off hard contact, I think back-to-back that were good. We didn\u2019t string any of that stuff together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right-handed starter Tyler Mahle pitched 5 1\/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts to one walk, continuing an odd trend. Beginning with his second outing of the season, Mahle has alternated between not allowing a run and allowing at least five runs in a start. Through seven starts, Mahle has a 5.00 ERA over 36 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s kind of been that way,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say off and on, but it was better \u2014 or good \u2014 and then not as good the next time, then good, and then not as good the next time. He\u2019s kind of found his rhythm, and he\u2019s been exceptional, I think is the proper word, the last few times out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants struck first in the top of the first, taking a quick 1-0 lead against the Rays\u2019 Steven Matz. Rafael Devers legged out a hustle double on a bloop hit that didn\u2019t even leave the infield, then scored on a single by Casey Schmitt that Rays second baseman Ben Williamson just missed snagging on the fly.<\/p>\n
Mahle looked like he was going to end his afternoon on his own terms in the sixth\u00a0when Tampa Bay\u2019s Ryan Vilade hit a potential inning-ending double play ball. Instead, shortstop Willy Adames couldn\u2019t field Vilade\u2019s grounder cleanly and the Giants didn\u2019t record an out.<\/p>\n
Vitello lifted Mahle for left-hander Matt Gage with runners on first and second and one out, and Gage managed to slither his way out of trouble. He struck out Jonny DeLuca for the second out, and after walking the bases loaded, he got Cedric Mullins to harmlessly fly out to preserve the one-run lead.<\/p>\n
Despite the error in the sixth, Adames helped preserve the Giants\u2019 thin lead in the seventh. Rays\u00a0pinch-runner Richie Palacios tried stealing second base with no outs, but Adames went up the baseline to snag catcher Eric Haase\u2019s throw, then made an athletic tag of Palacios for the out.<\/p>\n
Walker entered in the bottom of the eighth but couldn\u2019t preserve the one-run lead. Junior Caminero drew a leadoff walk, then went from first to third on a single by Aranda. With no outs and runners at the corners, the Rays put on the squeeze play. Vilade laid down a bunt to the right side of the infield, and while Devers played the bunt as well as possible, Caminero scored to tie the ballgame.<\/p>\n
Kilian pitched a scoreless ninth inning to send the game to extra innings, but following an intentional walk of Caminero, Aranda ended the series with a bloop single.<\/p>\n
Next up<\/p>\n
Following six games on the East Coast, the Giants fly home to San Francisco for a six-game homestand beginning on Monday against the San Diego Padres. San Francisco will call up a starter for Monday\u2019s game, the consequence of using right-hander Adrian Houser<\/a> for Thursday\u2019s doubleheader instead of using 27th man Trevor McDonald.<\/p>\nCarson Whisenhunt was a possibility to start on Monday, but he will not be available because he started Sunday for Triple-A Sacramento. McDonald, who hasn\u2019t pitched since April 24, could get the nod.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants left San Francisco last weekend for their six-game East Coast trip with 13 wins. They now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3816,9636,4535,111053,9635,114,3817,16280,8371,111686,22676,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-257218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-baseball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-giants-hq","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}