SAN FRANCISCO – Two pickles left a sour taste in the Giants’ mouths after their 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at Oracle Park.
There wasn’t much more Matt Chapman could do to put San Francisco in position to sweep Detroit and increase the Giants’ win streak to five straight. The four-time Gold Glove-winning third baseman played his typical sensational defense and nearly was a one-man show at the plate.
When the Tigers grabbed an immediate advantage a leadoff home run that bounced off the top of the left-field wall and into the stands, Chapman responded by giving the lead back to the Giants and rookie starting pitcher Hayden Birdsong, smacking a line drive to center field with the bases loaded to knock in two runs. Chapman’s single to right field that was hit 109.7 mph off his bat in the bottom of the sixth inning slashed the Giants’ deficit to runs, and he continued his torrid day in the batter’s box in the eighth inning.
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With the Giants down by one run, Chapman sent a ball to the center-field wall and raced around the bases for a triple to get things going in the bottom half of the eighth. The next pitch, Chapman found himself in trouble on the base paths and still couldn’t believe his blunder after the Giants’ loss.
Mark Canha hit a grounder right at shortstop Javier Baez, and Chapman uncharacteristically read the path of the ball wrong, darting for home plate. He quickly found himself in a rundown that ended with him sliding head first well short of home plate for the Giants’ first out of the inning.
“Chappy’s trying to make something happen, which he tends to do a good job,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Probably got a little too excited on a ball that initially looked like it was going to be a chopper and probably thought it was a little farther over.”
A disappointed Chapman admitted off the bat he thought the ground ball would make Baez have to move more, creating a tough throw that ended being an easy out for the shortstop. Lying down with dirtied knees, palms up and closed eyes, Chapman took a bit to get up after being tagged out by pitcher Brenan Hanifee.
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His words were much harsher than Melvin’s, too.
“Disgusted at myself for doing that,” Chapman said. “I was fine. I just laid there for a minute because I was a little bit out of breath. And then just disappointed it turned out the way it did.”
Canha advanced to second base on Chapman’s baserunning decision but then made a similar mistake right after. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey chopped a grounder back to Hanifee, who turned and immediately saw Canha taking off for third base. Hanifee threw the ball to Baez at second base, who chased down Canha before giving it up to third baseman Gio Urshela, who tagged Canha out for the second out of the inning. A Jerar Encarnacion groundout ended what looked like a promising inning and turned it into pure frustration.
Canha sat at his locker after the loss, looking distraught and shaking his head at himself.
Mental errors on the basepaths were one part in the story of the Giants wasting chances to catch the Tigers and give their home fans more late-inning drama. Though the Giants have been one of the hottest teams in baseball recently, their lack of production with runners in scoring position is staggering.
Giants hitters went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base against the Tigers. They were 0-for-5 with three groundouts and hit into a fielder’s choice twice between the seventh and eighth innings. Since July 25, the Giants are hitting .193 (31-for-161) with runners in scoring position with a .576 OPS, which is the lowest mark in all of the National League.
Only one team in the entire majors over the span has been worse than the Giants with runners in scoring position.
“I don’t think you can say we should have won that game because we ran into an out or two on the bases,” Melvin said.
Every game and every decision at the plate, on the bases and in the field are extremely crucial for the Giants right now. A win Sunday could have put them in the driver’s seat pushing for the third NL wild-card spot as both the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves suffered losses earlier in the day.
The pressure has been turned up even more ahead of Monday night, as the Giants welcome the Braves to town for a huge four-game set, starting with a battle of two ace left-handers in Blake Snell against All-Star veteran Chris Sale.
“Atlanta is ahead of us in the standings, but this game is no less important than tomorrow,” Melvin said. “They’re all important now.”
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