If the Giants fall short in their playoff quest, Friday night's game in Seattle is one they will look back on painfully for a long time.
San Francisco broke out the big bats early and seemingly was cruising to victory to open a six-game road trip, only to see it all fall apart after blowing a four-run lead in the eighth and then losing 6-5 in 10 innings.
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There was plenty of blame to go around for this defeat, which dropped the Giants (65-65) five back in the NL wild-card race with 32 games to play.
Despite crushing three home runs -- all magnificent blasts -- at T-Mobile Park, the Giants combined to strike out a whopping 18 times.
Starting pitcher Hayden Birdsong didn't stick around very long, throwing just four innings on 80 pitches. He allowed only one hit and had five strikeouts but issued a career-high four walks.
The bullpen handled Birdsong's early exit fairly well until the eighth, when the Mariners (65-64) jumped all over Tyler Rogers, wiping out a 5-1 Giants lead.
San Francisco Giants
Seattle won it in the 10th off Erik Miller after San Francisco failed to even move up its automatic runner 90 feet in the top of the frame.
The Mariners didn’t need much to score theirs. Pinch-runner Dylan Moore stole third base on a play close enough to convince Giants manager Bob Melvin to challenge. But the call was upheld, and Leo Rivas followed with a single to center for the game-winning hit.
At one time, though, the Giants had been in control, as LaMonte Wade Jr., Michael Conforto and Heliot Ramos all went deep to get them going early.
Wade started the fireworks when he blasted a 2-2 change-up from Luis Castillo 402 feet to center.
After Ramos beat out an infield single in the fourth, Conforto slammed his 14th home run of the season, a two-run, 419-foot blast that put the Giants ahead 3-0.
Seattle didn’t break through until after Birdsong left, and even then it wasn’t much. Luke Raley hit a solo home run off Sean Hjelle in the fifth.
The good times for the Mariners didn’t last long.
Wade doubled in the sixth, then trotted home after Ramos absolutely demolished a Castillo pitch into the left-field upper deck. Ramos' drive traveled an estimated 492 feet, according to Statcast.
At this point of the season, the Giants have very little margin for error, and this loss hurts -- especially considering it came against the Mariners, who had lost eight of nine and were playing their first game since manager Scott Servais was fired.
Here are three takeaways from Friday’s game:
Birdsong's uneven start
The young right-hander didn't have the best control and allowed the Mariners to drive up his pitch count early, but Birdsong showed a lot of poise while pitching out of two sticky jams.
Seattle loaded the bases in the third inning after Birdsong walked two and hit a batter, but he escaped by inducing Randy Arozarena to hit an infield pop-up. That came after Birdsong fell behind in the count 3-1 and then buried a wicked slider in the dirt that would have forced a run home had Arozarena held up.
The Mariners got their first two batters on base in the fourth before Birdsong pulled another magic act, retiring the next two batters on flyouts before buzzing a high fastball past Rivas for a called third strike.
On the road again
Home might be where the heart is, but the road is where the Giants’ power is. At least for now.
After banging out 15 homers in their last extended road trip and then having two more in the Bay Bridge Series at the Oakland Coliseum, the Giants kept that trend going with another three deep drives in Seattle.
By contrast, San Francisco hit just eight home runs in its last 10 games at Oracle Park.
With 18 of their final 32 regular-season games on the road, the Giants need to keep the trend going.
Walker saves the day ... for one inning
The Giants were on the ropes after Rogers' rough outing in the eighth, and it could have been worse if not for Ryan Walker.
The Mariners strung together six consecutive hits that produced four runs off Rogers, and they had two runners still on base with no outs when Melvin turned to his recently minted closer.
Walker made it look easy, too. He struck out Seattle star Julio Rodríguez swinging, then Cal Raleigh fouled out before Arozarena went down on another swinging strikeout to end the threat.