SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The San Francisco Giants wanted to re-establish the memory-making business this season at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, and in a sense, they\u2019re succeeding.<\/p>\n
By fielding a team so stunningly ineffective you couldn\u2019t scrub them from your mind if you wanted to.<\/p>\n
Some stinks are tougher to wash off than others. The Giants, for as rank as this season has started, are well short of high heaven. After clinching another series defeat with a 5-1 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday afternoon, they are 14-23 and in last place in the National League West. The lowest-scoring offense in the major leagues scraped together three hits against an opener, a No. 5 starter and the business end of the Padres\u2019 bullpen. A defensive breakdown from Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman opened the door to San Diego\u2019s tiebreaking, two-run rally in a strange and strategically questionable seventh inning. The eighth included another rough appearance from erstwhile closer Ryan Walker, a not-so-nice noogie for the Giants fans who were hopeful enough to stay to the end.<\/p>\n
And when it was over, accompanied by groans plus a smattering of cheers from the Padres fans in the stands, the Giants owned the worst run differential in the major leagues. What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything? If you are a major-league team expecting to contend for the postseason, it most assuredly is not minus-42.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you know, we got off to a rough start \u2014 obviously it\u2019s probably worse than a rough start,\u201d said Chapman, who appended his game-changing error to a hitless streak that he extended to 24 at-bats. \u201cLast in the major leagues, last in a lot of offensive categories. Did not see that coming. Besides a couple guys, nobody\u2019s really gotten it going. As a collective, we really haven\u2019t gotten it going.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the good news is there\u2019s a lot of upside in this lineup. Maybe it\u2019s going to be one of those things where we\u2019re all cold at the same time, and we all get hot at the same time, and, you know, we\u2019re looking at a different situation in a month here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call that a hopeful thought or a desperate rationalization. Either way, apart from daydreams, the Giants don\u2019t have much going for them right now.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be glad to avoid any thoughts about baseball Thursday. And after getting walked off twice in a doubleheader last week at Philadelphia, then traveling cross-country from Tampa, Fla., on Sunday night and immediately jumping into a homestand opener Monday, the Giants have a day to empty their brainpans before beginning the next home series Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably a good time for everybody to take a timeout,\u201d said Giants manager Tony Vitello, whose honeymoon in his first professional season is becoming as short as a Britney Spears matrimony. \u201cDo whatever it is they do, either relax or spend time with family, and come to the ballpark with a little bit of that Little Leaguer (mentality), and enjoy playing the game, enjoy being around one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd expect adversity, because it\u2019s going to come. It\u2019s coming in every form and fashion this year. So there\u2019s going to be more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Losing two out of three is the perfect Arthur Murray exercise for this team. For every step forward, there have been two steps back. Their unfortunate emblem Wednesday was Jesus Rodriguez, who has provided the offensive spark the Giants hoped to receive when they promoted him, along with Bryce Eldridge, from Triple-A Sacramento on Monday. The rookie catcher was responsible for two of the Giants\u2019 three hits Wednesday. Yet he was also playing out of position in right field to get his bat in the lineup. That proved to be an issue when he raced to the spot but couldn\u2019t complete the catch as Ty France\u2019s flare ticked off his glove for a two-out, two-run triple in the seventh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked catchable,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cHe\u2019s in the right position. Got a good jump on it. Showed no fear. Just didn\u2019t catch it. \u2026 It would\u2019ve been an outstanding play, but I think the play could\u2019ve been made. \u2026 In my opinion, that\u2019s on me, but he\u2019s going to play for us, so there was going to have to be a day one for him at some point (in the outfield), and that was today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some might question why Rodriguez, a catcher who made two starts in the outfield for Sacramento, was still playing right field in the seventh inning. It\u2019s the wrong question to ask. You don\u2019t make defensive replacements unless you\u2019re playing to protect a lead, which the Giants hadn\u2019t achieved. They\u2019d only managed to offset Gavin Sheets\u2019 home run in the fourth inning off right-hander Adrian Houser. Rafael Devers contributed the equalizer in the fifth when his first home run in 23 games slipped over the left-field fence.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n\n One positive for the Giants on Wednesday: Rafael Devers hit his first home run\u00a0in 23 games. (Scott Marshall \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the pitching decisions? Those continue to confound. Houser, who entered with a 7.12 ERA, was on his way to his best start as a Giant when he took the mound in the seventh inning. His first pitch to Fernando Tatis Jr. resulted in an ordinary groundball to Chapman. The play wasn\u2019t made. Chapman had been playing a couple of steps shallow to defend against a potential bunt, and he found himself caught in between hops.<\/p>\n Houser had thrown a manageable 74 pitches. The Padres had three right-handed hitters lined up next. There\u2019s an unspoken understanding among managers and starting pitchers who are in the midst of a successful outing. You don\u2019t take out your starter when it\u2019s still \u201chis game.\u201d If he\u2019s pitching well, you give him a chance to see it through.<\/p>\n In every respect, it still appeared to be Houser\u2019s game. After one pitch in the seventh, Vitello came out to take the baseball anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just kind of started talking about, once we got to the seventh, going with our best guys there in the bullpen, and then (Ram\u00f3n) Laureano to that point, had the most well-struck ball and a little bit of history as far as success, as far as (Nick) Castellanos goes, but also starting to get to the point of the game that he hadn\u2019t been in in a while,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a decision we made.\u201d<\/p>\n The best guess here: the pregame script was for Keaton Winn to face that pocket of the Padres lineup. So that\u2019s what happened. The confounding part: If that\u2019s what the Giants planned, then why send Houser out to start the seventh? Why not instead summon Winn, a recently converted starting pitcher, when he\u2019d be guaranteed to begin with a clean inning?<\/p>\n Winn, working from the stretch, issued a walk to Laureano. Castellanos advanced both runners with a groundout. Freddy Fermin hit a flyout to shallow left field. Then left-hander Matt Gage replaced Winn, and it was time for the Padres to put their rookie manager on display. Craig Stammen said he misjudged how many warmup pitches Gage was going to throw, and so he didn\u2019t summon pinch hitter Ty France quickly enough from the cage behind the dugout. By the time France was announced, the Padres had been hit with a pitch clock violation and an automatic strike.<\/p>\n It all worked out for the Padres. France was able to elevate a ball to right field. Rodriguez was unable to catch it. The Padres led 3-1, and when Xander Bogaerts took Walker deep in the eighth, they led by a little more.<\/p>\n Whether you want to blame Vitello and his pitching coaches for their choices in the seventh, or for playing Rodriguez in right field, here\u2019s the simplest of facts: the rally doesn\u2019t start if Chapman catches the (redacted) ball.<\/p>\n \u201cMy initial read was to go get the short hop, and then I kind of backpedaled because I didn\u2019t think I was going to get there, and I kind of just had my glove in the wrong spot,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cI thought it was going to bounce up, it stayed down, and then obviously gets in the outfield, and ends up costing us two runs. So unfortunately, just a bad read, and we were kind of unable to recover after that one.\u201d<\/p>\n Can the Giants recover in a macro sense? After promoting Eldridge and Rodriguez, there\u2019s no charge left in their paddles. It\u2019ll be up to the current group, although with a more functional bench, it could be a more actively managed lineup. Regardless, no buttons they push will make a difference if their most lavishly compensated core position players don\u2019t start producing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough balance because you want to make it happen,\u201d said Chapman, who has hit just one home run and acknowledged he came out of an early contact-hitting groove when he started searching to hit for more power. \u201cWe want to play better, we want to win. We want to take better at-bats, score more runs. But sometimes trying to do that and letting it happen are two different things. You have to have that urgency \u2026 but when you try too hard, sometimes you\u2019re just kind of digging yourself a bigger hole.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the guys in this room, a lot of us have been there before. We\u2019ve had good careers, and I think that we\u2019re going to find our way out of this thing. Obviously, it needs to happen sooner rather than later. But I have full confidence in everybody in this room. We have a lot of talent in this room. We have a lot of good players, and we\u2019re going to come together, and we\u2019re going to get it figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n