SAN FRANCISCO — You could argue that the San Francisco Giants had the right hitter at the plate in the ninth inning Saturday night.

Catcher Patrick Bailey is far more valuable because of his Gold Glove defense, of course, but he’s got a flair for the dramatic when it’s close and late. A year ago, Bailey became the first player in major league history to hit a walk-off grand slam and a walk-off inside-the-park home run in the same season. When Bailey stepped to the plate against New York Yankees closer David Bednar, with runners at first and second and one out, the switch hitter represented the winning run — which might have felt like an achievement unto itself for a team that never achieved a lead in an entire three-game series.

Except this time, there were no mad dashes, jostling kayaks or helmets thrown in elation. Bailey rolled into a 4-6-3 double play. It was the last of the Giants’ four double plays that snuffed out rallies and silenced a sellout crowd. The Yankees celebrated a 3-1 victory and dispatched Giants manager Tony Vitello to San Diego in search of his first major league win.

There was progress this time, for what it was worth. At least the Giants avoided getting shut out in a three-game series for the first time since the 1916 club took the train to St. Louis for three games and apparently left their bats in the dining car. Vitello’s lineup snapped a 20-inning scoreless streak in the third when Jung Hoo Lee doubled and scored on Matt Chapman’s single.

The offense didn’t produce enough to overcome the two-run double that Ben Rice hit against Tyler Mahle in the third inning and the solo shot that Aaron Judge hit off Ryan Borucki in the fifth. Yet, the at-bats were much more competitive and hinted at better results ahead. The Giants had a baserunner in every inning but the seventh. Nobody looked more confident than Heliot Ramos, who saw 31 pitches over his four plate appearances, successfully challenged two strike calls and flipped his bat halfway to Coit Tower when he drew a leadoff walk in the ninth.

Heliot Ramos bat flips on a walk after challenging the previous pitchpic.twitter.com/DLvqkNy8bA

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“Some of those at-bats, the positions we put ourselves in, were certainly better, and the execution was better too,” Vitello said. “Guys looked more comfortable, more relaxed. The numbers don’t completely tell that story on the scoreboard, but it was a more competitive effort.”

Standard disclaimer: It’s far too early to make any grand pronouncements about the Giants’ lineup. There are sure to be plenty of days this year when the hitters on the lineup card will produce a surfeit of runs. With time, Vitello and his staff will figure out an ideal spot for Luis Arraez, middle-of-the-order hitters like Chapman and Willy Adames will send drives over the fence and Rafael Devers will have the opportunity to make an impact over a full season.

It’s still not too early to be concerned about how easily pockets of the lineup can be exploited by opposing managers.

A rule of thumb among baseball executives is you want to construct a roster that makes life as difficult as possible in the other dugout. You want effective countermeasures that can keep your opponent’s best pinch hitters and best relievers out of the game, or at least delay their entrance. Not every team is going to be as seamlessly constructed as the 2021 Giants, who were rewarded for their obsessive approach to late-game matchups when they won a franchise-record 107 games. Ideally, though, there is the complementary personnel that makes it a chore to game plan against.

It’s already apparent after just three games. Managing against the Giants is closer to playing checkers than chess.

Vitello used his bench just once in three games and he waited until the final inning of the series to do it, pinch running Jared Oliva for Willy Adames, who represented the tying run after he followed Ramos’ walk with a single to left. It was a by-the-book move, even if it caught Adames off guard, and Vitello didn’t immediately do it. The manager hoped to avoid losing his starting shortstop if the game went to extra innings. So Vitello waited until the Giants made an out —Harrison Bader swung through a two-strike splitter — to spring Oliva from the dugout.

Adames said he couldn’t remember being lifted for a pinch runner in his career — it’d happened just once before, when he played the final regular-season game of the 2019 season for the Tampa Bay Rays — and he did not appear especially content with the decision, saying, “Tony makes the decision, and you know, he’s the manager.”

Willy Adames had one hit in four at-bats in the Giants’ loss to the New York Yankees, San Francisco’s third straight. (Brandon Vallance / Getty Images)

Adames does not run poorly. His average sprint speed of 28 feet per second ranks in the 65th percentile. But Oliva, who led the Cactus League with 14 stolen bases, has elite speed. He ranks in the 92nd percentile and will likely grade higher after he compiles more competitive running events while playing in the big leagues for the first time in five years.

The move was eminently defensible. If anything, it was an encouraging sign. Vitello, despite lacking any professional playing or coaching background, demonstrated no hesitation to make a strategic move that he’ll probably need to explain to one of his established star players later. He managed without fear of hurting a player’s feelings.

“He’s our fastest guy, and you don’t want any regrets over the course of the game,” Vitello said of Oliva. “I’d hate to have a play at the plate, as fast a runner as Willie is — I know he doesn’t want to come out of the game — and …  you’ve got the fastest guy I’ve been around sitting in the dugout.”

Here’s the problem: the Giants’ bench only has so much utility.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone deployed left-hander Tim Hill for the second time in the series, summoning him to face Lee with two outs and the bases empty in the seventh. It was a terrible matchup for the Giants — Hill held lefties to a .444 OPS last season, and Lee has struggled against same-side pitching — but managers seldom pinch hit for a regular in a two-out position with nobody to drive in. Hill struck out Lee, then faced the minimum in the eighth when he got Devers to hit into a double play.

Boone sent Hill into the game knowing he’d face 3 of 4 left-handed hitters, and that’s what happened.

And when Boone brought Bednar in the ninth, the right-handed closer was due to face a right-handed pocket of three hitters followed by Bailey. And if the inning continued, another right-handed hitter, Casey Schmitt, would’ve been next in the No. 9 hole.

The Giants, of course, have no left-handed hitting options on their bench. They could have used one for Bader. They definitely could have used one if the game had gotten to Schmitt.

Know who the Giants really could’ve used? Dom Smith, the guy who was so good in that role last season, going 6 for 8 as a pinch hitter. He batted .394 in high-leverage situations as defined by Baseball Reference. He hit .284 in 63 games, played above-average defense at first base and provided a dependable left-handed matchup in the late innings. He signed a minor-league contract with the Atlanta Braves, made the opening day roster and you’ll never guess what he did Saturday night.

Smith hit a walk-off grand slam. There are 160 more games for him to try for that walk-off, inside-the-parker.