Whatever momentum the Giants gained with their recent upswing has dissipated.
In losing 6-2 to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday at Camden Yards, the Giants dropped the first of a three-series road swing to a depleted team with 11 players on the injured list.
Left-hander Cade Povich (1-0) kept the Giants off-balance into the seventh inning before giving way to the Baltimore bullpen. Adrian Houser (0-2) was the losing pitcher for the Giants.
The Giants fell to 6-10, their recent three-game winning streak having given way to a two-game losing streak. The Orioles evened their record at 8-8.
Samuel Bassalo homered for Baltimore in the first inning, his second of the season, providing a lead the Orioles would never relinquish. Casey Schmitt hit his first home run of the season in the ninth inning with a line drive off the foul pole at 109 miles per hour.
Povich, pitching on his 26th birthday, locked up the Giants for 6 2/3 innings before getting pulled by manager Craig Albernaz in favor of Anthony Nunez after giving up a two-out double to Heliot Ramos. Povich hadn’t started a game this season and came in with a 6-17 career record and 5.20 earned run average. He threw 97 pitches, 65 for strikes with no walks and five strikeouts and left to a standing ovation.
Nunez finished the seventh by striking out Daniel Susac, with Tyler Wells pitching the last two innings for Baltimore.
AP Photo
Adrian Houser took the loss for the Giants Sunday in a 6-2 decision against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
“Guys were a little bit underneath the ball and a large percentage of our early outs were fly outs,” Giants manager Tony Vitello told reporters. “Then he started mixing in off-speed, and it became kind of a high-low game with some guys chasing down on occasion.”
The Orioles took a four-run lead in the sixth when Coby Mayo blooped a run-scoring single to center against Ryan Walker, who was victimized despite throwing a near-perfect slider on the outside corner. The single scored Leody Tavares, who doubled into the right field corner against Matt Gage.
Trailing 2-1, Houser recorded two outs on the first six pitches in the bottom of the fifth but wouldn’t finish the inning, trailing 4-1 by the time he was removed by Vitello.
“It was a little reminiscent of his last outing when he threw very well for us,” Vitello said.
Gunnar Henderson began the two-out rally with a single to right, and then Taylor Ward hit a blooper toward right that Jerar Encarnacion played into a single by getting a poor break on the ball. Pete Alonso, in the midst of a 2-for-32 slump in his first season with the Orioles, then hit an 0-2 pitch to drive in both Henderson and Ward and prompting Vitello to go with a left-hander in Gage.
Houser gave up five hits and four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings with two walks and three strikeouts. He threw 88 pitches, 51 for strikes.
The Giants didn’t have a baserunner through four innings against Povich but got both in the fifth, with Susac driving in Schmitt with a sharp two-out ground single to center.
Schmitt opened the inning with a grounder to deep third base that Mayo couldn’t handle on the backhand and it was ruled a single.
Basallo’s first-inning home run was compounded by the fact that Houser walked Alonso on a 3-2 count in the previous at-bat. The home run left the bat at 107.5 miles per hour, an opposite-field shot to left center, and carried 396 feet.
“Obviously you don’t want that walk to Alonso there in the first inning,” Houser said. “That’s what hurt me.”
Susac is convinced things will turn around offensively.
“I think it’s going to happen any moment now,” Susac said. “You see it a lot with great hitters. Sometimes there are slow starts, but there are so many good at-bats being put together and everybody’s done it for so long that you know it’s going to happen eventually.”
— The Orioles scored in the sixth inning against Erik Miller on an infield single by Colton Cowser. Taylor Ward singled off Walker, who gave way to Miller before Cowser scored Ward with an infield single. Five of Baltimore’s runs came with two outs.
— Luis Arraez was out of the lineup in favor of Christian Koss with a bruised right hand, the result of being kicked by Dylan Beavers while attempting to turn a double play Saturday night.
— From his knees, Susac threw out Cowser attempting to steal second base in the second inning. It was just the second caught-stealing recorded by Giants catchers this season.
— The Giants have drawn only 39 walks this season while opposing hitters have walked 55 times, including five by the Orioles on Sunday.
— The Giants have an off day Monday before resuming with a three-game series in Cincinnati and then another in Washington.