Friday\u2019s 10-3 loss<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019ve done a really, really good job of swinging the bat. But also, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find an inning where they scored where there wasn\u2019t potential for the inning to be over or there wasn\u2019t a free pass in there.\u201d<\/p>\nRight-hander Landen Roupp started his night strong, striking out the first four batters he faced, but ended the night with a clunker: 4 2\/3 innings, seven runs, six earned. On a night where Clay Holmes was dominant, tossing seven scoreless innings with four strikeouts, Roupp exceeded his minuscule margin of error.<\/p>\n
With the caveat that the season is only nine games old, the Giants\u2019 offense has either been all boom or all bust. In their three wins, they\u2019re averaging 6.3 runs and 11.6 hits. In their six losses, they\u2019re averaging 0.8 runs and 4.2 hits.<\/p>\n
One of the few moments that the home crowd could applaud was Koss, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning and has yet to allow a run over five career innings. Koss, interestingly enough, made his first pitching appearance this season before getting his first at-bat.<\/p>\n
Vitello could\u2019ve used the blowout as an opportunity to get Koss and Jared Oliva their first at-bats of the year, but elected to give every plate appearance to his starters. When asked if he considered getting Koss or Oliva an at-bat, Vitello cited his desire to get some of his starters into a rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith (Harrison) Bader missing some time \u2014 obviously did play in the (World Baseball Classic) \u2014 but with him missing time like (Rafael Devers), playing a little bit of catch-up there,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cBut also kind of like (Patrick Bailey), the swing he had prior to his last at-bat, would like to get those guys in a rhythm. \u2026 I think if you\u2019re watching with even just a half-trained eye, you can kind of see when a guy\u2019s kind of in the right spot in the box and when he\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Roupp had sharper defense behind him, the trajectory of his second outing of the season would\u2019ve looked vastly different given he totaled seven strikeouts and minimized hard contact.<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s defense committed two errors behind Roupp, both of which were on the same play. In the top of the second with the bases loaded, the Mets\u2019 Carson Benge hit a slow roller to the left side of the infield. Third baseman Matt Chapman charged hard and fielded the ball, but the ball popped out of his glove on the exchange.<\/p>\n
Chapman recovered and snatched the ball before it hit the ground and fired to first, but Jerar Encarnacion couldn\u2019t make the catch and the ball skurried away. Two runs scored, and Chapman and Encarnacion were both dinged for errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly no bad body language, no pointing the fingers and the appropriate response of being pissed,\u201d Vitello said of Roupp. \u201cThere\u2019s really no other way to say it. If it means a lot to you, then natural emotion is going to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sequence was the beginning, not the end, of the Giants\u2019 defensive lowlights.<\/p>\n
In the fifth with no outs and Luis Torrens on first, Francisco Lindor hit a grounder to Encarnacion\u2019s right. If Encarnacion had fielded the ball clean, the Giants could\u2019ve gotten the force out at second. Instead, Encarnacion awkwardly went into a half dive and could only knock the ball down. Roupp, sprinting over from the mound, picked up the ball and tagged first for the out.<\/p>\n
Encarnacion wasn\u2019t charged with an error, but the inability to get the lead runner hurt. Bo Bichette, the next batter, snuck a single past shortstop Willy Adames, allowing Torrens to score from second. It was one of five runs that the Giants allowed in the fifth, a defining frame that effectively sealed the game for New York.<\/p>\n
More sloppy defense was ahead. In the seventh and Brett Baty on second, the Mets\u2019 Tyrone Taylor, who hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the fifth, lined a single to right field. Baty scored easily, and right fielder Jung Hoo Lee\u2019s throw skipped to the back stop, gifting Taylor a free base.<\/p>\n
On the very next pitch, Keaton Winn spiked a splitter that bounced in front of home plate. Catcher Patrick Bailey went for the pick instead of a block, and Winn\u2019s splitter banged off the backstop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 On a lethargic night at Oracle Park, there was not a single facet of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-664338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116351385520242197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}