SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Vitello wasn’t around for the final two innings Sunday. What he missed was one of the ugliest sequences so far during a rough\u00a0start to the Giants season.<\/p>\n
The bullpen blew a lead in the eighth and kept digging the hole. When it was over, the Giants had a 5-2 loss to the New York Mets, had wasted a good one from Logan Webb, and had dropped three of four in the series. They’re 3-7 overall and have scored just 26 runs over 10 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Giants had nothing going against right-hander Kodai Senga until the sixth, when a Patrick Bailey bloop and stolen base ignited a two-run rally. Matt Chapman tied the game and Rafael Devers gave Webb a lead with a flare to center that was inches away from the outstretched glove of Luis Robert.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webb handed that lead over to the bullpen, which was a question mark coming into the season but a pleasant surprise for most of these first couple weeks. This was the first real test, though, and it couldn’t have gone much worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keaton Winn got the first crack at the eighth and gave up a couple of hits with one out. Erik Miller then entered and gave up three straight run-scoring hits, with another Chapman throwing error mixed in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the first time this year that the bullpen was tasked with protecting a one-run lead. In minutes, it was a three-run deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking Like Logan<\/p>\n
Webb gave up 10 runs in his first two starts, but he was back to his old tricks Sunday. He allowed one run over seven innings, scattering seven hits and striking out three. Webb got 12 outs on the ground and coaxed two double plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webb’s biggest test came in the seventh, when left fielder Jared Young hit a leadoff double. After a fly ball got Young to third, Webb struck out Marcus Semien. With two on, a catcher’s interference call on Bailey loaded the bases for Mets star Francisco Lindor, but Webb threw one of his best changeups of the day and got a weak grounder to second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Giants gave Webb just one run of support, which is normal as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever Works<\/p>\n
With another shutout, the Giants would have posted their lowest run total through\u00a010 games since 1920. Early on, it looked like they would get there. They didn’t have a hit through three innings and struck out in five straight plate appearances at one point (they also did that Wednesday in San Diego).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bailey has had the slowest start, and he had to be pretty annoyed when his liner in the third was run down by Young. Three innings later, Bailey hit a 62 mph pop-up that plopped down on the grass behind short. He caught the Mets napping and stole second without a throw, which proved to be important.<\/p>\n
Bailey scored standing when Chapman followed with a hard liner down the left field line. The stolen base was his seventh in four big league seasons, and he has not yet been caught.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On The Board<\/p>\n
Vitello came to San Francisco with a well-earned reputation for being fiery. He jokes sometimes that the ejection videos that Giants fans have seen aren’t even telling the full story, since some of his best arguments with umpires came earlier in his career when college baseball clips were much harder to find.<\/p>\n
In his 10th game, Vitello got ejected for the first time. He came out to argue right away when Jerar Encarnacion was called out for batter’s interference after running on the grass as the Mets catcher was trying to throw him out at first. Vitello and home plate umpire Edwin Jimenez went back and forth for a while and then Vitello kept going with crew chief Dave Rackley, who finally sent him back to the clubhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n