Giants lose every game of homestand, swept by Pirates as deadline overshadows slump

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

As had become tradition for the pair, Ryan Walker and Tyler Rogers were sitting in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse as Wednesday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates began. They'd walk out to the bullpen soon, but given the way their team had been playing of late and with the trade deadline looming, both had a sinking feeling their daily routine would be different.
Sure enough, a club official summoned Rogers to a nearby office with news: the 34-year-old who'd spent his entire career in San Francisco had been traded to the New York Mets.
'Everyone is pretty disappointed about it. No one wanted to see a guy like Ty go,' Walker said.
Word trickled out of the clubhouse and into the dugout, where the Giants were desperately trying to salvage one of the worst homestands imaginable while trying to prove to president of baseball operations Buster Posey they could turn back into a contender.
Those efforts fell short and reality hit hard; the Pirates swept, handing them a 2-1, extra-inning loss, marking the second time in franchise history they've been swept across a homestand of at least six games since 1896 (when they lost three to the Phillies and three to the Boston Beaneaters). The loss dropped them to below .500 for the first time this season, pushed them six back of a wild card spot, and only piled on to the sting that came from seeing Posey trade away one of the team's best veteran relievers. A sign of lost faith.
'It sucks,' Matt Chapman said. 'We lost the last six in a row and haven't given Buster and the front office any reason to add. We did it to ourselves. It sucks. Obviously you can tell that everyone is pretty upset and it's not how we saw this this coming.'
San Francisco's clubhouse has experienced its share of sadness, especially following the high of the Rafael Devers trade. Since June 13, two days before that deal, when they were tied for first in the National League West, they've gone 13-26, 9-15 in July. The clubhouse was especially somber when they lost two of three to the lowly Chicago White Sox at the end of June and players gave each other a stern talking to after a sloppy loss to the Atlanta Braves last week. After Wednesday's loss and the trade, as the team packed up for a road trip to New York and Pittsburgh, a few players were consoling each other at their lockers.
Pirates 2, Giants 1 (10)
Pittsburgh San Francisco
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Totals 36 2 7 2 Totals 34 1 6 1
Horwitz 1b 4 0 2 1 Ramos lf 5 1 1 0
McCutchen dh 4 0 0 0 Devers dh 3 0 0 0
Reynolds rf 4 0 1 0 Adames ss 4 0 1 0
Cruz cf 4 1 0 0 Chapman 3b 4 0 0 0
Gonzales 2b 4 0 1 0 Smith 1b 4 0 2 1
Suwinski lf 3 0 0 0 Wisely pr-2b 0 0 0 0
Davis c 4 0 1 1 Lee cf 4 0 0 0
Peguero ss 5 0 1 0 Schmitt 2b-1b 4 0 1 0
Kiner-Falefa 3b 4 1 1 0 Yastrzemski rf 3 0 1 0
Bailey c 3 0 0 0
Pittsburgh 000 010 000 1 — 2
San Francisco 000 100 000 0 — 1
DP: Pittsburgh 0, San Francisco 1. LOB: Pittsburgh 13, San Francisco 7. 2B: Horwitz (13). SB: Peguero (1). S_Bailey (4), Yastrzemski (2).
IP H R ER BB SO
Pittsburgh
Burrows 6 3 1 1 1 7
Mlodzinski 2 1 0 0 0 0
Mattson W,3-1 2 2 0 0 0 3
San Francisco
Webb 5 2-3 5 1 1 4 11
Bivens 1-3 0 0 0 0 0
Gage 2-3 1 0 0 1 0
Beck 1 1-3 0 0 0 1 0
Doval 1 1 0 0 0 3
Walker L,2-4 1 0 1 0 1 0
HBP: Webb (Gonzales).
Umpires: Home, Ron Kulpa; First, Alex Tosi; Second, Manny Gonzalez; Third, Brock Ballou.
T: 2:41. A: 38,144 (41,915).
The vibe was decidedly bad.
'You guys are in here right now. It's pretty sh---y,' Logan Webb said. 'Not playing good, plain and simple.'
Rogers and Webb were close friends, both having come up through the Giants' farm system together. The news didn't get to Webb — who started Wednesday's game and was in his own zone — until he returned to the clubhouse after his 5 ⅔ innings were done. Justin Verlander and Robbie Ray looked at Webb funny once he walked through the door, and he knew it couldn't have been about his performance. He'd bounced back from three straight iffy starts by allowing one run and striking out 11.
They told Webb that Rogers was headed to New York.
'It's not the position you want to be in but I don't blame Buster for doing something like that,' Webb said.'Ty is one of my best friends in baseball. We live right near each other in the offseason, been with him for a long time. Our entire big league careers we've been together.'
Compounding the frustration was the uncertainty. Rogers will be an offseason free agent, but the Giants nevertheless got a hefty return for him, including Jose Butto, who is expected to slide into the bullpen and contribute immediately. Walker and Camilo Doval are both under team control beyond this season, and fit the bill for players who might interest contenders if Posey continues his sell-off, as might veterans Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores and Justin Verlander, all playing on expiring deals.
But the bigger picture is that the Rogers trade doesn't take this team out of its goal to contend again.
'We're still trying to win games here,' manager Bob Melvin said. 'We have a pretty deep bullpen and got a bullpen arm back, too. So it doesn't change in our expectations of ourselves. You also understand that we put the front office in a tough spot, too, and they have to look at the future and the now. And this is a combination of where we have some depth in the bullpen and got something back we really liked.'
Yastrzemski, who made one of the catches of the year, jumping full-bodied over the low fence into the netting that protects right field to catch Jack Suwinski's foul ball, added his thoughts.
'It's kind of a tough place where we haven't played well enough to force them to add pieces,' he said. 'As big as Ty was, it's not like the whole team is dismantled. It's not something I'm over concerned with other than the emotional side of a friend and teammate going to another team.'
Why did the Giants lose this game? The offense, again, stalled at the plate. They scored once off right-handed starter Mike Burrows in the fourth inning, when Dom Smith singled to right to score Heliot Ramos.
The bullpen did fine without Rogers in a tie game. Doval, conceivably a reliever teams will inquire about before Thursday's 3 p.m. deadline on Thursday, struck out Andrew McCutchen, Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz to give the Giants an opportunity to walk off. With Randy Rodriguez unavailable — he didn't feel great after pitching back-to-back games — Walker made the one mistake that cost them in the 10th inning. With the go-ahead run at third, Walker got a comebacker and tried to end the inning with a 1-4-3 double play that came short. He knew he should have looked to get the out at home.
'It was a mental mistake,' Walker said. 'I take full responsibility for today.'
The Giants had the winning run at second base in the 10th inning, but Patrick Bailey and Ramos struck out to lose the game.