Offense missing in action again in 3rd straight loss
The Giants and Cardinals begin a virtual playoff series at AT&T Park on Thursday night, brought to you by the mediocrity of the National League.
The Giants should be toast after scoring five runs in three games against the Padres, who completed a sweep Wednesday when Luis Perdomo outpitched Madison Bumgarner in a 3-1 victory.
Instead, the Giants — 20-35 since the All-Star break — can feather their bed for one of the two NL wild-card spots with a good four games against the Cardinals, against whom they usu-
ally play well no matter the year or circumstances.
“Everybody in this room is getting after it, even though the result wasn’t good,” Joe Panik said after he drove in the run with one of four Giants hits, all singles. “We have the Cardinals coming in and that’s always a battle. We know how to play them.”
The Giants somehow still hold the top wild-card spot. The Mets are in the second spot, a half-game behind, although their remaining schedule is so soft, they should claim the top spot. The Cardinals are a half-game behind New York.
The National League West remains on the table for the Giants. Manager Bruce Bochy still has his eye on that prize.
“You never lose sight of winning the division,” Bochy said. “That’s still our focus. We have a lot of games in our division, games against the Dodgers. We’ve got to win the games we’re supposed to be winning.”
Like Wednesday’s, when Bumgarner took his 2.61 ERA to the mound and lost because the Giants were helpless against Perdomo and his 5.89 ERA.
Bochy is sticking with his guys. Denard Span remains the leadoff hitter despite a 3-for-46 slump. Angel Pagan, 7-for-47, still bats second. Behind them is Buster Posey, 11-for-57 with a career-longest homerless streak that reaches two months Thursday.
Brandon Crawford, the cleanup hitter, leads the team with 79 RBIs, but he is in a 10-for-54 dip.
Bochy is not the type to bench core players down the stretch, although he all but said Gorkys Hernandez will play center and Kelby Tomlinson second base against left-handed pitchers.
The Giants do not see one until Sunday, so they enter the St. Louis series with faith that, eventually, the team will start winning as it did in the first half. How the Giants could tumble for so long since then puzzles everyone in the room.
“So far, this second half is something I’ve never seen before,” Bumgarner said after reaching 200 innings for the sixth straight season. “A lot of guys who have been around here a while are saying the same thing.”
Bochy credited Perdomo with a tough sinker. Still, four hits and one run in 61⁄3 innings? Six straight losses to a division foe they beat nine straight times to start the year?
“This was a big series,” Bochy said. “They’re all big. We needed to come home and play well after the series in Arizona, and it got away from us. It’s something I didn’t see happening. I thought we were coming out of it. It comes down to getting key hits.
“Now we’re playing a team we’re battling. It’s going to be a big series.”
The Giants must rise to the occasion against St. Louis and hope they can play their brand of postseason-type baseball: great pitching, a few clutch hits, shutdown work from the bullpen.
That also means doing the little things right and not making critical mistakes, such as Span getting picked off first base to end the eighth inning with the team down two runs. Span and his teammates were sure Ryan Buchter balked.
Can the Giants’ focus be heightened against the Cardinals?
“It shouldn’t, but I think it will,” Span said. “If you’re not focused now, whether you’re playing San Diego, the Dodgers or St. Louis, something is wrong.”