Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports
Say hello to Mauricio Dubon.
Say goodbye to playoff hopes. And perhaps to Dereck Rodriguez’s rotation spot.
The Giants’ offense stalled again at Oracle Park, Rodriguez struggled for a second straight start and San Francisco has lost touch in the wild-card race after a 5-3 loss to the Padres at Oracle Park on Thursday in front of 33,135.
With the Cubs’ victory, the Giants (65-68) are seven games back with 29 to play. There will be things to watch for concerning the Giants’ future in the last month of the season, but whether they make the postseason will not be one of them.
Rodriguez, whose No. 4 or 5 starter job is quite precarious as Johnny Cueto looms, also may not be one of them. He was resurgent Aug. 15 in a seven-inning, no-run performance in Arizona. Since then, he’s fallen on his face twice, the latest going south in innings three and four, when Manuel Margot and Austin Hedges hit a pair of two-run homers that made the later innings feel like filler, especially because of the Giants offense’s ineptitude at home.
The Giants didn’t record their first hit until Brandon Belt’s fourth-inning splash hit. They finished with eight, struggling against Chris Paddack, who entered with a 10.06 ERA in his past four outings. Paddack struck out eight over seven innings, the Giants’ bats and Oracle Park turning him into the ace he looked like at season’s start.
The Giants’ home problems are legion, and they have scored five total runs in two losses to help put their season on ice. For the year, they entered play at Oracle Park slashing .228/.292/.361 in 64 games, scoring just 219 runs – 3.4 per game. On the road, that number balloons to 364 runs in 68 games (5.35).
The scoreboard at Oracle Park was broken until the ninth inning, when it flashed back on before quickly dying again. The metaphor seemed a bit on the nose.
The team’s lone highlight came with splash hit No. 81 for the Giants, No. 9 for Belt. Quietly, Belt is showing signs of coming out of a dreadful second-half funk, now 6-for-20 in his past six games.
The Giants’ best threat came in the eighth, against Matt Strahm, when Donovan Solano and Joey Rickard singled and Belt walked to load the bases for Evan Longoria without an out. But Longoria bounced into a double play – Manny Machado making the slick turn – and Alex Dickerson lined out to end an inning in which they managed a single run.
If the playoffs are a memory, Dubon is making his own memories. The 25-year-old, who had two hitless, pinch-hit at-bats with Milwaukee, became the first born-and-bred Honduran to start a game in the majors, and he arrived with a splash.
First he saved Rodriguez with his glove in the second inning, ranging over past second base to dive, snag the ball and throw out Ty France at first.
His moment of the game, though, came in the fifth, when he slapped a Paddack fastball down the right-field line, making a wide turn but staying at first. He tried to play it cool, biting his cheeks as the crowd gave him a standing ovation, but eventually broke out into full-blown grin.
It was something to smile about. There will be fewer things to smile about around the Giants as September hits.