Chris Mezzavilla/KNBR
A few hours earlier, the Giants lost their seven-game win streak. Then they lost a second game of the day.
Momentum is lost for a team that had been rolling.
And the players will hope Kevin Gausman is not the next one to be lost.
Gausman was filthy if imperfect Thursday afternoon and had no offensive support in a 2-0 loss to the Dodgers at Oracle Park, the Giants getting swept in the 14-total-inning doubleheader.
The Giants played two full games, even if four traditional innings were missing, and did not score a run in either. They had six hits in the 14 innings, a pair of doubles the only extra-base knocks.
San Francisco lost the season series — already — to Los Angeles, 6-4, seven of the games played at Dodger Stadium. The Giants’ schedule gets significantly easier from here starting with three games in Arizona that begin Friday, their last series before the trade deadline.
Gausman, a one-season rental, is this year’s Drew Pomeranz, whose stuff is electric but who prefers starting, which the Giants have allowed. There will be trade interest from teams looking for both relief and starting help, and the fate of the 29-year-old will be decided by Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris, who have watched the Giants (15-18) pitch and hit their way back into contention.
Gausman was nearly perfect through four, the only Dodgers hit also their only run (a Joc Pederson home run in the second). He bent in the fourth, when Pederson (again) doubled before Will Smith doubled him in. Gausman was pulled after just 4 2/3 innings but 93 pitches, during which he was too wild (two walks) and surrendered three hits while striking out six.
Yet again, his splitter was often unhittable. He threw 47 — more than even his fastball — and the Dodgers put just one in play (a Gavin Lux groundout). The Dodgers swung at splitters 13 times and whiffed eight, the disappearing ball missing so many bats.
Sam Selman, Trevor Gott and Sam Coonrod were excellent behind him, none allowing a hit, but the Giants will not win games in which they register one hit of their own.
They didn’t have a baserunner until Brandon Belt singled in the fifth, spoiling what would have been a very 2020 socially distant celebration of a seven-inning bullpenned perfect game. Caleb Ferguson got the start for the Dodgers but pitched just the first, a stream of big arms following him that the Giants could not catch up to.
Joey Bart had his third straight subpar game after a terrific start to his career and finished Thursday 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and a walk. He was not alone in his struggles, though: Evan Longoria, Wilmer Flores and Donovan Solano all went 1-for-6.
The Giants mounted their best threat in the sixth, when Scott Alexander walked Joey Rickard and Mike Yastrzemski with one out. But Blake Treinen entered and struck out Flores and induced a Longoria groundout to end the threat. Kenley Jansen picked up the save for the Dodgers, who have run away with the division at 24-9.
The Giants will soon find out if they have saved Gausman or if he is on the move yet again.