© Neville E. Guard | 2021 Aug 31
The Giants have scored three runs in their last 27 innings played.
In that span, SF has lost three straight games. Sunday it was a 9-0 shellacking to the Atlanta Braves. Monday, uncertainty swirled around the team with COVID news, and the Giants ran into Corbin Burnes.
Then Tuesday, the offensive slump continued. Of the nine balls hit with an exit velocity of at least 103 mph, just two of them came off a Giants bat — and one of them went for a flyout. The other connection was Brandon Belt’s 20th home run of the season, SF’s only offense through the first eight innings. The team with the fifth-best OPS in MLB went dormant offensively again, falling 6-2 to the Brewers at Oracle Park.
Outside, uncontrollable factors have played a role in this three-game losing skid. Alex Wood was the Giants’ stopper — SF is 11-1 in games Wood starts following a loss. He would’ve had a chance to add to that record Monday, but he tested positive for COVID-19.
Johnny Cueto, Tuesday’s starter, took the mound one sleep after receiving IV fluids to treat his cold and flu-like symptoms. The Brewers had no sympathy.
Milwaukee, albeit on three softly hit singles, hung two on Cueto in the first inning. Hard contact came later. Lorenzo Cain crushed a solo home run 103.7 mph off the bat in the second inning. In the third, Rowdy Tellez sent a Cueto two-seamer over the plate to the 399-foot marker in center field for an RBI triple.
The Brewers scored in each of the first four innings. The only cheers Cueto received was a possibly sarcastic “Atta boy Johnny!” after he check-swung on a low Woodruff offering for a ball.
Milwaukee built a 5-0 lead before SF batted through their order once before adding another in the fourth with a fluky two-out rally, knocking out Cueto in the process. The 35-year-old allowed six earned runs on 10 hits and two walks in 3.2 innings of work. His four-seam fastball traveled to hitters at an average of 89.9 mph, two below his season average.
Cueto could’ve pitched like it was 2014, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered for the Giants on Tuesday. Hardly any SF hitter stood a chance against Woodruff (6IP, 1ER, 5H, 8K). LaMonte Wade Jr.’s first inning double off the arcade wall was San Francisco’s only hit through four innings.
Mike Yastrzemski saw six pitches in his first two at-bats, both strikeouts, and fanned again in the eighth. Buster Posey went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Alex Dickerson’s slump continued with an 0-for-3 night.
https://twitter.com/DannyEmerman/status/1432923005722583042
Belt’s solo shot into Milwaukee’s bullpen in center field in the sixth inning was San Francisco’s first homer since the seventh inning of Aug. 28’s 5-0 win over Atlanta. It broke a 20-inning homer drought for MLB’s best home run-hitting team, and a club on pace for the single-season franchise record.
Wilmer Flores added another solo shot in the bottom of the ninth, but at that point SF trailed by five runs. It wasn’t nearly enough against the Brewers, and two home runs in 27 innings isn’t the pace SF wants to be at, either.
Gabe Kapler said pregame he believes the idea of being too home run-dependent is possible, but it doesn’t apply to this team. The numbers back that up; as recently as a week ago, SF had the best record in baseball in games it didn’t go yard.
It’s quite possible there’s nothing wrong with SF’s offense. Three games is far too small a sample to draw drastic conclusions on. But a prolonged slump could inflict major damage in a tightening division race.