Now days away from the Aug. 2 trade deadline, the Giants face an identity crisis. Buyers? Sellers? Needle-threaders?
What they have made clear, since May and on Friday, is that they’re not a complete baseball team.
Alex Wood, the winning pitcher Thursday, marveled that he couldn’t remember a game in which the Giants executed in all three phases of the game like they did in their losing streak-snapping victory. San Francisco reminded everyone of Wood’s inkling a night later.
The Giants wasted a brilliant start from Alex Cobb by putting up eight straight zeroes, stranding 12 runners in the process. They imploded in the field and in relief in the ninth inning, rendering Wilmer Flores’ two-run homer insignificant.
Cobb’s season-high 11 strikeouts was the most he’s recorded in a game since 2014. The only ball Chicago lifted in the air off Cobb, though, left Oracle Park. But San Francisco (49-51) left a season-high 13 runners on base in a 4-2 defeat. Somehow, Cobb took the loss.
“Critical part of our season right now,” Cobb told reporters postgame. “Trying to string together wins. All you can do is go out and play good baseball. I felt like we played pretty good tonight.”
Cobb was on from the start. He struck out the side in the third to get through Chicago’s order a first time perfectly. Nine Cubs up, nine down.
Cobb’s sinker touched 97 mph — a career-high. His splitter froze batters. Two of the righty’s first five strikeouts came looking.
The three flawless innings came a night after Alex Wood took a no-hitter into the seventh. Cobb wouldn’t replicate Wood’s performance, hitting Willson Contreras with a sinker in the fourth before allowing an infield single off Jason Vosler’s glove.
Ian Happ’s single that broke up Cobb’s no-hitter had a .390 expected batting average. Cobb has been snake bit by San Francisco’s porous defense all year, evidenced by the disparity between his ERA (4.26) and FIP (2.97).
And also unlike Wood, Cobb didn’t have runs to play with.
Wilmer Flores got thrown out at home trying to score from second on a single. Vosler beat Marcus Stroman for two doubles, but neither resulted in runs. In the fifth, SF couldn’t cash in on two runners in scoring position with one out.
The Giants tagged Stroman for seven hits through four innings, but had a 0 in the run column to show for it.
Then Patrick Wisdom, who homered off Wood Thursday, socked a 3-2 Cobb sinker into the left field bleachers for a solo shot in the fifth.
But that was Cobb’s one mistake. He struck out the side again in the sixth for his ninth, 10th and 11th Ks — a season-high.
Cobb exited after walking Nico Hoerner to lead off the seventh. It was his first and only walk on a night in which he threw 67 of 95 pitches for strikes. Of the 17 outs he recorded, 11 came via strikeout and the rest were groundouts. The two singles he allowed came on ground balls.
Dominic Leone, in for Cobb, loaded the bases with two walks. At one point, he threw nine consecutive balls. But then he struck out Alfonso Rivas and induced an inning-ending double play. He howled off the mound with his team still down 1-0.
The Giants took Leone’s energy and loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. But Mike Yastrzemski, whose grand slam capped a miraculous comeback before the All-Star break, couldn’t repeat the magic.
Yastrzemski rolled out to first base to end their rally. Then in the eighth, Chicago gifted LaMonte Wade Jr. a double by letting a shallow fly drop between three defenders, but Vosler and Austin Wynns struck out.
The Cubs — led by Wisdom’s double into the left field corner — added three more runs in the ninth off Camilo Doval, who didn’t even finish the frame. Doval threw home when there was no play and Mike Yastrzemski dropped a pop fly, ending the Giants’ streak of clean fielding at less than two games.
After the unraveling, Flores gave the Giants life with his two-run bomb. But then, fittingly, the Giants’ final out stranded yet another runner — their season-high 13th. SF finished 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Asked pregame about his impressions of the Giants, Cubs manager David Ross put his finger — no, not that one — on what’s wrong with the club.
“They really miss Buster Posey,” Ross said. “I think that’s stood out to me.”
The Giants could certainly use a Buster Posey. But they’ve provided heaps of evidence that they’re bereft of much more than just Posey. This team is more than one great player away from crisp, consistent baseball.