The Giants’ stock is zig-zagging like a crypto portfolio to start the 2023 season.
In their first series vs. the Yankees, San Francisco (2-3) bookended an impressive 7-5 victory with two shutout losses. Then they entered Chicago with serious concerns about their offense, only to show off an insane power surge, blasting seven home runs in a 12-3 win on Monday.
On Wednesday, it was back to earth again in a 7-3 loss where pretty much every element of the team looked below average. The offense was especially paltry, managing just four hits, two of which came in the ninth inning while facing a major deficit. They went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on. The Giants have mustered just 11 hits and three runs in their three losses.
Starting pitcher Logan Webb’s nine hit, four runs in five innings line looked worse than it was, largely due to some excellent pieces of hitting by the White Sox’s talented offense. Even so, Webb was less sharp than his counterpart Dylan Cease, and didn’t get any help from the Giants offense.
Down 4-1, the Giants’ best opportunity to re-enter the game came in the seventh, when two walks and a lead-off single by Bryce Johnson loaded the bases for Joc Pederson with two outs. After walking David Villar, White Sox reliever Reynaldo López went right at Pederson, throwing back-to-back challenge fastballs on 3-1 and 3-2. Pederson fouled off the first, and swung through the second, ending the inning.
It was another instance of the Giants not taking advantage of free passes from Chicago pitchers. San Francisco had good plate discipline throughout the game, forcing nine walks but only sending one of them home.
Some of the at-bats vs. Cease were very impressive. SF earned five walks and saw 99 pitches from the Cy Young runner up in just five innings. Unfortunately, Giants batters couldn’t make contact when they did swing, especially with runners on. A solo home run from J.D. Davis was the lone hit vs. CHI’s ace.
Two walks and an error in the third inning gave the Giants another two-out, bases loaded opportunity, this time with SF trailing just 2-1. Cease got the big strikeout, freezing Yaz with a 2-2 slider. Cease also fanned Pederson with the same pitch in a two-out, two on situation in the fourth. Most of Cease’s eight strikeout’s came via the slider, a pitch that batters hit just .128 against last season.
After being utterly shamed in the first game of this series, the White Sox wasted no time punching back vs. Webb. The Sox scored a pair of runs on four hits in the first frame, but the damage actually should have been worse if not for two head-scratching decisions from Chicago third base coach Eddie Rodriguez.
With runners on the corners and two outs, Andrew Vaughn hit double deep to right field that should’ve scored two, but Rodriguez strangely held up Andrew Benintendi at third. In the next at-bat, Gavin Sheets hit a single to center scoring Benintendi. This time, Rodriguez — perhaps trying too hard to make up for his mistake — elected to send Vaughn home despite the ball being in the hands of the strong-armed Mike Yastrzemski in center. Yaz made them pay.
Things began to crumble in the seventh with Sean Hjelle on the hill. Hjelle gave up three singles and three runs, but was also put in a bad position thanks to a couple mistakes by Brandon Crawford.
The first was an inning-opening ground ball by Elvis Andrus that Crawford couldn’t handle. The second was less explainable even though it technically wasn’t an error. With seemingly plenty of time to get the third out of the inning, Crawford lofted a throw over to first base instead of throwing it on a line. Benintendi out ran the throw, loading the bases. CHI would go on to score all three runs after that mistake, leaving the Giants trailing 7-1 when the dust cleared.
The game’s most entertaining moment actually took place in the White Sox’s dugout in the third inning.
Chicago lead-off man Tim Anderson got thrown out after appearing to get angry at Webb, believing Webb quick-pitched him while he was asking for a timeout.
When Anderson’s timeout wasn’t given, he started walking out of the box as Webb eased a changeup into the zone for a strikeout. Anderson didn’t seem to be angry with Webb at that moment, instead telling the umpire to look at him so he would know he wanted a timeout.
After the next batter went down, cameras showed Webb telling someone in the White Sox’s dugout to shut up. It quickly became clear that was Anderson, who was promptly thrown out.
Yet, Anderson wanted to make it clear to the ump that his hollering from the dugout was actually directed at Webb. You don’t need to be a professional lip reader to make out that Anderson said, “I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to that (pointing at Webb) motherfucker right there!” Anderson then called Webb “soft” as he left the dugout.
Why it was on Webb to wait for Anderson is anybody’s guess, but those involved will certainly have more to say about this one postgame.