When you play a game in the margins like the Giants did on Tuesday night, the little looms large.
San Francisco was haunted by an old outcast in Connor Joe as a John Brebbia opening went awry, and an eyesore Mitch Haniger error stood out in a insert score loss.
Brebbia’s opening first got off to — as most of his appearances do — a rapid start. He put former Giant Andrew McCutchen in an 0-2 hole, then pushed through a 2-2 count to work a strikeout. He netted a Jose Marcano lineout two pitches later, and after building another 0-2 count to Joe, it seemed like it would be an uneventful first half.
Not quite.
Brebbia missed high with a fastball then twice with sliders. He came right back at Joe with a third-straight slider, but hung the heck out of it.
Joe, as he never did in his eight games with the Giants in 2019, ripped the hanger over the left-field fence, waving to the adjacent, anthropomorphized car portion of Oracle Park’s fence before it bounced down the tunnel.
San Francisco evened the score in the bottom half, in a rare display of driving home baserunners.
Young Pirates starter Johan Oviedo was excellent when he could hit the strike zone, but was often wild, walking five and striking out five over 4.1 innings. He walked both Mike Yastrzemski and J.D. Davis, setting up a poked, opposite-field RBI single for Michael Conforto to tie the game.
The Giants had no issue putting runners on base. They did so in every single inning of this game aside from the ninth:
- Walk (Yastrzemski), walk (Davis), single (Conforto)
- Walk (Blake Sabol)
- Walk (Yastrzemski), walk (Davis)
- Single (Sabol)
- Double (Lamonte Wade Jr.), walk (Davis)
- Single (Sabol)
- Walk (Wade Jr.)
- Single (Conforto)
You would think that would amount to something. It did not. Despite, as Duane Kuiper calls it, “setting the table” consistently, the Giants didn’t plate much in the way runs.
The Pirates, however, did. And it came courtesy of a couple defensive mishaps, followed by a brief defensive masterclass.
Sean Manaea, who relieved Brebbia following the Joe home run in the first, was perfect until the fifth.
Despite securing an inning-opening strikeout, two singles followed. The second, a liner from Pittsburgh catcher Jason Delay, should have been fielded routinely by left fielder Mitch Haniger.
Instead, like a little leaguer who hasn’t taken enough practice from an unhinged coach with a fungo, Haniger came in too hot, letting it bounce off the top of his glove and over his head.
The error allowed both runners to move to second and third. Murphy’s law played out immediately, as a wild Sean Manaea slider got past Patrick Bailey and to the backstop.
Bailey, if he was considered at fault on that play, promptly made up for it.
A few pitches later, a sharp chopper came awkwardly to Wade Jr., and he came home with the ball. While Delay beat the throw, Bailey managed, miraculously, to block the plate with his left foot. The block stopped a run and foiled a Pirates challenge.
One pitch later, with Ryan Walker in the game, Bailey picked another stray slider to his right. This time he came up firing behind and caught Josh Palacios off the bag at first to end the inning.
Despite those heroics, there was little else for the Giants to feel good about aside, perhaps, from Manaea’s four innings of four-hit, unearned run work. It was, if nothing else, a wee bit encouraging.
Their propensity to come up maddeningly empty with runners on base was damning. Ill-timed strikeouts and a handful of double plays made for a loss indicted by the nine stranded baserunners
After a 14-run outburst on Memorial Day, it was a stunningly inept offensive performance from San Francisco a day later. They’ll have Wednesday as an opportunity to take the series from the Pirates at home.