Think of a worse two-week stretch of Giants’ baseball than the one the franchise just endured.
If you’re under 25 years old, your mind is going to race for awhile.
But if you were around to witness the Giants lose 12 of 13 games over a two-week period in 1992, you know what bad baseball looks like. And you know that’s what Bruce Bochy’s ballclub has been playing as of late.
For a team that expected to contend to the end, the Giants raced to the bottom of the National League West in rapid fashion this season, and have only the Philadelphia Phillies to thank for ensuring they don’t have the worst record in Major League Baseball.
Just when you thought the Giants had reached rock bottom, San Francisco sunk to new depths, uncovering layers of futility that appeared downright foreign to a franchise that’s so accustomed to winning.
Perhaps that’s why Monday evening’s victory over the Colorado Rockies looked like it could become the flotation device that ultimately brings San Francisco back to the surface.
On Monday, all of the plans the Giants had in the preseason came to fruition, and at once, a symphony that was producing a cacophony of sounds found the harmonic balance the clubhouse was looking for.
All of a sudden, the challenges that have plagued this team the most this season disappeared into the China Basin fog.
Two-out hitting? A team that couldn’t purchase a two-out knock over the past few weeks if it wanted to started its first inning rally with the bases empty and its No. 3 hitter, Hunter Pence at the plate. Two-out at-bats from Pence and Buster Posey set the tone for the evening, as three of the team’s runs came with Colorado pitchers trying to escape an inning.
“Tonight I just thought the at-bats were so much better, it just seemed the focus and really once we started getting rolling there, the guys felt so much better about themselves and then it got contagious,” Bochy said.
Hitting with runners in scoring position? The clutch hits that have evaded San Francisco over the past two weeks suddenly appeared in droves, as the Giants pounded out seven hits in 15 at-bats with runners waiting to sprint home.
“It’s really what has to happen for us to start playing better baseball, start winning more ballgames is do those things and get some hits with runners in scoring position,” Bochy said. “That’s been our biggest issue so hopefully it does start picking up here.”
A win for the Shark? For just the third time this season, San Francisco’s bats and gloves rewarded its most consistent starting pitcher with a victory as Samardzija cruised through 6 and 1/3 innings while allowing just two runs against a potent Rockies’ lineup.
Since the month of May began, no starting pitcher in baseball has showcased such a remarkable grip of the strike zone, as Samardzija continued to pound the plate at an alarming rate. Though he has only a handful of victories to show for it, Samardzija has struck out 82 batters while issuing just three walks in the past two months, and on Monday, he didn’t allow a free pass.
Against a Rockies’ lineup that torched Samardzija in his three prior starts against the club this season, the “Shark” was brilliant, throwing six scoreless frames before finally relenting in the top half of the seventh. Even though Samardzija and the Giants have battled through uncharted waters of late, he buckled up his life vest, and rallied his mates to the shore.
“That’s the fun thing about this team is even when it’s not going well, it’s easy to go out there and give everything you got because they’re out there doing the same,” Samardzija said. “It’s going to happen. So it’s a great lineup and you can’t keep it down for too long.”
On Monday, the Giants hitters needed Samardzija as much as he needed them. Over the past 14 days, San Francisco has had strong pitching and poor hitting, bad pitching and good hitting, but never a successful combination at the same time. Finally, against a Rockies team riding a franchise-best nine-game win streak against the Giants, Samardzija and his teammates rose to the surface, and played the type of baseball they expected to play all along.
“We’ve got a lot of pride in this clubhouse and a lot of guys that want to win ballgames regardless of the situation,” Samardzija said. “Every day is important and we’ve got to come out here and have some fun and enjoy playing this game and go back to finding why we play this game, which is play hard and eventually try to win each game you play.”