There’s no doubt the 2017 San Francisco Giants have an extensive list of issues that have prevented the franchise from reaching the heights it found earlier this decade.
Some of the problems are deeply rooted, while others have cropped up and disappeared over the course of the year. But throughout the season, the Giants have been unable to capitalize on two key opportunities that nearly every winning ballclub takes advantage of.
This year, the Giants have yet to win when their ace is on the hill, and they’ve been dreadful at home. And that’s a recipe for disaster.
On Tuesday evening, San Francisco will attempt to get left-hander Madison Bumgarner his first win in seven starts this season, as Bumgarner comes into the contest with an 0-4 record and a 3.57 earned run average.
After a mid-April dirt-biking accident wiped out nearly three months of Bumgarner’s season, the four-time All-Star returned to the hill 10 days ago in San Diego and logged seven innings in a Giants’ loss. Last week, Bumgarner again faced the Padres, and again, surrendered two home runs in another San Francisco defeat.
Though decisions aren’t an ideal metric for evaluation a pitcher’s performance, on Tuesday, Giants’ skipper Bruce Bochy admitted his team needs to break Bumgarner’s streak.
“It would be nice to get him (Bumgarner) a win, I’m sure that’s probably wearing on him a little bit even though there’s not a lot a starter can do sometimes but go out there and give you a chance to win the game, a quality start,” Bochy said. “That can be out of his hands.”
Though Bumgarner missed a significant stretch, San Francisco has had its chances to put its ace in the win column. The three-time World Series champion has won at least 13 games in each of his last six seasons, and on Opening Day, Bumgarner looked poised to pick up a ‘W’ after clubbing a pair of home runs and limiting the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the ninth inning, though, closer Mark Melancon coughed up his first save opportunity, and the Giants have spiraled downhill since.
“I’ve mentioned a couple of times, the first game he (Bumgarner) started, the ninth inning, we were leading that game,” Bochy said. “He lost the game in Kansas City 1-0. But still, even with the time he’s missed, they like to win ballgames just like we do so it would be nice to get him a win.”
Aside from losing all six of Bumgarner’s starts this season, the Giants haven’t won many games for the rest of their pitching staff, especially at home. Though San Francisco’s 18-34 road record is jarring, the Giants have traditionally enjoyed one of the best home field advantages in baseball.
Over the past eight seasons, San Francisco has finished above .500 at home every year, and has finished at least nine games above .500 at AT&T Park seven times. This year, San Francisco holds a 20-29 mark at China Basin, and has suffered a number of crushing blowout losses, including a 10-3 defeat on Monday, at home.
“That’s disappointing, it is,” Bochy said. “This is our home, this is where we’ve done so well at times during our successful years and for us not to take advantage of this is disappointing.”
The Giants’ inability to hit the long ball at AT&T Park is a major factor in the team’s struggles, as San Francisco’s right-handed home run leader at home this season is backup catcher Nick Hundley, who has three.
On Monday night, the Pirates smashed a pair of three-run home runs en route to a dominating win. Those two three-run homers are two more than San Francisco has hit in 49 games at AT&T Park this season, and Bochy knows that’s a problem.
“We’ve given up a lot of home runs here,” Bochy said. “That’s what’s frustrating, the mistakes we’re making on the pitching side of this park, it’s a pitcher-friendly park. At the same time, we’ve gone almost the other way you know and our lack of power has really hurt us here. This is what we’ve got to fix.”
After the All-Star break, the Giants’ National League-record sellout streak came to a halt at 530 games, preventing San Francisco from passing the Boston Red Sox for the longest sellout streak in baseball history. Nevertheless, the Giants routinely pack more than 40,000 fans in the park, but Bochy expressed disappointment in his team’s inability to feed off of the impressive energy.
Even though the Giants are 31.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the final week of July, fans inside AT&T Park remain blissfully cheerful on most nights. Yet at some point, Bochy’s ballclub forgot how to capture the magic Giants’ fans provide.
“The magic, good mojo we had in winning a lot of those games which happened a couple of times on this homestand, yeah, that’s been missing,” Bochy said. “We’ve gotten close. We don’t quite finish it.”