The last time Alex Cobb and Merrill Kelly matched up, just five days ago, the Giants sparked a late-inning rally to complete a comeback win.
The recent history looked poised to repeat itself Monday, as the Giants sliced into Arizona’s lead with two runs in the eighth. They loaded the bases with one out, but couldn’t capitalize further. Then in the ninth, they brought the go-ahead runner to the plate three times, but none reached against Mark Melancon.
San Francisco’s 4-3 loss ends a streak of 12 straight wins against the Diamondbacks at-home — the second-longest home ownage since 1958. The Giants (43-42) have now dropped nine of their last 12 games.
Even a potential comeback wouldn’t have been possible without a gutsy start from Alex Cobb.
Cobb stranded a runner on third in each of his first two innings, but he couldn’t houdini forever. Diamondbacks manned first and third with two outs in the third, and scored on David Peralta’s slash into shallow right field.
Two more Arizona runs — in scoring position due to Luis González’s fielding error on the Peralta knock — crossed after Daulton Varsho’s single down the right field line.
Arizona’s three-run third snapped 18-straight scoreless innings from the Giants’ pitching staff. Heroic performances from Carlos Rodón and Alex Wood propelled them to a series sweep. It was Cobb’s turn to carry the torch.
In his four starts since returning from the injured list before Monday, Cobb had posted a 2.79 ERA. Unlike early on, live ball luck began teetering in his direction.
Luck had nothing to do with Monday’s results. In his six innings, six of the 10 hardest-hit balls in play came off Diamondback bats. Cobb also walked four batters.
Even without his best stuff, though, Cobb dug deep to keep the Giants in the game. Wilmer Flores doubled and scored in the fourth, and Cobb struck out Geraldo Perdomo with his season-high 100th pitch to end the top of the sixth.
When Cobb left, the Giants trailed 3-1. Everyone in Oracle Park thought that gap shrunk when Brandon Belt flipped his bat after crushing the first Kelly pitch of his at-bat in the bottom half. But his 106-mph exit velocity bomb hit the top of the bricks in Triples Alley. It traveled 398 feet and would’ve left every other yard, but Belt settled for a double and got left on base.
That was Belt’s third hit of the night and sixth in his prior seven at-bats. Belt initially started slow after returning from his knee injury, but apparently his timing is back in sync.
The Giants caught a major break in the seventh, when Alek Thomas committed to second after running through first, erasing what would have been a Brandon Crawford throwing error. Instead, it was a strange double-out.
But Kelly retired the side in the seventh, and the Diamondbacks added a run against Mauricio Llovera in the eighth. The Giants, behind since the third inning, trailed 4-1.
Then came the rally.
Two runners got on for Flores, who has posted a 1.108 OPS in high leverage situations this year. He slapped a double onto and over the third base bag, cutting Arizona’s lead to two. Austin Slater, pinch-hitting for Belt, drove Darin Ruf home from third. Giants down one. Luis González broke Joe Mantiply’s MLB record walk streak and David Villar took a free pass to juice the bases.
Then Brandon Crawford, walking up to the plate to Warriors anthem “Big Steppin,’” came one mili-step away from beating out a double play that would’ve tied the game.
Crawford’s sprint speed, per Baseball Savant, is down to 25.3 feet per second this year — slowest among regular shortstops. He could’ve used an extra jolt on that play, which was as close as possible.
Even Late Night LaMonte, decidedly late into the night when he dug into the box at 10:25 p.m., couldn’t get it done in the ninth. Like Crawford, the Giants fell just short.