Farhan Zaidi considers the Giants a competitive force in the National League West. He thinks they’re a threat to make the playoffs. Not only that, he believes if they do make the postseason, the Giants’ talented rotation would make them dangerous.
So Zaidi traded away Darin Ruf, Curt Casali and two injured pitchers mainly to build minor-league depth, but also held onto All-Stars Carlos Rodón and Joc Pederson.
“I don’t see it as a mixed message,” the Giants’ president of baseball operations told reporters shortly after the trade deadline. “I think we’re very much in this race.”
That perception didn’t meet reality on Tuesday night in Oracle Park. It hasn’t for weeks, if not months, now. The Giants spotted Los Angeles a six-run lead and couldn’t come back despite a star turn from rookie Joey Bart. San Francisco’s deficiencies on defense and in the bullpen returned for its 10th loss in 13 games since the All-Star break.
With the 9-5 loss, the Giants (51-53) have now dropped six straight games to their rivals — the first time that’s happened in a single season this century. They’re now five games back in the loss column from the final wild card spot.
Things tend to unravel quickly on Alex Wood, San Francisco’s starter, and they did earlier than usual on Tuesday. Typically, teams punish Wood in their third time facing him. This time, the southpaw combusted in the second inning.
Wood allowed a leadoff single. A walk, another single, and a hit-by-pitch extended the inning. An errant pickoff throw to second didn’t help. Neither did two late dives and a bobble in the outfield.
The four-run, two-error inning went down as Zaidi, the optimist, watched from the broadcast booth.
Los Angeles added another run off Wood the next inning, taking advantage of two suspect plays by Brandon Belt. Neither was ruled an error, but he flubbed a pick-able ball at first and on another decided to go home, where Will Smith slid in safely with ease.
Mookie Betts homered in the fourth to continue LA’s run, and Luis González mistimed a dive in right field to extend San Francisco’s questionable defense. Wood keeled over, hands on his knees, after González slid past a ball. That’s what Fangraphs’ worst defense in MLB looks like in one image.
Trailing 6-0, the Giants made Zaidi look foolish. But the Giants are where they are because they’re capable both of playing cellar dwellers and like world beaters.
After going three innings without a hit against Dodgers starter Tyler Anderson, Brandon Belt led off the fourth with an opposite-field single. Wilmer Flores and Luis González followed him with knocks, then David Villar doubled. The speedy González raced home on a wild pitch to cut LA’s lead in half.
Then Bart blasted a fastball into the Giants’ bullpen in center field. Suddenly, the Dodgers led by just one run. “BEAT LA” chants filled Oracle Park.
Zaidi said trading away veteran Curt Casali was a “vote of confidence” in Bart, who has four home runs since returning to the big club on July 6.
Asked about Bart’s capability as the Giants’ everyday catcher going forward, manager Gabe Kapler praised the rookie’s physical durability, game-planning and defense.
“From all those perspectives, I think he can be a frontline catcher,” Kapler said. “His offense is still very much a work in progress. One thing we want to see him work on is some adjustability with the barrel. So the ability to be out of position physically but in position and accurate with the barrel. If he’s able to get there, we have an All-Star catcher.”
Wood left reliever John Brebbia with one out and one on in the sixth inning and the vaunted top of the lineup due up. Brebbia won a nine-pitch battle with Betts, striking him out looking on a full-count slider. Bart popped up and cut down Austin Barnes trying to steal second, flashing the defensive talent Kapler raves about.
The strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out in a leverage spot against Mookie Betts is the type of sequence playoff teams execute. The earlier plays in the field that cost Wood and the Giants runs? Not so much.
Los Angeles tacked on three more runs to their lead in the eighth. Gavin Lux tripled off Rogers, then Barnes doubled. Alex Young, fresh up from Sacramento for his Giants debut, entered to get Cody Bellinger out. Instead, the Giant-killer tripled and forced Young to face Mookie Betts, who added a double to make it 9-5.
Young was in, and the Giants tested Tyler Rogers for multiple innings, because they have a lack of reliable left-handed relievers. That’s one of the reasons SF targeted Mets lefty Thomas Szapucki.
The fumbling, flubbing, stumbling Giants who let the Dodgers take a six-run lead won’t prove Zaidi’s opinion that they’re in the playoff hunt right. But the dynamic innings and individual performances like Bart’s are glimpses into why the front office remained hopeful through the deadline.
All it takes, the club hopes, is a sustained stretch with more glimpses than warts.
“The present really matters to us,” Zaidi said before Tuesday’s loss. “For most of this season, we’ve been in a playoff spot. Obviously we’ve had a bad couple of weeks that’s kind of put us on the fringes of the race. But we know a hot two weeks could turn us around just like a bad two weeks put us here.”