The Giants have won the most games in MLB since May 1. They completed a rare perfect road trip and extended their win streak to 10 by taking three of four from the Padres. Then San Francisco beat the first place Diamondbacks in the first two games, setting up a possible sweep.
They’ve gotten contributions from veterans and rookies, relievers and starters, leadoff hitters and bats at the bottom third. They’ve mounted comeback after comeback to tear through June.
Giants fans have noticed. In all seven games during this week’s home stand, Oracle Park hosted paid attendances of at least 30,000.
The loudest, most guttural reaction of the afternoon from the 35,766 in announced attendance Sunday, though, came with two outs in the eighth, when Blake Sabol made a crucial rookie mistake.
Sabol, whose demeanor and status as an Opening Day player makes some forget that this is his first MLB season, ran into a head-scratching out to end the inning. He rounded second on a single that just squeezed past the third base bag, where J.D. Davis was already stationed. Had Sabol just stopped at second, he would’ve been the go-ahead run with the bases loaded.
Sabol, one of several Giants rookies to invigorate the club — both during this stretch and in the season overall — held his head in his hands in disbelief at himself.
After that, the Giants’ hopes at erasing Arizona’s lead dwindled. They brought the game-tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but another comeback in a month full of them wasn’t in the cards. Anthony DeSclafani pitched well, but got yanked too early. Davis slapped two RBI singles, but San Francisco registered just four other hits.
Although the Giants (44-34) took the 5-2 defeat, they head into a much-needed off day with series victories against all three fellow National League West powers in the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks. When a team is 10 games over .500 in late June, tough base running mistakes tend to fade into the background of the season’s scene.
“A young, developing player who’s run the bases well and for us and come up in some huge spots,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “He also doesn’t have the chance to do that unless he draws a big walk. We can’t make those type of base running errors often, it’s really going to hurt us. I also think it’s fair to give Blake the benefit of the doubt here, call it an aggressive — perhaps overaggressive — base running mistake, but not make too much of it and turn the page.”
At times this year, DeSclafani has been one of the most efficient pitchers on the Giants’ staff. He pitched at least six innings in six of his first seven starts of the year, flashing the type of production he had in 2021.
But in his next eight starts after that resurgence, DeSclafani — who missed most of 2022 due to ankle surgery — recorded at least six innings just twice. Much of DeSclafani’s value is in his ability to last deep in games, and he hasn’t been able to do as much recently.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said the difference in the two DeSclafanis has been related to batted ball luck. He’s kept his walks down and has never been a high strikeout pitcher, so the righty relies on solid defense behind him.
Arizona’s runs had nothing to do with luck Sunday, though. Both hits in the first inning — a double from Christian Walker and a loud single from Ketel Marte — would’ve been home runs in several other ballparks. They had exit velocities of 107 and 102.5 mph. The next inning, Alek Thomas doubled with a scorching 110.3 mph exit velocity before coming around to score.
Still, DeSclafani returned to his more efficient brand. He held Arizona to one hit between the third and sixth inning, using a double play to face the minimum in that span. That’s as his fastball was about a tick slower than his season average.
As DeSclafani silenced Arizona, the Giants offense went dormant. Against rookie Ryne Nelson, the Giants didn’t put a runner on base from the second through the fifth inning. Michael Conforto’s first-inning double — his fourth of the weekend series — was SF’s only hit through five.
Their first base runner after the first inning was Thairo Estrada, who reached first after striking out. Estrada scored from second two batters later on a single from J.D. Davis, halving AZ’s lead.
DeSclafani yielded to Tristan Beck in the seventh after just 78 pitches, as he was dealing with body fatigue, he and Kapler said postgame. He allowed one hit after the second inning.
Beck, who had allowed one earned run in his past 12., allowed a two-run homer to Ketel Marte in the eighth. The shot left Marte’s bat at 109/2 mph and would’ve cleared the fence in all 30 parks.
Marte’s second homer in as many games put Arizona up 4-1.
Had Beck kept the ball in the park, Davis’ second RBI single of the game would’ve tied the score; instead, it cut Arizona’s lead to 4-2 in the eighth.
A walk and single then would’ve loaded the bases with two outs, but Sabol got himself in the Little League pickle. The Oracle Park groaned when they realized what was transpiring — perhaps before Sabol himself even did.
Sabol said he thought he heard the crowd scream and assumed the ball had squeezed past Evan Longoria at third base. He immediately recognized his mistake and was accountable for it with his manager and the media postgame.
The Giants might not have come back to win even if Sabol avoided the base running error. But they would have brought Brandon Crawford up to the plate with the bases loaded, in a moment he’s delivered in so many times for the Giants.
San Francisco has made a habit of completing epic comebacks this month. To do so, the margin for error is thin. Sabol, by finding himself on an island between second and third base, crossed the threshold.