Disastrous second inning buries SF Giants in 5-2 loss to Diamondbacks
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The SF Giants fell to the Diamondbacks 5-2 on Saturday, losing their first game since their road trip began on Monday. The Giants had won five-straight games entering the day. While the Diamondbacks were held scoreless in eight innings, they did enough damage in one half-inning to carry them to victory.
Starting pitchers Alex Cobb and Merrill Kelly put zeroes up on the scoreboard for the first three innings before the Giants offense ended the shutout in the top of the fourth. With two outs and nobody on, Brandon Crawford started a two-out rally with a single. David Villar worked a walk, moving Crawford into scoring position, before Jason Vosler brought Crawford home with an RBI single.
The Dbacks quickly erased San Francisco's 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the fourth. Pavin Smith, Daulton Varsho, and Christian Walker hit three straight singles off Cobb to start the inning, tying the game at one. After a lineout and a walk, the bases were loaded with one out for Alek Thomas.
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Thomas hit a hard groundball down the right-field line. Giants first baseman Wilmer Flores fielded it cleanly right behind the bag and fired a throw home to get a force out. However, catcher Joey Bart assumed Flores had kicked first base with his right foot, making the play at the plate a tag. Flores, though, had purposely missed the bag to keep the force at home intact. Nevertheless, Bart took his foot off the plate to try and tag Varsho out. Varsho slid just past the tag to give the Dbacks a 2-1 lead, and the Giants did not record an out.
Cobb induced a flyout from catcher Carson Kelly in the next at-bat, which would have ended the inning if either Flores or Bart had recorded a force out on the previous play. Instead, it was a sacrifice fly that gave the Dbacks a 3-1 lead. Then, shortstop Geraldo Perdomo sat on a first-pitch splitter from Cobb to line a two-run single.
Cobb would last another inning before he was removed from the game without allowing another run. However, the no good very bad fourth was enough to sink the Giants' chances.
Outfielder Mike Yastrzemski extended his five-game hitting streak and hit his third home run of the road trip to lead off the sixth inning against Kelly, but after that, the Giants never had another baserunner reach scoring position. Kelly surrendered two runs on four hits and a walk over seven innings pitched. He recorded six strikeouts.
Rookie reliever Thomas Szapucki replaced Cobb and allowed a hit while recording a strikeout across two shutout innings. Szapucki now has 14 strikeouts and just 2 walks in 10.2 innings pitched with a 2.53 ERA for the Giants this season. Acquired from the Mets at the trade deadline as part of the package for Darin Ruf, Szapucki is showing some exciting promise out of the pen.
With that said, Szapucki warmed up for a third inning in the top of the eighth before Giants manager Gabe Kapler and the team's trainers came out and he was removed from the game with right hip tightness. Recently acquired pitcher Jharel Cotton replaced Szapucki and surrendered a walk and double in a scoreless inning of work.
Diamondbacks setup man Joe Mantiply retired the Giants in order in the eighth and former Giants reliever Reyes Moronta took the mound in the ninth. Moronta retired the side and recorded his second save of the season.
After splitting the first two games of the series, the Diamondbacks and SF Giants will face off again tomorrow in the rubber match of the series, with first pitch scheduled for 12:40 PM Pacific.
