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SF Giants fail to overcome Alex Wood's implosion in 8-4 loss to Mets

Ross Stripling and Blake Sabol were the two bright spots for the SF Giants in a disappointing loss to the New York Mets on Sunday night.
Marc Delucchi|
SF Giants fail to overcome Alex Wood's implosion in 8-4 loss to Mets
SF Giants fail to overcome Alex Wood's implosion in 8-4 loss to Mets

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San Francisco GiantsNew York Mets

The SF Giants lost to the New York Mets 8-4 on Sunday night in a nationally televised game on ESPN. For the first time all season, Giants fans were clamoring for manager Gabe Kapler to give Ross Stripling a longer leash. In the end, San Francisco fell to 46-38 on the season. The Giants remain tied with the Dodgers for second place in the National League West race, three games behind the Diamondbacks.

Stripling, who started for the Giants just four days after throwing 50 pitches out of the bullpen, had his best outing of the season. He cruised through two innings of work in just 24 pitches. Stripling only allowed one runner to reach base on a walk while striking out a pair.

Stripling felt like he had turned a corner while he was rehabbing a lower back injury over the past month. The early results are quite positive. In his first two appearances since he was activated, Stripling has allowed one run on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts in five innings pitched.

The Giants capitalized on Stripling's positive outing to take an early lead. Bryce Johnson walked to lead off the top of the third inning against Mets starter David Peterson and advanced to second base when Wilmer Flores was hit by a pitch.

Johnson made an aggressive attempt to steal third base with one out in the inning and seemed to make a mistake when he was called out. However, upon review, while Mets catcher Francisco Álvarezmade a beautiful throw that beat Johnson to the bag, third baseman Brett Baty extended his glove to try and tag the Giants outfielder out. Johnson showed off his dexterity and slid his hand under the tag. The call was overturned, Johnson was safe at third, and he scored on a groundout by Thairo Estrada.

Kapler said during the broadcast that Stripling was capable of throwing 60 pitches on Sunday, but given his recent placement on the injured list and Alex Wood's availability, the Giants made the conservative decision to hand the ball to Wood in the bottom of the third. Wood's return from the injured list a few weeks ago was supposed to help stabilize the Giants' rotation, but he continued trending in the wrong direction.

Wood struck out Baty to start the bottom of the third but quickly lost the strike zone. He walked or hit three consecutive batters to load the bases for the middle of the Mets lineup. While he induced a shallow flyout from Francisco Lindor, he walked Pete Alonso to force a run to score. Then, Jeff McNeil hit a ground ball up the middle, Thairo Estrada ranged to his right to field the ball and threw it to Brandon Crawford covering second base. The ball bounced off Crawford's glove. One run would have scored anyway, but the error allowed another to cross the plate.

Wood recorded a pair of outs in the fourth but not before allowing a solo home run to Mark Canha and another walk. With Wood out of sorts, Kapler turned to Tristan Beck (Giants preseason #19 prospect).

Beck induced a shallow fly ball to Tommy Pham that probably should have resulted in a bloop single. However, Luis Matos (Giants preseason #4 prospect) tried to hold the runners by pretending he was going to catch it. They did not fall for the trick, and Matos misplayed the pop fly, which forced Estrada to cover even more ground to corral the ball. That mistake allowed another run to score.

With the Mets ahead 5-1, Beck settled in and continued reaping the benefits of learning to trust his arsenal. He surrendered four hits and a walk across 2.1 innings pitched with one strikeout but did not allow another run to score.

Mets manager Buck Showalter removed Peterson from the game after four innings of work. New York's bullpen helped San Francisco scoreless until the top of the seventh.

Jeff Brigham issued a lead-off walk to Joc Pederson before Kapler inserted Blake Sabol (Giants preseason #33 prospect) as a pinch-hitter. Sabol hit his first home run in nearly a month, cutting the Giants' deficit to two with his eighth blast of the season.

After striking out Flores, Brigham surrendered a single to Estrada and was pulled for former Giants reliever Dominic Leone. Leone allowed an RBI double to J.D. Davis to put the tying run in scoring position. After Leone struck out Patrick Bailey (Giants preseason #21 prospect), the Mets intentionally walked a pinch-hitting LaMonte Wade Jr and brought in lefty Brooks Raley to face Brandon Crawford. Crawford grounded out to end the rally.

Despite trailing on the road, Kapler strangely called upon top setup arm Tyler Rogers in the eighth. Alonso hit an opposite-field chopper for a double through the shift and scored on a bloop single by Starling Marte, extending New York's lead to 6-4.

Raley struck out a pair of Giants in the eighth but hit Pederson with a pitch. With two outs and a trio of righties due up, Showalter decided to make a change and brought in veteran righty Adam Ottavino.

Ottavino threw six consecutive balls to start his outing, walking Flores and hitting Estrada to load the bases for Davis. Ottavino finally found the strike zone, though, and struck out Davis on three consecutive pitches to end the rally.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Mets offense made sure to limit the chances of drama in the ninth. Alonso crushed a two-run home run, his 25th big fly of the season, against Giants rookie reliever Ryan Walker and put New York ahead 8-4.

With a four-run lead, David Robertson entered and coasted through a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the Mets' first series victory in over a month.

The SF Giants will now travel across the country to begin a six-game homestand at Oracle Park on Monday night against the Seattle Mariners. Giants ace Logan Webb is scheduled to go up against Oakland, California native Bryan Woo. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 PM Pacific.

Published
Marc Delucchi
MARC DELUCCHI

Marc Delucchi (he/they/she) serves as the Managing Editor at Giants Baseball Insider, leading their SF Giants coverage. As a freelance journalist, he has previously covered the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and McCovey Chronicles. He also currently contributes to Niners Nation, Golden State of Mind, and Baseball Prospectus. He has previously been featured in several other publications, including SFGate, ProFootballRumors, Niners Wire, GrandStand Central, Call to the Pen, and Just Baseball. Over his journalistic career, Marc has conducted investigations into how one prep baseball player lost a college opportunity during the pandemic (Baseball Prospectus) and the rampant mistreatment of players at the University of Hawaii football program under former head coach Todd Graham (SFGate). He has also broken dozens of news stories around professional baseball, primarily around the SF Giants organization, including the draft signing of Kyle Harrison, injuries and promotions to top prospects like Heliot Ramos, and trade details in the Kris Bryant deal. Marc received a Bachelor's degree from Kenyon College with a major in economics and a minor in Spanish. During his time in college, he conducted a summer research project attempting to predict the future minor-league performance of NCAA hitters, worked as a data analyst for the school's Women's basketball team, and worked as a play-by-play announcer/color commentator for the basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer teams. He also worked as an amateur baseball scout with the Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network (later renamed Evolution Metrix), scouting high school and college players for three draft cycles. For tips and inquiries, feel free to reach out to Marc directly on Twitter or via email (delucchimarc@gmail.com).

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