SF Giants waste strong Manaea start, Sabol homer in 3-1 loss to Guardians
The SF Giants' four-game winning streak came to an end on a chilly night at Oracle Park, as the team's poor fielding and poor clutch hitting let down starter Manaea in a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
While San Francisco out-hit, out-walked, out-homered, and out-K'ed the Guardians, they still fell short, thanks to some missed double plays, some impatient clutch hitting, and some stellar defensive plays from Gold Glove center fielder Myles Straw.
Straw robbed Blake Sabol at the wall in the ninth as Emmanuel Clase got his 40th save of the season, just one of his Web Gems (TM) on the night. Meanwhile, the Giants gave up two go-ahead, unearned runs after a LaMonte Wade error in the sixth inning, their major league-leading 100th error of the season.
Manaea had a rough first inning, starting the game with a walk to Steven Kwan and a single to Jose Ramirez. But in what would become a theme in the game, Manaea induced two double plays balls - which yielded only two outs.
Josh Naylor's ground ball turned into a fielder's choice, and after a walk to David Fry, Kole Calhoun drove in Cleveland's first run on another fielder's choice.
After that, Manaea settled down quite a bit. He struck out Tyler Freeman to end the inning, the first of 14 straight Guardians hitters he retired, five on strikeouts. The lefty threw 33 pitches in the first inning, and only 37 in the next four frames.
Meanwhile, starter Cal Quantrill stymied the Giants offense, though they had plenty of baserunners. Mike Yastrzemski led off the first with a walk, only to be erased on a double play. Joc Pederson drew an 11-pitch walk in the second and was stranded on second. Brandon Crawford's leadoff double in the third was wasted after three weak outs. Pederson's eight-pitch walk was wasted in the fourth.
The Giants finally broke through when Sabol hit a 417-foot bomb in the fifth, his 13th home run of the season.
Ramirez broke Manaea's 14-out streak with a one-out single in the sixth inning, and once again, he got some ground balls. And once again, his defense let him down. Naylor grounded out to Brandon Crawford again, but due to the shift, the Giants got only one out. After Manaea hit Fry with a pitch, LaMonte Wade Jr. mishandled another potential double play ball, which loaded the bases and chased Manaea from the game.
Ryan Walker repalced Manaea and one pitch later it was 3-1, Cleveland, after Freeman singled to center. While this defensive lapse didn't cost the Giants, Luis Matos still let both runners move up by air mailing his throw from center over the cutoff man.
Cleveland didn't have any trouble with their own twin killings, turning double plays in the first, fourth, and sixth innings.
The last one came after Wilmer Flores was hit by a pitch - after painfully fouling a ball off his foot in the first - and Joc Pederson nearly drilled him as he led off first. Flores froze, not realizing he could dive back to the bag, and Naylor got one of the easiest unassisted double plays of his life.
The Giants were very aggressive against Quantrill, swinging at the first pitch five times in the first four innings. Those five swings led to six outs, including Wade's GIDP in the fourth. The Guardians starter walked three and hit a batter in six innings and struck out just two, but some of the Giants didn't give him a chance to beat himself.
Perhaps that's why they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Or, that could simply be because they're the 2023 San Francisco Giants. Still, on a night where Thairo Estrada saw nine pitches in four at-bats, some extra patience could have helped. And some infield defense.
