San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Ty Blach (50) gets a new ball after New York Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes (52) blasted a home run in the second inning as the New York Mets face the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 23, 2017.
Ty Blach took the early flight home from Atlanta Thursday evening, while his teammates landed in San Francisco a little after 4 a.m. this morning.
Somehow, the bottom-dwelling Mets made Blach look more fatigued than anyone in the park, dragging him through a gruesome seven-run, 11-hit trio of innings. The rookie, for a second start in a row, stared blankly at the ground from his locker and addressed his start plainly:
“I thought I made a few good pitches they hit, but I also made a lot of mistakes.”
New York took an 11-4 win over the Giants Friday night. The Giants have lost nine of their last 10.
It’s hard to believe these same two clubs met in a Wild Card classic just eight months ago. A few hours prior to first pitch, the Mets made known, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, that Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed, Jay Bruce and Asdrubal Cabrera were available on the trading block. The Mets’ 2017 season is kaput, in other words and they’ve accepted it mid-June, 12.5 games back of first.
The lopsided score Friday, therefore, only magnified the Giants’ consistent ineptitude. Jet lag aside, the loss was the same one they’ve played dozens of times over. This time, the loss came in a neat little three-inning package — innings four through nine were superfluous.
Blach tied a career high for hits allowed with 11, and it only took the Mets two innings to get there. The starter was off kilter, which can be disastrous, Bruce Bochy noted:
“With Ty, it’s all about location and tonight he was just off a bit.”
Most of the damage came in that second inning when New York teed off for five doubles, including a lineup-flipping RBI from Seth Lugo, and Yoenis Cespedes mashed a 390-foot three-run bomb into left field. With that, Blach’s skid since his shutout in Philadelphia gained another notch of momentum. He’s allowed 22 runs, including four home runs, since June 2.
But this skid isn’t as bad as it looks, noted Bochy. Save for a rough day against Kansas City at home, Blach allowed just three runs in a loss to a powerful Colorado team:
“If you look at his last start, it was a great start against one of the best teams in the game.”
Blach noted after the game that he was leaving his stuff up–Cespedes’s home run off a high fastball would be something to point to–and that is typically due to a mechanical issue:
“Usually when I leave the ball up it’s because I’m too quick on the backside.”
He’ll look at the tape.
Still, the Giants have attempted often ill-fated comebacks from large deficits, but the Mets leapt on an opportunity to shut this down. Steven Okert, who was called up today and therefore did not have to start his night’s sleep at 6 a.m., gave up three runs, including a Cespedes RBI double.
The Giants are losing because they are underperforming in every facet on each level, to put it mildly. But the pitching woes seem more apparent given the organization’s reliance on quality starts and a shutdown bullpen through the ‘good years.’ The staff sits at 22nd in the MLB with a 4.77 ERA, almost every out is hold-your-breath stressful.
That’s why small rallies, like the Giants’ three-run spree in the sixth inning that cut short Lugo’s strong outing, feel especially futile. This team scored more than seven runs three times on their 1-7 road trip and lost all three of those games.
For some reason, these two teams will get to play on national television tomorrow. It’s probably because Jacob deGrom and Johnny Cueto are facing off, which would have been an epic showdown last season at this time and at least has the potential to be entertaining Saturday afternoon.
Bryan Morris was DFA’d after putting up a five-spot in an incomplete inning yesterday, said Bruce Bochy:
“I talked to Mo and he’s not quite as sharp as he’d like to be.”
The Giants called up LHP Okert to give him yet another look and add to the lefty arsenal. Conor Gillaspie played his first game since May 10 and Eduardo Nunez was placed on the 10-day DL with a hamstring injury.
Madison Bumgarner threw 45 pitches Wednesday with the Arizona League affiliate and is scheduled to throw three innings Sunday. If all goes well, he could be on his way to a rehab assignment from there.
Shayna Rubin is SFBay’s San Francisco Giants beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @ShaynaRubin on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of Giants baseball.
Last modified June 25, 2017 5:10 pm
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