Giants powerless versus tanking Padres

The Padres have hit 11 home runs at AT&T Park this year, half the amount the Giants have hit in San Diego’s Petco Park and at least double the amount any other NL West team has tallied in San Francisco.

Five of them have come off Wil Myers‘ bat. In just seven games.

His fifth came in the third at-bat of the game on a 3-2 changeup whisked off the outside corner off Ty Blach, who liked the pitch:

“It was a good swing on a good pitch.”

The swing erased Blach’s seven-inning scoreless streak against the Padres and opened the floodgates for a few more.

Blach gave up three straight doubles and a single in a four-run fifth to put away San Diego’s 5-2 game for the 3-1 series win. The Padres own the Giants now. Myers owns the Giants now. Hector Sanchez, who notched one of those doubles to push his average against San Francisco to .482, owns the Giants now.

This story has been updated with quotes and post-game material from the Giants clubhouse at AT&T Park.

In similar fate to the rotation around him lately, Blach pitched a decent game that was buried by one problem-inning. It was the kind of game that nearly mirrored Matt Moore’s start Saturday, just a few big hits short of the comeback we saw to end the Giants’ lone win of this four-game set. Questionable defense, including a rare Brandon Crawford error, marred the otherwise solid 6 innings in which he tallied seven strikeouts and walked one.  said Bochy:

“It’s amazing how similar Matt and Blachy’s starts were. … Fourth inning, you take that away, which of course you can’t, and he throws a nice game. … He left some pitches up in the fourth like Matt did, unfortunately we can’t overcome it.”

Buster Posey hit an RBI single in the bottom of the first to tie the game back up, but Blach walked Myers and the heart of the order took the rookie through an unrelenting, game-deciding rally in the fourth in which Hunter Renfroe, Jabari Blash and Sanchez doubled and Cory Spangenberg singled to plate four runs, on just eight pitches. Said Blach:

“Just made a couple bad pitches and they ambushed me early in the count.”

There was no comeback in the cards, noted Bochy:

“The heart of the order went 1-for-16, that’s not going to work.”

The Giants answered with one more run drawn from Miguel Gomez‘s first career double and a Gorkys Hernandez RBI single. Eduardo Nunez went 3-for-4, but Brandon Belt — hitting after him — struck out twice and flew out the other two times.

The Giants haven’t been a home run hitting team for years, but have found success embracing the lack of power by stifling the opposition’s pop.

They’re not doing that this year, at all, only making the discrepancy between a league-wide surge in power and the Giants’ anemic offense that much more stark.

Nearly every other team — including the Padres, Dodgers and Diamondbacks — are following the home run trend. But the Giants have stayed stagnant year over year in the first half hitting no more than 75 home runs, good for second or dead last in the MLB.

In the past it was easy to pin the discrepancy on AT&T Park. Watching other teams and players like Myers mash a little more here lately has that argument wearing thinner.

Up next

The Giants will round out this home stand with a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Matt Cain will face Gerrit Cole Monday night.

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.