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In an effort to become the first team this season to sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks, The Giants and their offense were unable to come through in the series finale, leading to a 5-2 defeat at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon.
Though the Giants have won 12 of their last 14 games, Arizona extended their first-place lead in the National League West to 2-1/2 games.
This story will be updated with quotes and post-game material from the Giants clubhouse at Oracle Park.
The Giants offense struggled to gain any traction against Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson, with only Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis notching hits against Nelson (W, 4-4, 4.67 ERA) through six innings. Each also worked a walk. Luis Matos blooped a single in the seventh against Nelson, but was left stranded.
Nelson finished with seven innings, three hits allowed, two walks and six strikeouts.
San Francisco finally broke through in the sixth when Davis softly grounded an RBI single to left, putting the Giants back within a run at 2-1. He added on with his second knock of the game in the eighth, this time up the middle against D-Backs righty Scott McGough. Davis is now 8-for-29 since returning to action last Saturday after rolling his ankle on June 13 in St. Louis.
The threat in the eighth inning continued when Blake Sabol followed up Davis’ single with a walk, putting runners on first and second with two outs. Rookie catcher Patrick Bailey was next, poking a fair ball down the third base line. Thinking the ball was heading toward the corner, Sabol put his head down and sped around second.
There was only one issue: Arizona third baseman Evan Longoria made a diving play to keep the ball from going for extra bases, and Davis, the lead runner, stopped at third. Longoria threw the ball back in and the D-Backs applied the tag on Sabol as he hopelessly headed back to second base.
On the blunder, Sabol explained the misstep:
“I had my head down rounding second, when I picked my head up I was looking toward the outfield. Finally, I picked up third when I was more than halfway there. I’m thinking, `Maybe a foul ball.’ that’s when it hit me — I’m in trouble.”
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said his team can’t afford baserunning errors like these:
“It can’t happen often or it’s going to hurt us. I also think it’s fair to give Blake the benefit of the doubt and call it a very aggressive and perhaps overaggressive baserunning mistake, but not make too much of it.”
The Giants pitching staff has been a model of efficiency this season, with 33-year-old right-hander Anthony DeSclafani continuing that trend Sunday with a solid outing. Despite allowing eight earned runs in eight innings over his last two starts, DeSclafani rebounded by commanding the strike zone effectively – quickly, too – as he navigated through six innings allowing five hits and two earned runs.
Arizona put two runs on the board in the first two frames, and the damage ended up likely worse than if the game had taken place in a different ballpark. On what would’ve been a homer in most other big league stadiums, Ketel Marte walloped one off the top of the brick wall in right field, settling for a long single. Two batters later, first baseman Christian Walker made it hurt with an RBI double in the right-center field gap – another swing that would have been a home run in at least eight ballparks.
After Alek Thomas doubled and later stole third, Jake McCarthy contributed in the second with a ground ball single to right, making it 2-0.
Aside from the lack of run support and the occasional missed location with his slider, DeSclafani’s outing was a positive development as the club moves forward lacking depth in their rotation.
Arizona added two more in the eighth when Marte cracked his second hit of the afternoon, a two-run shot to right-center – the deepest part of Oracle Park – off righty Tristan Beck. Marte’s homer made it 4-1.
Despite the loss, DeSclafani said winning the series over Arizona was ‘huge’:
“A good sign moving forward. Would have liked to sweep, but two out of three is great and we’re playing some good baseball. To continue that is the most important thing.”
Up Next
The Giants travel to Toronto on their off day before taking on the Blue Jays for a three-game series starting Tuesday. First pitch is 4:07 p.m.
Notes
Minutes before first pitch, the Giants announced right-hander Ross Stripling was activated off the injured list. Stripling was sidelined since May 19 with a low back strain. As the corresponding move, reliever Luke Jackson hit the shelf with, ironically, the same injury Stripling suffered, a lower back strain during Saturday’s afternoon’s game. … Brandon Crawford now stands alone in second place for all-time games (187) played against the Diamondbacks, trailing former Colorado Rockies legend Todd Helton.
