The San Francisco Giants suffered a three-game sweep at the hands of bay rivals, the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. Their loss comes off the heels of a ten-day road trip that ended in a 3-7 record. San Francisco’s return to Oracle Park featured solid starting pitching but a lackluster bullpen effort that cost them the win.
Stellar Starters
Johnny Cueto and former Oriole Kevin Gausman put up good performances in the first two games of the series. Cueto went deep into the ballgame on Friday night as he threw seven full innings, struck out five batters and allowed just a pair of runs. Gausman came up a little bit short of the sixth frame on Saturday pitching 5 and 2/3 innings. Nonetheless, the 29-year-old looked sharp, his splitter had batters off balance all night long, he fanned out 13 and allowed 3 runs.
Both games sailed along smoothly until the bullpen came in. Things then got rougher than carpet made of sandpaper.
Bullpen Brought A’s Back to Life
Tony Watson took care of the A’s at the bottom of the 8th, on Friday. That’s as good as it got for the Giant bullpen. Trevor Gott then allowed a pair of homers to tie the score at seven. Jarlin Garcia couldn’t stop the designated runner at second who scored to end the game.
Saturday was kinder to the bullpen, at least until Gott took the mount again. The Kentucky native failed at dodging the bats and squandered 4 runs to blow the save. The storm hadn’t finished pouring on them as Sunday’s game looked like something pulled out of a pitching coach’s worst nightmare.
An Elephant-sized Blowout
Oakland really put their foot down to end the series. They took advantage not only of the Giants’ bullpen staff but their starter as well. Logan Webb allowed 3 runs through 4 1/3 innings of work before all hell broke loose in San Francisco. Wandy Peralta failed to record a single out and got clobbered earning five runs. Dereck Rodriguez followed that up by allowing a pair of homers and Sam Selman gave up another pair. Catcher Tyler Heineman was called upon to stop the bleeding in the 9th and he did so, ironically, without allowing any runs.
What’s Next for the Giants?
San Francisco’s last set of games makes for the most depressing record in baseball. Giants are 2-8 over their last ten games. They’ve allowed 85 runs over the last thirteen days, sit solely at the bottom of the NL West, and will head to Anaheim for another tough series against Mike Trout’s Angels.
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