SEATTLE — It has been a season-long struggle for the Giants to build any kind of momentum, usually thwarted just as things get good by subpar pitching or poor defense.
Once again, it was the same culprits that kept them from extending a three-game winning streak to four. The Giants got home runs from Rafael Devers and Willy Adames and six shutout innings from Logan Webb but still fell to 0-6 when going for their fourth win in a row.
The second hit Webb surrendered was a three-run home run that tied the game in the seventh, and after the Giants weren’t able to push across their automatic runner in extra innings, Julio Rodriguez sent them to a 4-3 walkoff loss with a sacrifice fly off Dylan Smith in the 10th.
Smith took the loss, the Giants’ 10th when leading after six innings, despite not yielding a hit. But Webb shouldered the blame.
“I’m the d–khead who messed that up,” Webb said. “That should’ve been our fourth win today. It’s a momentum killer. It just sucks.”
The Giants led 3-0 when Webb served up the game-tying homer to Cole Young, and almost on cue, Luis Arraez flubbed a grounder from the next batter for only his fifth error, which proved inconsequential in the outcome but was tinged with symbolism.
As soon as one thing goes wrong, the entire system fails.
And now, the Giants are back to zero, or at least that’s where their win streak stands.
“Everybody looks at one pitch … but you can’t undo any of it,” manager Tony Vitello said. “It was a really good game. It’s a difficult loss to swallow and it makes for a great challenge tomorrow.”
When Webb took the mound to begin the seventh, he seemed poised to take it to the finish line. He had yielded just one hit, faced two batters over the minimum and thrown only 70 pitches.
Things began to unravel as soon as a 3-2 changeup ran inside and clipped Randy Arozarena, his second hit batsman of the game after he had him down 0-2. Webb walked the next batter, Josh Naylor, and Young made him pay for the free base runners.
“That’s unacceptable,” Webb said. “You get a guy 0-2 … that’s something I try to preach with the younger guys is to be in attack mode, especially if you’re winning. I was just trying to do too much and I ended up hitting him. Then a four-pitch walk the next at-bat. It’s not OK.”
Webb keeled over as he watched a sweeper at Young’s knees sail 405 feet into the right field seats. He had to settle for a no-decision and one of the more disappointing quality starts of his career, finishing 6 ⅓ innings with three earned runs on only two hits.
“I called it away and it just kind of backed up,” Webb said of the fateful slider, a pitch batters had whiffed at four of the previous seven times they offered at it. “It was a weird shape compared to all the ones I threw today. …
“I thought the team played great today. This one’s on me.”
It had been the pitcher’s duel as advertised through five innings with Bryan Woo, a Bay Area native, largely taking care of business against his hometown team.
The only run on either starter’s line until that point had been unearned, when Drew Gilbert got a late send from third-base coach Gary Pettis after center fielder Luke Raley mishandled the second of two singles from Bryce Eldridge, opening a 1-0 lead in the third.
A day after providing all the offense the Giants would need with his ninth homer of the season, Eldridge was the only Giant to record multiple hits and drew a walk to reach for a third time.
Adames and Devers teamed up to extend the Giants’ lead to 3-0 with a pair of solo shots in the sixth. Devers became the first Giant to 20 home runs, sneaking his just over the 331’ sign down the left field line to lead off the inning. Adames went the opposite way for his 17th — and second in as many games — lining a misplaced sinker over the right-field wall.
The home runs gave Webb some cushion to work with.
But only an inning later, it was gone, and so was Webb.
What it means
Webb was the first to blame himself for the loss, but Vitello noted that it’s difficult to win a game with three runs, which was all the Giants mustered against Woo and the Mariners bullpen.
Besides the two solo home runs, Eldridge’s single in the third with Gilbert at second was their only hit in seven chances with a runner in scoring position, stranding eight men on base.
“To me, that magic number is four [runs],” Vitello said. “We need to hunt everyday. Came up a little bit short on four, and maybe that’s the difference in nine innings for today’s game.”
