SF Giants avoid ignominious history, still can’t crack scoreboard in loss to A’s
OAKLAND — The good news is the Giants didn’t make any unfortunate history in the penultimate Battle of the Bay.
The bad news was just about everything else about their offense in a 2-0 loss to the Athletics, which sent them back below .500 (62-63) and another game back in the National League wild card race (3½ behind Atlanta, still yet to play).
In front of one of the largest Coliseum crowds expected before the A’s leave for Sacramento after this season, journeyman right-hander Osvaldo Bido nearly treated the split-allegiance 37,551 on hand to the first no-hitter in the teams’ 147 meetings since the A’s made this a two-team market in 1968.
The Giants mustered just four hits — all after the fifth inning — and were shut out for the second time in the span of a week.
“Some games we have good games (offensively); some games we don’t,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Consistently, we have not.”
It took a swinging bunt and one of the fastest dashes up the first-base line by a Giants player this season to avoid the ignominious distinction.
Bido let out a yell of frustration after rookie center fielder Grant McCray barely made contact with a changeup off the plate, sent it spinning at 67.3 mph up the third base line and made it to first base at a rate of 30.8 feet per second (30.0 is considered elite).
With one out in the sixth inning, the infield single broke up the 28-year-old’s no-hit bid, and the Giants produced only three more hits the rest of the afternoon — two from Mark Canha, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, and a hustle double from McCray, who flashed his speed again to lead off the eighth inning.
Despite getting a runner into scoring position with nobody out and the top of their lineup coming up, the Giants weren’t able to advance McCray 90 feet, let alone the 180 it would have taken to get on the scoreboard. Tyler Fitzgerald watched strike three, LaMonte Wade Jr. popped out to short, and presented with a middle-middle changeup on a 3-1 count, Heliot Ramos rolled over for a soft grounder to short.
“I was just trying to start a rally for us,” said McCray, who also used his wheels to charge a shallow fly ball in center field and make a diving catch for the second out of the fourth inning. “As soon as I hit (the double), I was like, ‘Get two’ just because (J.J.) Bleday is a lefty so he’s going to have to make a spin-move throw and I got in there and beat it.”
The Giants were shut out for only the fifth time this season but the second time in their past five games, after a 1-0 loss to the Braves on Monday. In eight games since they returned home from taking consecutive series in Cincinnati and Washington, the Giants have been held to four or fewer runs seven times while batting .199 (52-for-261).
“The pitchers are really good in this league; we’ve just got to grind out every at-bat we can,” said second baseman Brett Wisely, who went 0-for-2 with a pair of flyouts before being lifted for Casey Schmitt as a pinch-hitter. “Our pitchers are elite, too. If we can just get a couple runs for them, I feel like we can put some wins on the board. It’s just one of those funks.”
After back-to-back clunkers, Hayden Birdsong turned in his strongest outing since the calendar flipped to August, limiting the A’s to one run on three hits and three walks while striking out five over 4⅔ innings, but the focus for the majority of the game was on the hits — not the runs — column.
“I’m happy I put up some zeros and gave us a chance,” said Birdsong, who lowered his ERA in three August starts to 10.64 from 17.50. “I obviously would like to finish the fifth and work into the sixth, maybe the seventh, but things happened and we needed guys to come in.”
Both starters authored shutouts for four innings, until the A’s started the fifth with a pair of singles — only their second and third hits — and Lawrence Butler drove a one-out fly ball deep enough to center to drive home Zack Gelof from third and open a 1-0 lead.
With Birdsong at 78 pitches and two runners still on base, that was enough for Melvin to call on Spencer Bivens, who got out of the inning with the help of a spectacular play from Wisely, ranging to the shortstop side of the second base bag to turn a potential RBI hit from Brent Rooker into the third out.
“It looked like it was going to be a pretty simple play, but it hit the bag and jumped up on me,” Wisely said. “I just tried to get rid of it as quick as I could. Running in the other direction, it was a tough throw.”
Bivens wasn’t so fortunate the following inning, as Seth Brown snuck a single to the left of a diving Wisely to drive home Miguel Andujar, whose one-out double was one of only two extra base hits from either team, that extended Oakland’s advantage to 2-0.
Melvin said he didn’t want Birdsong facing Rooker for a third time.
“He did have three walks, but I thought the command was better today,” the manager said. “It looked like he had better life to all his pitches, too. All in all, it felt like a game where he might go six. We ended up getting him before the fifth, but I thought it was much better stuff today.”
After splitting two games at Oracle Park last month, the Giants fell to 71-76 all-time in their regular season meetings against the A’s and must win Sunday afternoon’s series finale to avoid losing the Bay Bridge trophy for the final time. But they have more pressing stakes to be concerned about.
After wrapping up their series Sunday, just six of the Giants’ remaining 37 games come against teams at or below .500, meaning they will be tasked climbing the wild card standings almost exclusively against teams already in playoff position.
“We went on a good roll there for a little bit and then got put on our butt there for a second,” Wisely said. ” … The playoff run’s there. We see it in our eyes. Our pitching’s going to take over here and carry us. If we can put some at-bats together and some runs on the board, we’ll have a good shot.”
Notable
RHP Randy Rodriguez, who was shut down earlier this week with elbow inflammation, will be examined by the team’s head physician, Dr. Ken Akizuki, this weekend.
RHP Tristan Beck (vascular surgery) is getting closer to giving the Giants another rotation option, scheduled to throw four innings Sunday in his third rehab appearance.
IF Wilmer Flores (right knee tendonitis) was transferred to the 60-day IL, ruling him out until the final week of the season.
Up next
The last-ever meeting between the Giants and Athletics in Oakland will feature LHP Blake Snell (2-3, 3.91) against LHP JP Sears (10-8, 4.32). First pitch at the Coliseum is scheduled for 1:07 p.m.