Giants’ baserunning mistakes proved costly on crucial day in playoff race originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Two pickles left a bitter taste in the Giants’ mouths afterward his 5-4 defeat for the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at Oracle Park.
There wasn’t much else Matt Chapman could do to put San Francisco in position to sweep Detroit and extend the Giants’ winning streak to five straight. The four-time Gold Glove-winning third baseman played his typical sensational defense and was almost a one-man show at the plate.
When the Tigers took an immediate lead on a leadoff home run that ricocheted off the top of the left-field wall and into the stands, Chapman responded by giving the lead back to the Giants and rookie pitcher Hayden Birdsong, hitting a line drive to center field with the bases loaded to knock in two runs. Chapman’s single to right field, which was hit at 109.7 mph with his bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, reduced the Giants’ deficit in runs, and he continued his torrid day in the batter’s box in the eighth inning.
With the Giants trailing by one run, Chapman sent a ball to the center field wall and ran around the bases for a triple to get things moving in the bottom half of the eighth. On the next pitch, Chapman found himself in trouble on the base paths and still couldn’t believe his error after the Giants’ loss.
Marcos Canha hit a grounder right by shortstop Javier Baez, and Chapman strangely misread the ball’s path, firing toward home plate. He quickly found himself in a rundown that ended with him sliding headfirst just short of home plate for the Giants’ first out of the inning.
“Chappy is trying to make something happen, and he tends to do a good job,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “I probably got a little excited about a ball that initially looked like it was going to be a helicopter and I probably thought it was a little bit further away.”
Disappointed, Chapman admitted right away that he thought the low ball would make Baez have to move more, creating a difficult throw that ended up being an easy out for the shortstop. Lying with dirty knees, palms up and eyes closed, Chapman took a while to get up after being struck out by pitcher Brenan Hanifee.
His words were also much harsher than Melvin’s.
“I’m disgusted with myself for doing this,” Chapman said. “I was fine. I stood there for a minute because I was a little out of breath. And then I was disappointed that it ended the way it did.
Canha advanced to second base on Chapman’s decision, but made a similar error shortly thereafter. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey hit a grounder back to Hanifee, who turned and immediately saw Canha taking off for third base. Hanifee threw the ball to Baez at second base, who chased Canha before handing it off to third baseman Gio Urshela, who struck out Canha in the second inning. A loss to Jerar Encarnacion ended what looked like a promising inning and turned it into pure frustration.
Canha sat at his locker after the defeat, looking distraught and shaking his head to himself.
Mental errors on the base paths were a part of the history of the Giants wasting chances to catch the Tigers and giving the home fans more late-game drama. While the Giants have been one of the hottest teams in baseball recently, their lack of production with runners in scoring position is staggering.
Giants hitters went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base against the Tigers. They went 0-for-5 with three groundouts and hit a fielder’s choice twice between the seventh and eighth innings. Since July 25, the Giants are batting .193 (31-for-161) with runners in scoring position with a .576 OPS, which is the lowest mark in the entire National League.
Only one team in all championships over the period was worse than the Giants with runners in scoring position.
“I don’t think you can say we should have won that game because we had one or two outs on the bases,” Melvin said.
Every play and every decision at the plate, on the bases and in the field is extremely crucial for the Giants right now. A win on Sunday could have put them in the driver’s seat, fighting for the third NL wild card spot, as both the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves suffered losses earlier in the day.
The pressure has mounted even further ahead of Monday night when the Giants welcome the Braves to town for a big four-game set, starting with a battle of two left-handed aces, Blake Snell, against veteran All-Star Chris Sale.
“Atlanta is ahead of us in the standings, but this game is no less important than tomorrow,” Melvin said. “They are all important now.”
