Melvin talks ‘horrible game’ as Giants’ loss reaches six

Melvin talks ‘horrible game’ as Giants’ loss reaches six originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area

When the Giants were struggling in April and early May, Bob Melvin usually tried to keep a positive attitude. The new manager has felt for most of the year that much better days are ahead, believing his players will begin to look more like the back of their baseball cards. When asked why, Melvin always mentions his long history.

But there’s only so much bad baseball someone who’s been around as long as Melvin can watch, and after a approximate loss of 8-5 to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday at Chase Field, he let out his frustration.

“It was a terrible game for us, especially early on,” Melvin told reporters in Phoenix. “When you’re going through a losing streak, at least you fight. Most of the time, we fought. It was a horrible game. We made the game interesting at the end, but we didn’t play well. We did [Kyle Harrison] get several [extra] exits, had [their] starter on the ropes every inning and failed to cash in. This is a bad game and a bad stretch for us.

The loss was the Giants’ sixth in a row, their longest skid since last September. It was something that easily could have gone the other way with cleaner baseball while Harrison was still in the game.

Casey Schmitt fumbled some short balls in a three-run third inning and later added another error in an overall tough night for the infield defense. Harrison was charged with four runs in six innings and fell short because the Giants couldn’t muster anything against left-hander Blake Walston, who was making his second major league start.

Walston struggled with his command, walking four and striking out two. The Giants got first place in all five innings, but only managed two runs.

“We made him work and got into situations where we were in charge, and then we let him off the hook,” Melvin said. “The hitting qualities were good, leading to us really needing a good hit.”

Melvin said it felt like his team was “running on quicksand for a while” and by the time the Giants got going, it was too late. They stranded eight runners before Mike Yastrzemski hit a three-run home run in the eighth, but in the bottom of the seventh, Luke Jackson gave up four runs, increasing his ERA to 6.35 and putting the game out of reach.

“It was a terrible game,” Harrison told reporters in Phoenix. “We have to figure out a way to beat them and stay in it.”

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