Missed opportunities doom the Giants’ offense in their loss to the Angels originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – During a season filled with hair-tearing, teeth-gnashing moments, Wednesday’s 8-6 loss for the Angels it must be one of the most frustrating and bittersweet for the Giants.
For one thing, they didn’t have much trouble getting to the base. They had 10 hits and walked seven walks. Another runner hit by a pitch hit.
However, with all this action on the basepaths, San Francisco only managed one run in the first seven innings and would have been eliminated if not for the eighth inning, when the Giants tried to mount a comeback and sent a jolt of life through the crowd of 32,842 people at Oracle Park.
It’s a trend Giants fans are familiar with, and not just this season, though it’s the only one manager Bob Melvin is concerned about.
“It’s been a little problematic this year,” Melvin told reporters at Oracle Park. “What would we leave, 10 more on base today? As long as you have opportunities, you feel like at some point you will make it.
“At the beginning of the season it was a real problem and then we managed to combat it for a while. But games like this, when you leave 10 guys on base and you’re down by two runs, especially with the opportunities we had early on…that’s where it could have been a different game.”
The Giants left men on base in seven of nine innings. Six were trapped in scoring position.
San Francisco’s most productive inning was the eighth, when they reeled off four consecutive hits capped by Heliot Ramos’ three-run homer.
“It’s tough as a team, for sure,” Ramos told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We are trying to do the best we can. We wanted to get the starter out of the game quickly so we could get into the bullpen, but it is what it is. One of their days.
The offense wasn’t a total waste.
Ramos’ moon shot was his seventh home run since being called up from the minors on May 8. He also reached an infield single and walked twice, increasing his June average to .370.
Ramos acknowledged the frustrations of leaving players on base — the Giants are batting .244 with runners in scoring position and leaving an average of more than 15 players on base each game — but said the team intends to turn things around. .
“We’re going to keep working,” he said. “We’re going to keep doing what we do and welcome them back tomorrow.”
