SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ frustrations on Wednesday night were twofold.
There was, of course, the 8-5 loss. They pushed the game to extras with two runs in the bottom of the ninth only for the Miami Marlins to counter with four runs in the 10th inning against closer Camilo Doval. They’re now facing the possibility of being swept at home by one of baseball’s worst teams.
Losses happen. But the Giants are also displeased with the bevy of beanballs they’ve absorbed in recent days.
With Casey Schmitt, Jung Hoo Lee and Dominic Smith getting plunked tonight, the Giants have been hit nine times in their last nine games. Schmitt, who’s already filling in for an injured Matt Chapman, had to undergo an X-ray on his wrist after absorbing an errant fastball. While it came back negative, he may have additional testing on Thursday.
None of the deckings, both tonight and in recent days, appear to have been intentional. Regardless, the Giants are plenty perturbed.
“I feel like the game finds a way to even itself out,” said Logan Webb, who allowed two runs over six innings. “It will.”
He continued: “It’s starting to get frustrating how many guys are getting hit. I think as pitchers, we have to do a better job of protecting those guys.”
The plunkings of Smith and Schmitt, as frustrating as they were, vitalized a lethargic offense in the bottom of the ninth.
San Francisco entered the ninth trailing 4-2, but the Marlins’ Calvin Faucher gifted the team a free rally by hitting Smith and Schmitt, then walking Lee to load the bases with no outs.
Smith didn’t have much of a reaction after getting hit in the foot by a curveball. Schmitt, by contrast, was visibly frustrated after taking a 95.2 mph sinker to the left wrist, violently slamming his bat to the ground and directing words at Faucher as he briskly walked it off.
With no outs and the bases loaded, Willy Adames sent a deep drive to left field. On a warm afternoon day, Adames’ drive may have had a walk-off grand slam. On a frigid San Francisco night, Adames settled for a sacrifice fly that cut the deficit to 4-3. Smith scored from third, Schmitt advanced to third and Lee moved up to second.
Patrick Bailey followed Adames by tying the game at four apiece with an opposite-field single to left field. Schmitt easily scored, and third base coach Matt Williams aggressively waved home Lee to try to win the ballgame.
Left fielder Kyle Stowers charged hard and fired a 97.3 mph throw to the plate. The throw arrived in plenty of time and catcher Nick Fortes applied the tag to Lee, who was out by several feet. Following Christian Koss’ line out, the game headed to extras.
For Williams, it was his second aggressive send in as many days. In the bottom of the fifth on Tuesday, Williams sent home Rafael Devers on Heliot Ramos’ double down the left-field line, and Devers was thrown out by several feet at the plate.
Manager Bob Melvin defended Williams’ aggressive send of Devers on Tuesday, noting that San Francisco’s offense had been struggling and that the team needed to take a risk. Melvin again sided with Williams on Wednesday.
“We’re trying to win a game there,” Melvin said. “Give him credit. … It wasn’t hit that deep and he charged hard to get it. Had to get it perfectly and make a good throw. Look, we’re trying to win a game there.”
Stowers’ throw to the plate was accurate enough to nab Lee. San Francisco’s hitters can only hope that the pitches from opposing hurlers are accurate enough to go over the plate.
The recent stretch of hit batsmen began with the Giants’ final game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles when Dustin May hit both Heliot Ramos and Logan Porter. Back home, the beanballs have not subsided.
San Francisco’s hitters have been hit seven times in their last eight games at Oracle Park. During this home stand, Ramos has been hit three times while Schmitt, Smith, Lee and Wilmer Flores have been hit one apiece. Ramos is one of eight players in all of baseball who has been hit at least 10 times.
Ramos understands the advantage of pitching inside; an inside fastball is far more uncomfortable than one over the middle of the plate. Still, Ramos put it plain: pitchers shouldn’t throw inside if they don’t know how to do it properly.
“It’s annoying,” Ramos said. “They probably don’t want to hit us, but at the end of the day, you don’t want to get hit. Nobody wants to get hit. It is pretty irritating, for sure. We’re not the team that’s going to start something because we’re not like that, but at the same time, it is pretty frustrating, for sure. It doesn’t feel good.”
When Melvin was asked if there’s anything the Giants can do in response to their hitters being plunked, he responded, “Not something I certainly want to speak about, but obviously, we need, in situations, to protect our guys too.”
Ramos didn’t use the word “retaliate” but did say, “At the end of the day, you always have to send a message.”
“There’s a lot of unwritten rules that a lot of people got away from,” Ramos said. “Those rules are what keeps the feel of the game. At one point, it’s going to happen. We just have to do what we have to do. We have to support (pitchers), too. We have to score runs for them and back them up too so they can protect us.”
The Giants already understand the stakes of Thursday’s series finale, one that caps off a nine-game home stand. If they win, they avoid being swept. Given what transpired tonight, Webb is hoping for “a little bit of an edge.”
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