ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It was 72 degrees inside Tropicana Field at first pitch Friday evening without a whiff of wind inside the domed stadium.
The pristine, climate-controlled conditions weren’t enough to wake up the San Francisco Giants’ bats, even thousands of miles away from cold and windy Oracle Park.
The offensive woes continued in a 2-1 loss to the Rays that kicked off a six-game swing through Florida, with the would-be tying run left stranded at third base.
Pinch-hitting to lead off the ninth, Wilmer Flores worked a walk, then gave way to pinch-runner Tyler Fitzgerald, who stole second and made it to third, but representative of the Giants’ issues all game long — and for much of the season — they couldn’t deliver the timely hit to drive him in.
So fed up was manager Bob Melvin that he was ejected arguing balls and strikes after Jorge Soler was rung up to end the seventh inning, spoiling another scoring opportunity. Both men protested the called strike three at the knees, and Melvin earned his first ejection with the Giants (the 60th of his career).
“In that situation, for me, it was pretty egregious,” Melvin said of home plate umpire Clint Vondrak’s judgement. “He’d been calling the top of the zone the whole game and he called that one which had not been called — it looked like it was way below the zone.”
Whatever the opposite of homer happy is — slugging sadness? — well only that can describe the type of baseball on display. Since April 3, the teams have combined to hit five home runs — the fewest (SF, 2) and second-fewest (TB, 3) in the majors — a total that remained unchanged in their first meeting here since 2016.
The slap-happy Giants continued to string together hits, but not many at opportune times or for extra bases. After 22 hits over the final two games of their homestand — but only two better than a single — they had six, plus another five base runners via walks, but went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base.
“We just didn’t get great at-bats in those situations,” Melvin said. “When you don’t get it done, it’s a results-oriented business. We’ve got to be better.”
“Especially me,” added Soler, “we haven’t been able to do our jobs with men in scoring position.”
Thairo Estrada provided the Giants’ lone extra-base hit with a one-out double in the fourth, his second knock of the game, but they failed to advance him.
With Soler’s late solo shot last Sunday in Los Angeles still standing as their last home run, the Giants have gone seven games without leaving the yard, their longest streak without a home run in almost a decade, since a seven-game drought in June of 2014.
After going 12 games to start the season without a stolen base, the Giants did apparently learn the virtues of activity on the base paths. Twice runners took off from first base and gained an extra bag because of it, forcing poor throws from catcher Ben Rortvedt each time.
Jung Hoo Lee took it on himself to manufacture the Giants’ only run, reaching on a well-struck single to lead off the third inning and making it to third when Rortvedt airmailed his first throw into center field. Only a few pitches later, Lee scurried home when Rortvedt let a pitch past him to the backstop.
The Giants were facing a pitcher, Jacob Waguespack, who was making his first start since 2019, and a bullpen that entered the game with the highest ERA in the American League (6.43) but failed to score five runs for the 11th time in 14 games.
They wasted the efforts of Keaton Winn, who limited the Rays to a pair of runs over five innings and struck out six.
The damage could have been worse if not for Winn’s highwire act in the second inning, allowing the first three batters to load the bases but allowing only one to score. He blew a fastball past the letters of Jose Siri for the first out, then buried a splitter to Rortvedt for the second, but let Yandy Diaz slip away for a bases-loaded walk — one of three issued by Winn for a second straight start — that put the Rays up 1-0.
“That was very, very frustrating,” Winn said of the at-bat against Diaz, trying and failing to land sinkers on the outer half of the plate. “The command wasn’t there for the sinker away, so we went to the split, then the four-seam, then back to the sinker. Bottom line is I just have to command the baseball better.”
Winn wasn’t so fortunate the following inning, recording two quick outs before Harold Ramirez reached when Nick Ahmed wasn’t able to convert his soft chopper to shortstop. The next batter, Amed Rosario, laced a double into the gap, scoring Ramirez to give the Rays all the cushion they needed.
The Giants fell to 2-3 in one-run games, while the Rays improved to 4-0 in games decided by two runs or less.
Up next
RHP Logan Webb (0-1, 4.86) rebounded well in his last start but is still seeking his first win of the year. He’ll be opposed Saturday in the middle game of the series by RHP Ryan Pepiot (1-1, 4.63), plenty familiar from his time with the Dodgers, with first pitch set for 1:10 p.m. PT.
