San Francisco Giants: Posey and Pence’s home run not enough, Mets walk off 4-3

The San Francisco Giants lost their fourth consecutive game, despite Posey and Pence each homering.

The San Francisco Giants scored five runs over the last 27 innings. It didn’t even take a full inning for them to put two runs on the board in New York against the Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom.

The Giants made better strides offensively as Hunter Pence and Buster Posey found their power strokes each going yard, but it wasn’t enough.  San Francisco’s bullpen imploded during the sixth to blow the lead, then again in the ninth with two outs as the Mets walked off with the 4-3 win.

Hunter Pence hit a first inning two-run homer to right field on a fastball located on the outer corner of the plate.  Brandon Belt worked a walk from deGrom just before, as he continues to demonstrate a steady eye at the plate and is tied for fourth in the MLB for walks (24).

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Matt Moore couldn’t locate his pitches to start the game and walked Michael Conforto on four pitches. It took 36 pitches to end the inning, but not before Moore surrendered his first run on a ground-rule double hit by Neil Walker that ended up stranding Jay Bruce at first after he stroked a line drive single to center just previously.

Outside of the first inning home run by Pence, the San Francisco Giants offense continued to let opportunities slip.

Buster Posey hit a lead off double in the top of the fourth inning, but was stranded after strikeouts from Christian Arroyo and Gorkys Hernandez with a ground out by Nunez sprinkled between.

Matt Moore’s fifth inning started the exact opposite as his stellar fourth. He allowed a leadoff single to the pitcher deGrom, and Conforto followed the at bat with a single of his own. Tj Rivera then doubled on a ball that one hopped the fence in left field scoring deGrom easily from second.

San Francisco Giants’ pitching coach Dave Righetti made a coaching visit to the mound and it seemed to be the talk Moore needed. He induced infield pop ups from Bruce and Wilmer Flores for a quick two outs. He then struck out Walker on an off-speed pitch out of the zone to end the inning and damage.

Buster Posey added his seventh extra base hit this year and opened the fifth inning with his third home run of the season on a towering shot to the second deck in left field to retake the lead 3-2.  The first inning home run along with Posey’s homer notched number 21 collectively for the San Francisco Giants, and that still is the lowest in the majors behind Pittsburgh (27).

DeGrom went six innings giving up three runs on four hits, while striking out 11. Although the San Francisco Giants’ bats were silent for most of the game again, they deserve some credit for capitalizing on the few mistakes a dominant deGrom made.

Unfortunately, old ways returned one way or another as Matt Moore was pulled in the sixth with one out after giving up a single to Rene Rivera.  George Kontos came in to get the first out, before giving up a pinch-hit double to Curtis Granderson to tie the game at three all.

Derek Law struggled a bit in the eighth, but escaped a huge jam.  He walked Jose Reyes with one out and followed it up by allowing Rene Rivera to single.  Juan Rivera drew another walk from Law, which resulted in a coaching visit to the mound.  The San Francisco Giants at least went 2-2 on mound visits, as Law induced a huge inning-ending double play.

The ninth inning was more of the old times as Josh Osich started the inning recording two outs by pop ups from Bruce and T.J. Rivera.  Osich was then taken out for Hunter Strickland.  He gave up a single off his foot, and then Neil Walker hit the walk-off single to right field for the 4-3 win.  Osich was pegged with a tough luck loss, and the San Francisco Giants were tagged with an even more difficult to swallow fourth consecutive loss.

A few things stood out to me during today’s game. First, the Giants did a good job of jumping on mistakes from an ace like deGrom when he’s at his best.  Good teams make great pitchers pay for mistakes, so there’s a positive considering he didn’t make many.  Second, I’m concerned with Moore’s velocity dip and control issues.  He only walked one, but went deep into counts the entire game and luckily competed his way out of it.  Finally, Nunez continues to struggle at the plate, and has not looked comfortable in left field.  He took a few awkward routes and slid for a ball he had no chance to get early in the game.  The Giants must solve the problem in left and they know it.

San Francisco Giants will send Jeff Samardzija to the mound and hopefully stop the losing streak.  He is 0-5 with a 5.03 ERA this season.

Next: Reality Check: Giants Are Not a Good Team

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