SF Giants hit new low after finding another painful way to lose

Amid a season filled with dubious distinctions, the San Francisco Giants took it a step further and did something that they had never happened before: starting 0-6 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, getting swept in both series. The last time the Giants even got swept twice by the D-Backs in three-game-or-longer series over a full season was in 2007, but doing it in the first two series of the season was uncharted territory.

In each of those six meetings against Arizona, something has gone wrong for the Giants. Whether it was the offense underperforming or the pitching staff not holding its own, putting together a clean, complete outing seemed like mission impossible against those pesky Diamondbacks.

"There's been a little theme to each one of those games in specific the three there," Tony Vitello said following the Giants' 6-3 series-finale loss. "Yesterday we just didn't kinda match everything up. We swung the bat fairly well on a night, where typically this place plays a bit to favoring if you can get five or six on the board, you're in good shape.

The Giants keep finding ways to lose

On Wednesday, with a chance to salvage a series and some of their pride, the Giants were hampered by a risky coaching decision, a baserunning blunder, and an error on a routine play. They fell to 0-29 on the season when trailing after the seventh inning.

The Giants were down by just one run in the bottom of the eighth inning. After Willy Adames got himself in scoring position with a sun-aided double — his 17th, which is tied for the most in MLB — third-base coach Hector Borg decided to aggressively send him home on a shallow flare single by Luis Arraez. Adames ended up getting thrown out at the plate, Arraez got picked off at second on the ensuing at-bat, and the Giants squandered two massive opportunities to get back in the game.

Baserunning was one of Tony Vitello's focus points during spring training. So being the worst baserunning team in the league, while owning the third-lowest on-base percentage in all of baseball (.293), must mean something wasn't done right, or at least that something needs to change.

"I think a part of it is it needs to revisited more," Tony Vitello said. "I think those things need to be revisited, whether they're mentally or actually physically with reps."

The bold decision to give Adames the windmill sign was more than questionable, especially knowing that Casey Schmitt — the Giants' hottest hitter this season — was in the batter's box with just one out. As for Arraez, a baserunning mistake is the most polite way to describe it.

Giants third-base coach Hector Borg — who had just come back from the Dominican Republic, where he attended his grandmother's funeral — took heat from fans when he decided not to send Drew Gilbert in the 10th inning of the Giants' second game in Philadelphia on April 30. This time, he went for it, and it wasn't the right call either.

"With the one out, it was obviously clearly aggressive," Vitello said of Hector Borg's decision to send in Adames. "The easy answer to be honest with you is the right thing usually the thing that works out," he said when asked whether he agreed with the decision.

Adames has been at the center of multiple controversies this season. He was the one who ran through a stop sign on May 5. He was called out for chatting it up with Mookie Betts and then forgetting the number of outs in the inning. But this time, he wasn't responsible.

"I don't think I could have done anything else," Adames said postgame. "When you get swept twice by the same team, it's embarrassing."

Adames went 7-for-20 with two doubles, a triple, and three home runs (1.435 OPS) in the two series against Arizona. But no matter how hot his bat gets, his defensive and mental lapses will always overshadow his offensive prowess. Nobody in the majors has committed more errors than him (10), and his -8 Outs Above Average mark is tied for the third-lowest.

Three of those errors have occurred over the Giants' six meetings with the Diamondbacks. His first one came in the opening game of the first series, when he failed to properly field a ground ball, costing his team a run. The second one took place on Monday, when his airmailed throw to first started a three-run rally from Arizona. And his last one was a low throw to first that allowed a runner to advance to third base.

The offense, once again, didn't show up

The Giants put up just 17 runs against the D-Backs over the two three-game series — 2.8 runs per game — but the pitching also had its low moments. Robbie Ray allowed 10 runs in the series opener last week. The bullpen blew a two-run lead in the ninth and allowed four runs in four innings on Wednesday.

The offense sputtered when hits were needed most, going just 6-for-39 (.154) with runners in scoring position over the six games. And when the Giants appeared to finally come up with the big hit, their ballpark played against them. Two of the doubles hit by Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge would have been home runs in every other ballpark but their own. Whether it would have changed the turn of events will forever remain unknown.

Devers' 397-foot two-run double could have been a three-run home run that gave the Giants a bigger cushion. Eldridge's 407-foot flyout could have been a game-tying, momentum-shifting solo shot. But both of those balls stayed in the park, just like many will in the future. A team relying on "could have beens" and "what ifs" is probably not headed in the right direction. And that's exactly where the Giants are going.

They're a season-low 12 games under .500 at 22-34. They are 7-12 and on an eight-game losing streak against NL West rivals. And the five sweeps they've suffered so far this season are tied with the Detroit Tigers for the most in the majors.

Only one team in the National League has a worse record than the Giants right now: the Colorado Rockies, and they'll face them over the weekend. Logan Webb will be back on the mound on Friday at Coors Field, and whether Trevor McDonald — who allowed three runs in six innings on Wednesday — will remain in the rotation is still a question mark.

A series win in Colorado would probably not be enough to wash away the disappointment of those two humiliating series sweeps, but another series loss would take the Giants to a place they really don't want to visit, a place where some thorny and uncomfortable questions are asked.

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