SF Giants keep finding out how little margin for error they really have

As is often the case with this SF Giants squad this season, one bad stretch, one bad inning, is enough for a winnable game to slip away and turn into another disappointing loss. That's how thin the margins are for this team. Allowing two runs in one inning becomes almost unforgivable. And that's what happened in their 4-3 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot park, dropping them to 31-44 on the season.

Landen Roupp hasn't picked up a win since April 26 at Oracle Park against this same Marlins team. Since then, he's gone 0-6, and the team has now lost nine straight games with him on the mound. Roupp started his third major-league season as one of the sharpest pitchers in MLB and looked like a future ace early on. The Giants won five of his first six starts, and the 27-year-old posted a 2.55 ERA and 0.91 WHIP.

There were shades of that version of him against the Marlins on Friday afternoon, as Roupp pitched through the fifth inning for the first time since May 19 and allowed just two runs while issuing only one walk. For the first time in a while, he put his team in a position to win. Roupp generated a season-high 16 swings and misses.

"I thought his mix was great and then kind of trying to sniff out what they're trying to do and made some adjustments," said Vitello about his pitcher's performance. "Somebody smarter I said, I forgot which pitcher, maybe Sandy Koufax, you get swing and misses when you're not trying to get swing-and-misses and he showed I thought a lot more intent to get contact tonight."

Then came the seventh inning and Sam Hentges. In his 16th appearance of the year, the 29-year-old southpaw opened the inning by hitting a batter, then gave up a bunt before surrendering the game-tying single and the winning sacrifice fly. He faced a total of four batters but retired just one. Miami's pitchers proceeded to retire the next nine Giants hitters, putting an end to another three-game winning streak — an insurmountable barrier for the Giants this season.

Now more than 75 games into the season, only three teams in the major leagues haven't put together a four-game winning streak yet. The Giants — along with the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles — are on this unwanted list. Following their two-win day in Atlanta, the Giants granted themselves a fifth opportunity this season to finally reach that elusive mark, and they failed again. Their previous failed attempt came against the Cubs in Chicago on June 6 in a 3-2 extra-innings loss.

"I mean you guys (the reporters) bring it up so it's hard not to, and it's fair bring up too," said Tony Vitello on not having a four-game winning streak yet. "You'd like to go on a roll, but you know I think it'd be good for, you know, three and then maybe three and then three, so maybe if there's been more of that we'd be in a happier place and not even worrying about it, but it'll happen at some point with this group."

For the SF Giants, the number four has a symbolic meaning

The number four has been a symbolic one for this team, especially when associated with another word: runs. This lineup couldn't get more than three runs on the board for the 44th time this season — the most by any team in the majors. Over those 44 games, the Giants have gone 7-37 (.159), the sixth-lowest winning percentage.

On the flip side, when the Giants do manage to put up at least four runs, they're 24-7 (.774), the ninth-highest winning percentage in the league. Daniel Susac almost drove in four runs by himself in the second inning on a long fly ball with the bases loaded. Seven players were left on base. They went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position. One more hit might have been enough. But that hit never came, and the Giants lost the game.

"It doesn't guarantee a victory, and if the game is tied 4-4 going into the bottom fo the inning or going into the 10th, doesn't assure you a victory but I do think it simplifies things for us," Vitello said on this 4-run mark. "But you gotta combine defense with that, and pitching as well and we'd like to win some games where we only score three, maybe even two. It'd be great if we scored more than four, but it's a mark."

This lineup should reach that coveted four-run mark more often, or at least it has what it takes to do so. But it should also be able to win games when it doesn't. The bullpen hasn't offered that luxury.

It's hard to believe that this group of relievers used to be one of the best in baseball. Back in April, the Giants' bullpen owned the second-lowest ERA, at just 3.19, and opponents were batting just .220, the fourth-lowest mark at the time. Since then, the bullpen has posted a 4.98 ERA, the seventh-worst in MLB, and opposing hitters are now batting .264, which is tied for the fourth-highest mark in the majors.

Eldridge’s legendary streak finally ends

One player who will most certainly make that four-run mark more attainable in the future is Bryce Eldridge, whose 22-game on-base streak eventually came to an end after he went 0-for-4 with a strikeout against the Marlins.

Still, Eldridge is now tied for seventh on the list of longest on-base streaks at age 21 or younger in Giants history. Since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958, only Willie McCovey's 25-game streak ranks ahead of him.

Here are the staggering numbers he put up during his streak: .403 batting average, .489 on-base percentage, .701 slugging percentage, 1.190 OPS, 14 walks against just 14 strikeouts, 14 runs batted in, and five home runs. The future is bright, very bright.

Winning a baseball game usually requires a team to get average-to-good production from multiple areas of the game: on offense, on defense, on the mound, and from the bullpen. More often than not, the Giants check at least two or three of those boxes. The issue is that one unchecked box is enough to cost them the game. Yesterday in Miami was the latest example of just how thin the margins are.

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