Giants' offense does just enough to win, pitching seals it against Marlins

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

MIAMI – On the concern scale, the San Francisco Giants ' ineffectiveness against left-handed starters took a back seat to their collective weeks-long slump at the plate.
Entering the final game of a three-city, nine-game, 11-day road trip, the Giants were hoping to snap a 13-game streak in which they've been unable to score more than four runs. An added difficulty was facing the task against tough Miami Marlins lefty Ryan Weathers.
The Giants extended the streak to 14 games, but did beat a lefty starter to clinch the series in their 4-2 win on Sunday afternoon.
Luis Matos, playing center field against a left-handed starter in place of a resting Jung Hoo Lee, got the elusive big hit. In the fourth inning, Matos crushed Weathers' changeup that hung in the zone for a three-run home run. It was his fourth home run of the year and the Giants' fourth HR of the road trip.
Still, Matos' blast was their only hit with runners in scoring position of the afternoon.
Earlier, Wilmer Flores made good on one of a handful of scoring opportunities. Heliot Ramos – who was among baseball's top performers in May with a 1.007 OPS and .347 average in 25 games – had collected his second hit of the game and Tyler Fitzgerald, batting second, drew a walk to busy the bases. The pair executed a double-steal for Flores, who notched his 47th RBI of the year with a groundout.
While the offense is mostly to blame for a 13-14 record for the month of May, the pitching staff put together one of the best months in franchise history to keep them afloat.
The staff's 2.64 May ERA is San Francisco's lowest for a single month since September and October 2010, whose staff had a 1.91 ERA en route to a World Series title. The last time the Giants had such a low ERA with a losing record was when the 1985 team put together a 2.53 ERA with a 7-12 record as a team.
Starter Hayden Birdsong kept the May trend going into the first day of June. The 23-year-old glided through the first five innings, allowing just two hits with all four of his pitches working in harmony.
Similar to his start in Detroit, Birdsong ran into trouble as he saw the Marlins lineup a third time through and his pitch count got into the 80s. One out into the sixth, the top of the lineup scored a run on back-to-back-to-back singles. Ryan Walker, in his new role out of the closer spot, retired the side in relief.
In his third start since replacing Jordan Hicks in the rotation, Birdsong went 5 ⅓ innings with one run allowed on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks. He induced 12 swing-and-misses.
Jordan Hicks, who hadn't pitched since Monday, added a stressful inning in the seventh. He walked three of the four batters he faced before Tyler Rogers took over. A short hopper by Xavier Edwards, his fourth of five hits on the day, scored the runner from third, but Rogers struck out Jesus Sanchez and got the inning-ending groundout.
There was more trouble for the typically-nails bullpen in the eighth inning. Erik Miller put the game-tying run on third base, giving up a leadoff single and a double. That brought in Camilo Doval, who walked the bases loaded before getting the inning-ending ground out.
Doval converted his second straight four-out save.