Offense remains a mystery to Giants as Padres win with a 10-inning shutout

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

Perhaps we might have anticipated such an evening at Oracle Park, where the San Francisco Giants played host to division-rival San Diego.
Neither team is scoring much but both are still sticking around in the NL West. The Giants entered the day with a better run differential, despite the Padres' high-profile lineup, and both teams have strong pitching. Logan Webb was tops in that category Monday, turning in eight shutout innings, but the Padres eked out a 1-0 win with a bunt and a sacrifice fly to send in the placed runner in the 10th inning against Ryan Walker.
The Giants had their own chance with placed runner Jung Hoo Lee, and Christian Koss moved him to third with a bunt, but Matt Chapman hit a 109.7 mph grounder, the hardest hit ball of the night, at third baseman Jose Iglesias for the second out and Jerar Encarnacion, just off the injured list, lined out to first against Robert Suarez at 101 mph.
"Extremely hard hit," manager Bob Melvin said of the final two outs. "Really, the last couple innings were probably our best at-bats throughout the course of the game, we smoked some balls in the later innings."
Entering the day, San Diego was in second place, two games behind the Dodgers but with a plus-15 run differential, while the Giants were three games back with a plus-42.
Webb allowed six hits, walked none and struck out seven while lowering his ERA to 2.55, and he is starting to look like a legit All-Star candidate to go along with rotation-mate Robbie Ray.
"I think that's the best I've ever seen him," catcher Patrick Bailey said.
Using his slider more often than usual, Webb was especially tough the few times the Padres had men in scoring position, striking out Tyler Wade with men at the corners and one out in the second — and Bailey turned it into a double play, throwing out Jake Cronenworth trying to steal second as Wade took his hack. The next inning, with runners at second and third, Webb got DH Manny Machado to pop up a 3-1 sweeper to end the inning.
Three players took pitches off their hands Monday, including San Francisco first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., who exited the game after the inning. Wade has had a miserable season, batting .167 with a .271 on-base percentage, and the team activated Encarnacion earlier in the day, giving them three potential options at first, with Casey Schmitt and Wilmer Flores also available, though all three are right-handed hitters. Melvin said that Wade had an X-ray and was diagnosed with a right hand contusion.
When Stephen Kolek also added Flores to his hit-batter count in the third, the typically impassive Flores pointed at Kolek and barked a bit, even as Kolek tapped his chest to say 'my bad.' The umpire crew huddled, then home-plate umpire Ryan Willis and crew chief Lance Barksdale had a chat with San Diego manager Mike Shildt. There were no more HBPs from that point on.
The Giants didn't lack for baserunners, they just couldn't do anything with them, especially in the second, when they loaded the bases in the second with no outs (their robust attack: walk, hit batter, walk). Stephen Kolek got Tyler Fitzgerald to bounce into a force that erased Willy Adames at the plate and Heliot Ramos to hit into a double play. The next inning's double play came courtesy Chapman.
In the seventh, the Giants put together another stirring rally (walk, walk, walk) but with two outs, Jeremiah Estrada struck Lee out on three pitches, and in the eighth, with a chance to give Webb a W, the team had men at second and third after a Flores hit, an intentional walk to Adames and a wild pitch, but Schmitt struck out.
The team went 1-for-12 with men in scoring position. In the past 10 games, they're batting .116 with runners in scoring position and have scored just 18 runs.
"I know we're going to step it up eventually," Bailey said. "Obviously we have hit a lot of balls hard off one of the best pitchers in the game and it just doesn't go our way."
Chapman did provide one of the few fun moments of the night with a leaping catch in the seventh that robbed Cronenworth of a hit.