Meltdowns of varying scale and on competing fronts for the San Francisco Giants, led to a rather ugly 7-1 loss to the Padres this afternoon.
Hours after the offense blossomed into a 16-hit, 9-run evening, manager Tony Vitello tried to run the good-vibes back, and…the batting order withered in the harsh light of the noon sun.
The team’s first failure.
The hit total from Tuesday was halved, then halved again. Just a two-out RBI single from Harrison Bader in the 7th saved the Giants from their third shutout in six games.
Up and down the line-up, San Francisco struggled to lay off high fastballs from Padre pitching. Starter Nick Pivetta, then reliever Jeremiah Estrada, then Mason Miller all pounded the top of the zone and had hitters at their mercy. Bats chased the tails of four-seams to ridiculous heights. Higher and higher their hacks went. There was no ladder they wouldn’t climb.
Pivetta surrendered just a single hit and two walks while striking out 8 over five innings. San Francisco’s only scoring threat came in the 2nd before the right-hander settled-in in the 3rd. Nasty breaking pitches broke down Casey Schmitt and Willy Adames before he finally fanned Rafael Devers on a 95 MPH letter-high fastball. He’d ultimately strike out 5 in a row from the 2nd to the 4th innings.
The straight fastball is Pivetta’s meal ticket. It really doesn’t look all that special from the couch cushion, especially in terms of velocity. The secret is it just stays up. He shows the pitch to hitters right out of his high release point. They know what’s coming, their eyes get big when they see it out of his hand, and they swing their bats around, bracing for a collision of epic proportion — and it doesn’t happen. The ball boasts that mysterious and confounding rise. Pivetta rode that rise to a 24 Fastball Run Value, good for the 99th percentile in the league in 2025.
Based on some of the chase he coaxed from Giants bats this afternoon, Pivetta’s pitch is just as enticing as it was last season. Pair it with a snapping curve/slider, and we got the makings of a frustrating day at the plate.
About the only thing the Giants hitters did was make Pivetta work. They chased him from the hill after the 5th inning — but their fastball issues didn’t go away with him out of the picture. Jeremiah Estrada took over and went right back to punching four-seamers. Higher and higher he’d go up in the zone, and still Adames and Ramos followed. Mason Miller took the mound and cruised triple-digit missiles, chased by a whiplash slider. A brutal 1-2 combo claimed Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee, and Bader to end the 9th.
The next collapse came on the other side of the baseball with two costly infield errors behind starter Adrian Houser. Both miscues came on eerily similar plays that led to San Diego’s first two runs of the day.
With two outs in the 1st and Jackson Merrill on first, Manny Machado rolled a grounder towards Matt Chapman at third. Typically, a no-go zone for grounders. The inning was all but over, but considering how deep he was playing, Chapman had to charge hard, field the ball, and throw over to first on the run. Again, this is not a real concern as we’ve seen this done countless times before. But first baseman Schmitt, in stretching for the ball, missed it entirely. The ball ricocheted off Macado’s stomach into shallow right field, allowing Merrill, who was running on the play and never stopped, to score from first.
By definition, a dumb run. A real dud. And yet that dud, only foreshadowed more to come.
Fast-forward to the 5th. Two outs, runners at the corners, and another impossibly frustratingly slow ball rolled off the bat of a Padre. Forced to charge in, forced to his left, Chapman once again sent another hurried, off-balance throw across the diamond, and once again, Schmitt couldn’t quite wrangle it, allowing San Diego to double their lead with another dumb run.
That’s one dumb run too many, and the goofed catch earned Schmitt some free and very blunt advice from Chapman when they met on the mound soon after.
Obviously both balls in play should’ve led to outs. While the errors were equitably split between the two involved, Schmitt’s inexperience showed. A more seasoned receiver jumps off the bag and tries for the tag on the first throw. On the second, he stays more upright, knowing that an exaggerated stretch exposes more than aids. And then there’s that fundamental truth that if you can get leather on the ball, you should catch it. Schmitt, as a true infielder, has built his whole life around that rule. And while he’s relatively new to the position, he is experienced at catching baseballs, and certainly knows the basic tenet of manning a base: ball, then bag. That being said, Chapman has made better throws, and Schmitt was certainly getting jerked around a bit. The first throw appeared to be spinning up the first base line, taking him uncomfortably close to the oncoming runner. The second was thrown from closer range and kept rising like a Pivetta four-seamer. But those excuses wouldn’t fly with Schmitt if he was the one playing third making that throw across the diamond. A first baseman, as the Ringo of the infield, is there to hold up and support the genius of the others. Managing the skips, short-hops, risers, and palm balls — that’s just part of the first base gig.
While those glove gaffes set the tone in the series finale, the game wasn’t completely out of reach, or obliterated beyond redemption, until José Buttó took over the 8th and delivered the coup de grâce.
The reliever’s first pitch ended up short-hopping the wall for a lead-off double by Machado. His second found an open seat beyond the left field wall. Ramon Laureano’s 2-run double put San Diego up 5-1 and seemed to shake Buttó to his core. He threw seven straight balls, walking the next two batters. Just when an offering in the zone seemed to be an impossibility, he struck out Freddy Fermin…before walking the bases loaded on four straight balls to Bryce Johnson. San Diego would add two more, extending their lead to the final 7-1, on an infield single and subsequent four-pitch walk.
Buttó surrendered four runs on three hits and four walks. Of the 28 pitches he threw before he was mercifully removed, Buttó recorded just five strikes (not including the 3 hits surrendered). It got to the point where the only explanation for such a derailment was an injury, and under this pretense he was mercifully removed. Ryan Borucki took over and needed three pitches to induce an inning-ending double-play.
While a lot of players will be leaving San Diego with their tail between their legs, there were some positives. Overall, a series win is a series win. Two out of three in San Diego is fine by me.
Luis Arraez, hitting clean-up, collected three of the team’s four hits and scored their only run. Harrison Bader came up with a face-saving, two-out RBI.
Adrian Houser, in his Giants debut, was probably kept in one or two batters too long in the 6th, nor did he get much support around him, but he threw well. He pitched to contact with a sinker-change-up interplay similar to Webb’s, and on a better day more representative of the infield’s abilities, he’ll be rewarded for eliciting those ground balls.
Speaking of which, while Chapman and Schmitt struggled to connect, Chapman and fellow Gold Glover Patrick Bailey had no trouble teaming up for a couple of slick, run-saving putouts.
At least someone can catch the f***ing ball.
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