SAN FRANCISCO — On an afternoon the Giants honored members from their 1989 pennant-winning team, the result mirrored the World Series of 29 years ago.
Athletics win convincingly, Giants fade quietly.
This series wasn’t an A’s sweep like 1989, but Oakland still won two of three after the Giants took Game 1 of the Bay Bridge series Friday night. This weekend also marked the first home series San Francisco dropped since April 8-10 against the Diamondbacks.
The Giants were 10-0-2 in their 12 home series since before losing Sunday’s rubber match.
They enter the All-Star break at 50-48 after a 6-2 loss Sunday, sitting fourth in the NL West but only four games out of a division lead and four from a Wild Card berth. It’ll take much more than the Giants offered Sunday to reach either of those points, though, as the iffy pitching and stagnant bats that sent the Giants into the hiatus with a thud would only make matters worse in the second half.
“We’re gonna have to get some guys hot,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We had some guys that had a tough series here.”
Andrew Suarez had gone six consecutive starts allowing two earned runs or fewer, and he’d only allowed four or more in one of 10 starts this season. That hiccup came June 8 against the Nationals when he allowed four runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 9-5 Giants win. The left-hander threw four scoreless frames in five innings of work on Sunday. It was the one outlier that proved too much for the Giants to overcome, a four-run fourth inning for the Athletics with the Giants holding a 1-0 edge.
Five straight A’s reached base in the inning, the last four via singles, and the last three of those driving in runs.
“I just left a few balls up,” Suarez said. “They just put it in play, two bloopers and two ground balls … it happens.”
With the exception of Chase d’Arnaud, the Giants’ bats didn’t seem up to the task of clawing back. d’Arnaud popped a solo shot to center in the bottom of the sixth for his second home run of the month, but not much else surfaced from the home lineup. Only three players, d’Arnaud, Brandon Crawford and Gorkys Hernandez, registered hits. The Giants only stepped to the plate twice with runners in scoring position on the afternoon.
“I’d say more than anything it’s just getting consistent with putting runs on the board,” Bochy said when asked where his team needs to improve most. “We stalled again today. Their guy did a pretty good job on us, shut down the heart of our order. We gotta probably drive the ball a little bit more. I think we only have, what, six home runs this month?”
A’s reliever Lou Trivino threw 36 pitches on Saturday night, but he needed only 12 to retire the Giants in the eighth a day later. Alen Hanson led off the eighth with a four-pitch walk, but pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval grounded into a 4-6-3 double play the next batter. Oakland added an insurance run in the ninth, and All-Star closer Blake Treinen mowed down the heart of the Giants’ order to shut the door.
Bochy said he’ll mull over giving some guys rest days more often to try and spark that power in the lineup. The Giants’ six home runs this month have come from Sandoval (two), d’Arnaud (two), Hanson (one) and Hernandez (one), and the Giants hope to see more power from the likes of Brandon Belt and Andrew McCutchen in the heart of their order come the second half.
Pitching, too, needs to be more consistent on a day-to-day basis, and Bochy hopes a Dereck Rodriguez-Madison Bumgarner-Johnny Cueto threesome in the Giants’ first series back against the Athletics will kick the tires on what he hopes is a stronger second half.
