Giants set a San Francisco era record with 11th straight loss

Say what you will about the Facebook broadcasts, they’ve been a huge hit.

Just about everyone loves them.

Facebook’s broadcasts not only bring people from all over the globe together to watch a game of baseball, it can reconnect families separated by thousands of miles.

It’s helping grow the sport.

And it gives fans a chance to ask the important questions.

Buddy, I wish I knew. Giants games would be so much better without the actual Giants. A couple days ago, I said that watching this team is better than no baseball at all. Well, I’ve changed my mind. Double digit losing streaks really remove some of the joy from watching a baseball team.

The Giants, in case you needed reminding, tied a San Francisco era record for the longest losing streak last night. Today, they set a record.

If only you knew, Laura.

The losing streak is now at 11 games. You don’t lose 11 games in a row without being a little unlucky. With two outs and a runner on third, Evan Longoria had to make a back-handed play and a long throw to first. Belt stretched out for it and allegedly took his foot off the bag. No angle clearly showed whether Belt had taken his foot off the bag or not, but—look, Belt didn’t take his foot off the forking bag. Replay is broken. They took three minutes to get that call wrong, and it cost the Giants this game.

Okay, that’s not all that cost the Giants the game. You also don’t lose 11 games in a row without playing terrible baseball. In order for the Giants to win this game, they would have had to score more than one run which they have failed to do in the last three games. The call just expedited the loss. Only scoring one run isn’t conducive to success. The Giants were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position which was equal parts the Giants putting their foot in a bucket and Ozzie Albies being excellent.

Today’s game wound up being a pitcher’s duel between Derek Holland and Anibal Sanchez just like we were all waiting for this winter. Despite being one of the worst pitchers in the majors over the last few years, Sanchez has been perfectly fine this year. Over 113 ²⁄₃ innings, he’s put together a 3.09 ERA. Today however, he certainly looked like the Sanchez of the last few seasons. But he was facing the Giants, who can’t hit anyone right now. Over the losing streak, they’ve scored just 26 runs which is bad even for the Giants.

The Giants somehow managed to scrap out a run against Sanchez in the third inning, but they couldn’t capitalize on any other opportunity. What went wrong for the Giants? Let’s ask the good people at Facebook.

They pinned that! Leave Chris Shaw alone! He’s just a boy!

Let’s ask someone else.

There you have it. The Braves did it.

Double plays ultimately killed the Giants’ hopes of scoring more than one run. In the first, Brandon Crawford grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out. In the fourth, the Giants loaded the bases again when Sanchez walked Holland who was trying to bunt. Joe Panik, who had three other hits in the game, got doubled up by Ozzie Albies.

Albies stopped another run in the seventh by ranging far to his let to field a grounder hit by Brandon Crawford. This came after the Giants were given a gift. Alen Hanson tried to bunt over Panik and Jesse Biddle lobbed the ball 20 feet over first base. It looked like the Giants would have runners at first and third with no out, but Hanson made a move to go to second and the Braves tagged him out. Had Hanson not TOOTBLAN’d himself, a run would have scored on the Albies play.

Though the Giants only managed the one run against Sanchez, Holland continued his streak of excellence. He gave up just the one run while striking out seven in six innings. It appeared that his efforts would be wasted when Reyes Moronta came in for relief in the seventh. Moronta came walked Charlie Culberson, gave up a double to Ender Inciarte, and walked Dansby Swanson. It appeared the Giants were doomed.

Tony Watson came in to face old friend Adam Duvall, who is really making friends in Atlanta.

It would have been very on brand for Duvall to hit a grand slam there, but he didn’t! He popped out which just goes to show, you can take the player out of the Giants but you can’t take the Giants out of the player.

Watson wasn’t out of it, though. He had to get through Ronald Acuna Jr. and Albies, which seems impossible, but he struck out both. After the Giants wasted two bases-loaded situations, it felt inevitable that they would lose because they couldn’t wiggle out of their own jam, but Watson came up huge.

After Watson got out of the seventh, it felt like maybe, just maybe, the Giants could end their losing streak, but no.

If you forget about the 11-game losing streak and the bullshirt call in the ninth, this game sure did provide a lot of excitement.

Aw dang, baseball has been roasted beyond recognition.

RIP