Giants continue to get “boat raced” by Diamondbacks, fall 10-4

On Friday night, after the Arizona Diamondbacks came into Oracle Park and took the complete path of annihilation by dismantling the San Francisco Giants 18-2, manager Bruce Bochy said that his Giants got “boat raced” by Arizona. So, not knowing what that meant, I looked it up and was kindly given the answer by 247Sports:

“It comes from a rowing competition. It was called The Boat Race. The term boat raced was dubbed because once a boat gained a lead in the competition they could get into the middle of the river where the channel was and were almost assured a win.”

Even though it was RHP Taylor Clarke now manning the boat, it was clear that the Diamondbacks had absolutely no intention of abdicating the channel. Or basically even throwing the Giants an inch or three in this series so far.

Prior to the game, the Giants were busy shaking up their roster by designating OF Mac Williamson for assignment in order to make room for 28-year-old OF Mike Yastrzemski (.316/.414/.676 with AAA-Sacramento). Yastrzemski is the grandson of hall-of-fame Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski so the young man has some pretty large shoes to fill, especially when it comes to the Giants who have been suffering from some pretty bad outfield issues over the last few seasons.

Along with Yastrzemski, RHP Trevor Gott was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right forearm strain and RHP Dereck Rodriguez was recalled from Sacramento.

The curse of the first inning woes continued for the Giants after an error off Pablo Sandoval allowed Ketel Marte to score. However, Kevin Pillar continued to do his best Superman impressions in outfield by making a diving play and throwing into a double play to end the first inning, limiting the damage to only two runs.

Unfortunately, that would be one of the only highlights in an otherwise painful loss.

All eyes were agog in the bottom of the second when Yastrzemski made his major league batting debut, but unfortunately (which will be our Word of the Day today) he struck out.

Though the Giants did manage to get on the board during this inning, thanks to starting pitcher Andrew Suarez, who came up with bases loaded and managed to knock in Brandon Belt when Nick Ahmed fumbled the ball. This put them within one run of the Diamondbacks, but that would be the closest they would get to catching up to them during this game.

The Diamondbacks busted open a can of worms in the third, starting with Marte hitting a solo homer off of Suarez, followed by IIdemaro Vargas scoring off an Eduardo Escobar double, putting Arizona up 4-1 with zero outs. Adam Jones pushed it up to 5-1 by hitting a sac fly and scoring Escobar before the Giants were actually able to scurry out of the inning.

After tacking on another run in the fourth, Arizona’s first baseman Kevin Cron got his first hit in the majors in the top of the fifth and also his first major league RBI when he doubled and scored in Adam Jones, putting the visitors up 7-1 as the home team almost helplessly looked on. Suarez was taken out and replaced by Sam Dyson, who ended up giving up another run. Two runners also scored off of a Belt error at first, bringing the score to 10-1.

The only other time the Giants managed to score during the game was in the bottom of the seventh when relief pitcher Andrew Chafin walked Evan Longoria with the bases loaded (Yastrzemski, who had walked after being hit with the ball, was walked in and tacked on his first major league score). Sandoval then hit to center field with the bases loaded and scored Tyler Austin and Joe Panik, making it 10-4.

And 10-4 is where it would stay.

It makes sense that the meaning of “10-4” in CB code actually means “message received and understood,” because the Giants sure as heck managed to understand the message that the Diamondbacks had sent in these past two games. That message?

“Stay out of our channel.”