Giants lose a real bummer of a game, 6-4

What began as a tightly contested pitching duel starring a revitalized Tyler Beede ended up as a frustrating, rotten, dull loss. It was a 1-1 game going into the sixth, and Beede looked as good as he had in over a month. Everything went downhill from there. At first, it only looked like the Giants would lose a game they probably could have won, but then the Giants lost one of their better bullpen arms when Trevor Gott came out of the game with an apparent elbow injury.

Not even a nonsense rally to start the ninth inning could lessen that sting. Sure, it was hilarious watching the Diamondbacks dropping every ball hit their way, but it was futile misdirection. All it did was serve to remind that the Giants should have taken control earlier.

Tyler Beede didn’t need to be given this start. Shaun Anderson is back and healthy and Dereck Rodríguez could have taken the start to give Beede some rest and time to clear his head. But Beede, for all his struggles this, has greater potential than the other two. He’s not going to figure things out off the mound.

I don’t know if this start proves that he’s figured anything out, but he looked much sharper than he had the last few times out. Things unraveled pretty quickly in the sixth; a two-out error turned into two runs by way of two groundball singles and a wild pitch. Still, even with the nonsense to end his night, this was his best start since he shut down the Mets for eight innings over a month ago. 5 2/3 innings, four strikeouts, no walks, three runs, one of them earned.

Beede had found success with by using the slider as his second pitch, but he went back to his roots tonight. When he wasn’t throwing the fastball, he was going to the changeup and curveball while occasionally mixing in the slider. The Diamondbacks helpfully swung at a few curves well below the zone, and Beede managed to steal a few strikes with his bendy boy.

Beede’s best pitch of the night was a 3-2 fastball to Eduardo Escobar that he threw right at the top of the strike zone. Escobar swung through it and looked completely overpowered.

That was one of seven whiffs Beede accumulated tonight out of 88 pitches. Ideally, you’d see a few more if we add in the called strikes, Beede looks much better. A 30.7 CSW (called strikes plus whiffs) percentage is above average.

Beede gave up some loud contact but most of it went on the ground or found a glove including his own. Beede caught a comebacker in much the same way that Jake Peavy caught that lob from Buster Posey.

Old school pitching coaches tell players to finish in a good fielding position, and Beede couldn’t have positioned himself any better.

The Giants had an opportunity to not only tie the game or take the lead, but to have a big inning in the sixth, but it was squandered with some poor baserunning and a dubious strike three call.

After knocking in his first major league run, Abiatal Avelino notched his first major league TOOTBLAN. Avelino ran through a stop sign which made Duane Kuiper extremely cranky. As it should have. The only way Avelino was going to score on that is if Jarrod Dyson threw the ball into the backstop.

There’s no telling what would have happened if Avelino had held up at third, but that would have loaded the bases for Alex Dickerson. Dickerson drew a walk in our timeline and that would have turned into a run in the non-TOOTBLAN timeline.

It also would have given the Giants one more out to play with after Donovan Solano got the Brandon Belt treatment on a 1-2 pitch. It wasn’t the worst called strike I’ve ever seen, but it didn’t have to be a strike.

Instead of getting two or more runs, the Giants got just the one. Because the Giants always increase their deficit when they blow a chance to erase it, the Giants gave up two runs in the top of the seventh.

Birthday boy Trevor Gott came in and Trevor Gott did not have a good birthday. Things were fine for a bit, but somewhere along the way, something twinged in Gott’s elbow. He lost three miles on the fastball and the ability to throw the curveball.

Gott was pulled mid-at-bat without protestation which is never a good sign. You want the player to at least think that they’re fine, but the only resistance Gott offered was silence.

Gott has been solid all year, and until Mike Yastrzemski and Alex Dickerson showed up, he was the best addition to the roster. Hopefully, whatever this is, it’s resolved by Opening Day next year. For now, I’m expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

Update:

Gott missed 10 days with a forearm strain at the end of May. Let’s hope that’s what this is.

Fun Fact!

Adam Jones has hit two home runs since June 15 and both have come against the Giants. Isn’t that fun?

This game stunk, but it wasn’t all bad. Brandon Crawford collected three hits bringing him to 12-for-30 since the beginning of the last road trip. That’s a .400 average. Crawford’s having his worst full season, but maybe he’s going to stay hot the rest of the way. His September looking like last May would be rad and I am all for it. Heck, if his September looks like his July I’d be over the moon.