Giants fall to Rangers, 9-3

The San Francisco Giants lost to the Texas Rangers tonight, 9-3.

It seemed at first like things might go the other way, given how things went early on. The Rangers struck first with a solo shot from Corey Seager in the first inning, but then Rangers starting pitcher Andrew Heaney was pulled out of the game after just one out in the second inning.

Wilmer Flores doubled with two outs in the inning, followed by a single to left from Patrick Bailey that saw Flores getting sent home. By all rights, he should have been out. There was plenty of time. But the ball took a weird hop at the plate and shot like 10 feet straight up into the air, allowing Flores to score the first run of the game for the Giants. That’s the kind of bulls**t luck that usually comes around in a win. Not so much, tonight.

Sometimes I like to give a brief insight into my writing process by sharing my notes from throughout the game. I feel like tonight, it’s actually the best way I can describe some of it.

“Top 4th: Implosion! At the disco
Top 5th: Implosion 2: Deja Vu
Top 9th: Implosion! From the ferry line”

I don’t even know what to say, man. There was almost nothing going right for anyone in tonight’s game. Alex Cobb struggled. Alex Wood struggled in relief and helped cash in some of Cobb’s runs and earned some of his own. The defense at times looked like if someone were juggling tin cans, without realizing there was a giant magnet in the ceiling. And the offense was demoralizing.

Honestly, let’s pick on them.

It’s not as though they didn’t get on base. They had every opportunity to do damage. Big damage. Nine hits and four walks. They had bases loaded with no outs, twice! But say it with me now: “And they didn’t manage to score.” That’s right. Both ended in double plays. They were collectively 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The Rangers were 7-for-15.

That’s your game right there. Sure, the Alexes gave up nine runs. But 1-for-12 RISP isn’t winning even much closer games than that.

Now, there were some highlights in tonight’s game. Alex Wood saved the bullpen by eating four innings after Cobb’s exit in the fifth. Jakob Junis got two much needed outs in the top of the ninth. Michael Conforto homered.

But the biggest highlight of the night has to be Heliot Ramos’ first career home run in the bottom of the ninth:

By this point in the game, I was only half paying attention while eating, and gave a half-hearted sarcastic “woo” without realizing who was batting. Yes, I did retract it. Thanks for giving us a nice memory from this game, Ramos. /tips cap

At this point, the Giants are watching their hopes of October drip away. And not slowly. They had been within striking distance-ish of the Los Angeles Dodgers about a week ago, and sat pretty solidly at the top of the Wild Card heap.

And then they played like this for most of the last week, losing six of their last seven, and find themselves eight and half games back in the NL West, and just barely clinging on to the second Wild Card spot, with a .500 record quickly creeping up on them.

It’s...not great.