Can you hit a fastball?

For the purposes of this headline, I mean a four-seam fastball. I know you’re reading this not even thinking about that. You’re thinking about Pavin Smith’s absolute bomb of a walk-off 2-run home run against Randy Rodríguez that extended the San Francisco Giants’ losing streak to a season-high 5 games in a 4-2 loss against their Wild Card division rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It stunk.

But! It probably was to be expected. The Giants are without some of their better hitters, with Thairo Estrada still out after jamming his thumb a few days ago. This was Michael Conforto’s first game back off a lengthy IL stint. No LaMonte Wade Jr., which in previous years would’ve been mitigated by more playing time for Wilmer Flores, but Flores firmly has Old Ballplayer Disease with a .559 OPS in the first 49 games of the season, his worst start ever and worst start since his first full season in 2014:

Ashes to ashes...

That leaves a lineup of fellow strugglers Jorge Soler and Mike Yastrzemski to solidify a core of Patrick Bailey, Matt Chapman, and Heliot Ramos, flanked by 28-year old minor leaguer Trenton Brooks, all or nothing swinger Casey Schmitt, and light-hitting Brett Wisely. It’s, uh, not what you want, and certainly far from the plan when the team was put together in the offseason, and as a test of depth, it’s intense and comprehensive.

At the same time, hitting a major league fastball seems like one of the lowest bars to clear in a positive way, and at least tonight, both teams struggled to do this.

See, the Diamondbacks came into the game with a team wRC+ of 102, just behind the Giants’ 103. As a team, they were, according to Statcast, +17 against four-seam fastballs. The Giants were +14. Why do I keep mentioning the four-seam fastball? It was the key pitch in tonight’s game.

Dbacks starter Ryne Nelson, holder of a 6.02 ERA and 4.26 FIP heading into tonight’s contest, threw his four-seamer 38 times tonight, ranging 94-96 with it, and gave up just 2 hits: leadoff singles to Brett Wisely (in the 4th) and Casey Schmitt (in the 8th). Spencer Howard, in the bulk role for the Giants tonight, threw his four-seamer 39 times and allowed just 3 hits — though 2 of those came in his first inning of work (the 2nd) and included a 2-run home run off Blaze Alexander after a triple to Eugenio Suarez.

You could chalk that up a bit more to nerves than anything else, because Howard was otherwise extremely effective. His final line of 4.2 IP 4 H 2 ER 0 BB 3 K (1 HRA) is almost the perfect outcome for the bulk innings guy in a designed bullpen game. His four-seamer sat more in the 93-95 range, but he had a nice pitch mix to keep hitters a bit off balance. It is extremely difficult to hit major league pitching, of course, but you’d think the four-seam fastballs would be one of the easier ones to hit, even if the biometrics revolution have made them faster and “heavier” than ever before.

Both lineups’ struggles against the fastball necessitated some sort of skill against the other pitches, and to that point some of the Giants managed to excel. Matt Chapman’s double in the top of the 4th to get the Giants on the board came on a Nelson cutter; Soler’s single to leadoff the 5th came on a slider; Wisely’s 1-out double in the 6th was against the cutter, too; and in a nice bit of symmetry to bookend this compound sentence, Heliot Ramos’s impressive home run in the top of the 7th that tied the game at 2 was off Nelson’s slider:

Mike Yastrzemski put a swift end to a potential rally in the top of the 5th when he grounded into a double play on a 1-1 changeup, though, and generally speaking, the struggling hitters struggled some more. The Giants still managed to have 14 of the hardest hit balls of the night (95+ mph exit velocity, of which there were 24 total), and it was a solid mix of players: Chapman (twice), Ramos (thrice), Soler (twice), Wisely (twice), Schmitt, Conforto, Patrick Bailey, Yastrzemski (twice). Unfortunately, the hits weren’t timed well enough and despite striking out just 2 times all night, they drew 0 walks, which might’ve helped them out.

But it came down to success against good ol’ #1, and the Giants didn’t really have it when it counted. The Diamondbacks started off the game hitting Erik Miller’s four-seamer, who just barely escaped without allowing a run after the 2-on, nobody out jam he found himself in just 6 pitches into his opener role. It ended with Pavin Smith’s pinch-hit walk-off 2-run home run off Randy Rodríguez’s 98 mph four-seam fastball.

In a 5-game losing streak, there’s going to be a lot of bad breaks that go against you. While the Giants are, generally speaking, an inferior roster compared to the Yankees and Phillies and so, as such, perhaps 4 of the 5 straight losses to this point can be forgiven, tonight featured a pair of moments that really stick out. The top of the 9th featured two chances to score:

• Heliot Ramos’s second hit of the night was a single to left center that made it very easy for Matt Chapman to advance from first to third on, but fielded in a way that Chapman’s momentum might’ve carried him all the way home and safely. But Matt Wiliams over at third base didn’t wave him in and, ultimately, that was the right decision, I think, because two of the three outcomes could’ve been disastrous. There could’ve been 1) a messy play at the plate where the health of the player might’ve been thrown into question and 2) he could’ve been out easily and ended the scoring threat. Instead, the Giants had up their DH who had been hitting the ball pretty hard that night.
• The Giants’ rally was ended by a replay review that determined Soler had been tagged out. You be the judge:

Actually, I’ll be the judge. It was close enough that you wonder if this could’ve been left alone — the Giants have certainly been hosed by careless replay reviews in the past, but there’s enough visual evidence to suggest he was out. Just close enough to matter.

And so those two moments in the 9th are what defines a snake bit team versus a team coasting or even on the rise. The Diamondbacks were a very lucky team last season, but this season they’ve been a little less lucky with a sub-.500 record despite a positive run differential. That suggests their luck is about to change. You’d like to think that would happen after the Giants leave town, but Baseball isn’t fair.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Sean Hjelle’s continued... dominance? Wait, do I have that right? The Tolkienhead added another 1.1 innings of scoreless relief to his season ledger, his 10th scoreless showing in 16 appearances.

So, tonight’s takeaways:

• Heliot Ramos? Pretty good.
• Sean Hjelle? A dude.
• Bullpen games? Effective. Sub-takeaway: Spencer Howard might be the new Jakob Junis?
• Matt Chapman? So fast. Hot right now, too (13-for his last-53 with 4 doubles, 3 HRs, 9 RBI).

And tonight’s giveaways:

• Losing streaks stink, but the Giants are aiming for 82 to 84 wins, so these are more likely than long winning streaks.
• Jorge Soler might be approaching a hot streak with these exit velocities, but don’t count on them.
• At the end of this road trip, let’s see how Mike Yastrzemski’s actually performing (7-for his last-42 and basically a .600 OPS over the past 30 days).