Giants 6,
Rays 4
Record: 6-3
Attendance:
31,828
Today’s matinee was a letdown. All the pieces were in place, but the final
result slipped out of our hands. The Rays jumped out to a one-run lead in the first and led 3-2 in the top of the fifth,
but the Giants scored four in the bottom of the fifth and held on for a 6-4
win.
Opener Ryne Stanek pitched two
perfect innings, but he was followed by two normally reliable bulkers, Jalen
Beeks, who gave up a pair of runs in two innings, and Ryan Yarbrough, who gave
up four more in his three innings of work.
Chaz Roe wrapped it up nicely, but it was too late by then.
Beeks and Yarbrough, both lefties,
were called on to face the lefty loaded lineup of the Giants, who proceeded to
hit the lefty hurlers just fine. And the
five-man outfield employed against left-hand hitting Brandon Belt wasn’t enough
of a shift as he hit a two-run homer into the right field seats. (Rules currently prohibit defensive shifts
with outfielders in the stands.) Tommy
Pham extended his on-base streak to 41, and was denied a game-breaking extra
base hit in the fifth by an ESPN highlight catch of a sinking liner to right
center by Kevin Pillar. Pham had one
last chance to be the hero in the top of the ninth. He battled closer Will Smith for several
pitches before lofting a high fly to right that was caught at the running
track. Another near miss. The Rays were in the game right to the end, despite
the unheroics of the bulkers, but they couldn’t quite catch up this time.
Willy Adames came into the game as a
pinch hitter (yes, think about that for a moment) and managed two hits to raise
his season BA to .100 (3-30), which isn’t the worst BA on the starting nine, a
distinction that goes to Mike Zunino, who also had a hit today to raise his
B.A. to .091 (2-22). We’re only a week
into the season, and both of these guys will be big contributors offensively
and defensively, but right now it’s hard for them to win games with seven
hitters instead of nine.
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