By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO– It may have been the most telling at-bat of the Giants’ 22,000 some-odd at-bat, 2017 season. It certainly felt like the most telling at-bat of the season for pitcher Matt Moore.

Laboring near 100 pitches and trying gamely to survive the fifth inning, while allowing only two runs, both in the first–Moore fell behind rookie Clay Bellinger 2-0 with a runner aboard, and no outs. Bellinger, a lefty hitter with power, and a healthy grasp of the scouting report on the Giants’ starter, dug in. Anyone with knowledge of the pertinent situational stats could sense Bellinger’s bells ringing in anticipation of the pitch.

And sure enough, Moore’s fastball missed location, grabbing too much of the zone, up and middle, and Bellinger deposited it in McCovey Cove, on a rope. 

Simply, Bellinger’s in the midst of a rookie campaign for the ages, and couldn’t have hit the ball any harder. Moore’s having the worst season of his career, and couldn’t have had a more visibly pained reaction to the pitch.

Manager Dave Roberts, mindful of Moore’s strong outings against his club in 2016, liked what he saw from his offense leading up to Moore’s 80th pitch of the night, the one Bellinger crushed.

“Tonight, we had a plan. Stayed diligent to the plan. Got the pitch count up, hoping for a mistake,” Roberts said. “It was a big homer.”

Moore would go to face two more batters after Bellinger struck, throwing 91 pitches to record just 13 outs. Throughout, Giants’ television commentator Mike Krukow spoke of Moore’s lack of confidence in locating his pitches, reflected in the fact that only 60 percent found the strike zone on Wednesday.

“Winning cures everything, and we haven’t done a lot of that this year,” Moore said. “Say what you want, I only play every fifth day, so being able to put us in that kind of situation in the fifth inning, it feels like I let us down when we’ve had enough of that.”

Take nothing away from the 28-year old starter who was 17-4 for the Rays in 2013, but only 11-19 in two seasons with the Giants. He battled on Wednesday. But it was a losing battle. Soon the Giants must decide if they’ve seen enough from a guy saddled with a 14th loss of the season and a 5.39 ERA, or if they’re willing to bet $8 million that the contract-friendly lefty can regain his confidence in 2018.

Here’s some of the numbers that GM Bobby Evans must sift through that suggest Moore won’t return.

Eleven of Moore’s 29 starts have come against NL West competition, and he’s 1-6 with four no-decisions. His only win was on April 10 (Arizona) and he’s 0-2 against the Dodgers, allowing 17 earned runs in 21 innings.

Left-handed hitters have terrorized Moore, hitting .373 against him prior to Wednesday. Against the Dodgers, Corey Seager and Bellinger had three of the five hits Moore allowed. In the NL West, lefty sluggers Charlie Blackmon, Jake Lamb, Bellinger and Seager might be the ones most likely to hope Moore returns to the Giants in 2018.

Prior to 2017, lefties hit just .240 against Moore.

Of the 188 hits Moore has allowed in 167 innings of work, 77 have been extra-base hits. All five hits Moore allowed on Wednesday were for extra bases, including Bellinger’s splash job, the 26th home run he’s allowed.

“Growing up, you always see Barry Bonds do it,” Bellinger said of his big hit Wednesday being a splash. “To actually do it is pretty cool.”

Bellinger’s homer increased the Dodgers lead to 4-0 on a night Yu Darvish and a pair of relievers allowed the Giants five singles. Darvish, in his first ever appearance against the Giants, went seven innings, striking out five and walking none.

Since being acquired from the Rangers at the trade deadline Darvish had lost three consecutive starts, and had been a confounding presence with his new club as a result. Apparently, only the malleable nature of the Giants’ offense kept Darvish’s turn in the rotation from being skipped.

The Giants endorsed the Dodgers’ decision to start Darvish by getting shutout for eight innings, getting two of their five singles, and their only run, after being down to their last of 27 outs. Spotty defense didn’t help things either, a fly ball inexplicably fell between Hunter Pence and Kelby Tomlinson in the second inning.