San Francisco Giants Mike Yastrzemski heads home after getting congratulations from third base coach Mark Wallberg after hitting home run in the bottom of the eighth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sat Oct 1, 2022 (AP News photo)

Arizona (73-85). 8. 12. 0

San Francisco (79-79). 4. 8. 1

Saturday, October 1, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s October, but today’s 8-4 Giants’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks wasn’t an October Classic. On the contrary, it was an exercise in futility.

The Rattlers sent 5’11”, 170 lb. right handed rookie Drey Jameson to face the Giants in his fourth major league start. He was 2-0, 0.98 in those games, and the deepest he’d gone was the seven innings he hurled in his September 15 debut, and the most pitches he’d thrown was 95 five days later when he beat the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine.

This afternoon showed he’s the real thing. He pitched six innings, yielding two runs, both earned, on six hits, one of which went out of the park, and two walks. He struck out seven, throwing 98 pitche, 65 for strikes, on the way to his third win. His ERA rose to a still better than respectable 1.48.

For the Giants, it was a bullpen game, with 0-0, 1.20 southpaw Scott Alexander as opener for the third time this season. He hung around for an inning and a third, not allowing a hit but having to face four batters because of an error behind him by Thairo Estrada at short.

Jakob Junis took over with no one on and one down in the top of the second and pitched decently but not much better than that.

San Francisco opened the scoring in the bottom of the third. Joey Bart drew a one out, full count walk and moved on to second on what sounded like a broken bat single to center by Joc Pederson. LaMonte Wade, Jr., hard grounder to first took a bad bounce and went for an infield single to fill the bases with Giants.

Estrada grounded to Buddy Kennedy at third, who threw to Josh Rojas at second for the force on Wade, but Estrada beat out the relay to first, driving in Bart with the first run of the game.

They don’t call it Triples Alley for nothing. Christian Walker demonstrated that by walloping Junis’s first offering against the State Farm advertisement in right center field wall and coasting into third with a three bagger.

Josh Rojas plated him with the tying tally on a sac fly to deep center. After Kennedy went down swinging, Arizona resumed its battering of Junis. Corbin Carroll socked a double to right.

Cooper Hummel got the benefit of a semi-intentional walk, and number nine batter Sergio Alcántara sent a sinking liner to left that a diving Jason Vosler couldn’t corral. That brought Carroll and Hummel in with the runs that put the Diamondbacks ahead 3-1.

It was Junis’s fielding rather than his pitching that kept Arizona off the board in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one away, he grabbed Jake McCarthy’s bouncer to the mound and chased Jordan Luplow back to third, tagging him out before closing the frame.

Carroll opened the sixth with a reprise of Alcántara’s double in fourth. But, between Junis’s skill and The Curse of the Leadoff Double, the score remained 3-1.

JD Davis narrowed the gap with two down and the bases empty in the sixth by sending Jameson’s first pitch to him, a 96mph four seamer, into the netting under the batter’s eye, 436 feet deep into centerfield. It was his 12th home run of the year.

The Giants still trailed 3-2 when, after Luplow led off the top of the seventh with a nubber to third that went for a single, Jarlín García relieved Junis, who had gone 4-2/3 innings and allowed three runs and soon would be charged with a posthumous fourth tally, all earned, on eight hits and two walks He threw 83 pitches, 55 for strikes and two walks. He would be charged with his seventh loss of the year against five wins while his ERA rose to 4.42.

The bottom fell out for the Giants with García on the mound. Luplow scored on McCarthy’s single to left. A double by Walker, a single by Rojas, a walk to Kennedy, a sac fly by Hummel, and Alcántara’s double made the score 8-2 in favor of the visitors, who had batted around as they battered their hosts.

Kevin Ginkel took over for Jameson after his long rest on the bench while his teammates took care of business.

Needless to say, García didn’t come out to pitch the eighth. That task fell to Junior Marte, who set the side down in order. Except for a leadoff walk, he did the same in the top of the ninth.

One time Giant Mark Melançon got his first two men out in the eighth, but the 90mph cut fastball he threw to Yaz touched down in McCovey Cove to cut the Rattlers’ lead to five runs. That made 17 homers and. 55 RBIs for Yastrzemski’s disappointing season.

Reyes Moronta pitched a sloppy bottom of the ninth, in which he allowed a run on a single to Austin Slater, who advanced to second on defensive indifference and to third on a wild pitch before Ford Proctor drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left, giving the Giants a small fig leaf as they scored their fourth run against Arizona’s eight.

With this loss, the orange and black were mathematically eliminated from postseason competition.

The Giants close their home season tomorrow afternoon at 1:05. Arizona will send Zach Davies (2-5, 4.18) to the mound. San Francisco’s starter is yet to be named