San Francisco Giants’ Joc Pederson (23) greets J.D. Davis at home after they scored on Davis’ two-run home run off Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Hayden Wesneski during the sixth inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Tue Sep 5, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The San Francisco Giants (70-69) took on the Chicago Cubs (75-64) in game two of their series Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Giants are struggling, watching their hopes of a wild card in the playoffs starting to slightly dim. They have lost four games in a row and dropped 17 of their last 25 games.

They are tied with Arizona and Miami for the final NL postseason spot. They desperately needed to win Tuesday night’s game and while it looked good in the early innings, the Giants could not hold onto several leads throughout the game losing 11-8.

Tuesday game recap: San Francisco wasted no time putting runs up on the board scoring in the first three innings. They needed some solid offense and they got it in the early innings of this game. They led 3-0 after three innings.

LaMonte Wade Jr. homered in the first inning giving the Giants an early 1-0 lead. Wade Meckler singled J.D. Davis home in the second inning and the score was 2-0 in favor of San Francisco. Another home run in the third inning off the bat of Mike Yastrzemski extended that lead to 3-0. The Giants had a great start in this game.

The Cubs fought right back taking the lead 4-3 in the third inning. Nico Hoerner scored off a Dansby Swanson single. Cody Bellinger scored the Cubs second run of the game when Jeimer Candelario walked with the bases loaded. Chicago would finish up the third inning with a Yan Gomes double sending Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki across home plate for the 4-3 lead.

San Francisco had some work to do if they wanted to put an end to this losing streak. It was a quiet fourth and fifth inning but the Giants had a very productive sixth inning. Joc Pederson doubled Wilmer Flores home and J.D. Davis hit a two-run home run taking a 6-4 lead. The San Francisco defense would now need to protect that lead.

You just cannot keep this Chicago ball club down. They tied up this game in the seventh inning 6-6. Suzuki homered with Swanson on board for the two runs and it was a new ball game. The Cubs went on to take the lead 7-6 when Nike Madrigal grounded into a fielders choice and Candelario scored. Chicago extended their lead thanks to Christopher Morel who hit a three-run home run and the Giants watched their lead dissolve now trailing 10-6.

San Francisco had two innings left in this game to right the ship or lose their fifth game in a row. The Giants got right to work scoring in the eighth inning when Brandon Crawford singled J.D. Davis home.

San Francisco had gotten one run back but needed a whole lot more still trailing 10-7. With runners on first and third and two outs the Giants had the tying run at the plate. The top of the eighth came to an end and San Francisco left the two runners stranded and were three outs away from yet another loss.

The Cubs were not finished and continued their hit parade scoring another run when Suzuki singled Swanson home increasing their lead to 11-7. The Giants defense kept the damage to a minimum with the one run but were three outs away from dropping another game. They had a huge offensive task in front of them.

Wilmer Flores, who has been playing some terrific ball, hit a solo home run in the ninth inning and San Francisco was desperate to salvage this game. With one out, J.D. Davis came to the plate and hit into a double play and that was the ball game 11-8 in favor of the Cubs.

This game that started out with such promise crumbled in the later innings. Game three will be played Wednesday with first pitch at 11:20. At the time of this post starting pitcher for San Francisco was undecided. Jordan Wicks will take the mound for Chicago with a 2-0 win/loss record and a 1.80 ERA. The Giants will be trying to prevent the sweep.