San Francisco Giants’ Thairo Estrada, left, scores next to Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe during the eighth inning of a baseball game Friday, June 14, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Los Angeles (AL) (27-42). 013 400 000. 8 11 0
San Francisco (34-36). 001 000 050. 6 10 1
Friday, June 16, 2024
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–Having won five of their last seven games, the Giants once more were flirting with competitiveness when they faced the Los Angeles Angels this cool and breezy Friday evening. They figuratively failed to reach first base, falling to the fallen Angels, 8-6, that seemed to be a walk in the park for the visitors until the Giants made it close in the eighth..
The home team was busy, even before the 7:16 first pitch, Nick Ahmed came off the injured list, who is expected to bring some needed stability to short, started at that position, where he made some nifty plays, and went two for four at the plate. Casey Schmitt, who had been filling the void left by Ahmed’s departure, was optioned to Sacramento, and Marco Luciano, another shortstop, wound up his rehab assignment and, like Schmitt, was optioned to the River Cats.
Spencer Howard, at 0-2, 2.03 and coming off a strong 4-2/3 inning stint in Arlington, looked like a good choice to start for San Francisco. He wasn’t.
The 27 year old native of San Luis Opispo lasted a scant 2-1/3 frames, in which he managed to throw 59 pitches, 25 of which were balls. He surrendered four runs, all of them earned, on seven hits and a walk. He took the loss and now has a record of 0-1, 4.02.
The ex-Giant and eight year big league veteran, 34 year old southpaw change up artist Tyler Anderson, started the evening at 5-6, 2.63 and ended it at 6-6, 2.58. Bay Area favorite Ron Washington, at the helm for the Angels, decided to pull him with Thairo Estrada at bat and runners on first and second with one down in the bottom of the sixth.
Ben Joyce got Estrada on a slow grounder to short and closed down the nascent threat with Ahmed’s ground out to third. In his 5-1/3 innings of labor Anderson held the orange and black to a single tally, which was earned, on five hits, fiver walks, and to keep things symmetrical, five strikeouts.
The Angels opened the scoring in the top of the second. Logan O’Hoppe’s hard line shot ate up Ahmed at short for a single to left. Zach Neto bounced into a short to second force out only to be followed by Mickey Moniak’s blast that hopped over the right centerfield fence for an automatic double that put two runners in scoring position.
One of them, O’Hoppe, scored on Michael Stefanic’s clean single to right. They padded their lead in their next turn at bat on a leadoff walk to Taylor Ward, Kevin Pillar’s double to right that sent Ward to third, where he didn’t stop but went on to score on Austin Slater throwing error on returning the ball to second. A walk to O’Hoppe put runners on first and second. Each moved up 90 feet on Neto’s sacrifice bunt. They didn’t stay there for long; Moniak’s down the line two bagger made the score 4-0. An infield single and base on balls later, Howard was through, and Randy Rodríguez was on the mound to get the final two outs.
He retired another batter in the fourth before the roof fell in. There’s no point in narrating the horror show; a list the Angels’ acts of mayhem will do.
1) An RBI double by O’Hoppe. (Pillar was on first with a walk after his fly into the left field seats, which had been ruled a home run became a foul ball upon review; a home run by Neto (his ninth); and a triple by Moniak). Anderson now had an eight run lead to work with.
He also had a chance for his arm to tighten up after his teammates had batted around while they rounded the bases. The Giants scrapped up a run in the home fourth on singles by Wilmer Flores and Jorge Soler, a walk to Michael Conforto, and a double play that brought Flores home to make it 8-1.
Luke Jackson pitched a perfect sixth , giving way to Taylor Rogers, who allowed a single and a walk but no runs in the seventh before being replaced by Erik Miller for the penultimate episode. He disposed of the Halos in 1,2,3 order.
The Giants drove Adam Cimber from the mound after he faced five batters in the home eighth. Four of them reached base. Leading off, Soler was hit by a pitch and went to second on a wild pitch and then to third on Soler’s ground out to second.
He scored on Estrada’s single to left. 8-2. Ahmed singled to left, moving Estrada to second. Mike Yastrzemski pinch hit for Slater and doubled off the bricks over the State farm advertisement in right, driving in Estrada. 8-3. Héliot Ramos sent an 82 mph sider 422 feet, over the center field fence. 8-6. Bailey bunted for a single but was wiped out when Chapman grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. But we had a ball game.
Sean Hjelle mowed the Angel down to take us into the do. or die bottom of the ninth. Carlos Estevezz was on the hill for the Halos. Flores sent a. high fly deep into left field, where Pillar caught it at the wall. Soler fouled out to first. And Conforto went down swinging. That earned Estevez his 11th save of the season
For the Giants it was a valiant attempt and a painful loss.
Saturday at 1:05, Keaton Winn (3-7, 6.94) will face the Angels and Patrick Sandoval (2-8, 5.23) in the second of this three game series.
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