Gerardo Parra – Sports Radio Service

By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO — You’ve gotta win to be in it. Right now, the Giants are a step removed from winning.

They’re struggling just to compete after a third, consecutive sleepy loss to the Nationals at Oracle Park, and they’re barely in it, seeing their foothold in the wild card race slip away.

After a torrid 19-6 July, the Giants have lost six of seven in August. What’s worse, they’ve looked lifeless in front of the home fans that have waited all season to see some fireworks. In all three games against Washington, the Giants fell behind 4-0. The closest semblance to a rally came Tuesday night, and it stalled two runs short.

“We had some of that mojo going but we’ve lost a little bit of it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “How we get it back is a big thing. Right now, we are just not clicking.”

The Giants appeared to give themselves a boost by keeping their roster together for a stretch run at a playoff berth, a nod to all the upward movement achieved in July. A week later, besides keeping Madison Bumgarner, most would be hard pressed to recount all the moves. On Wednesday, more memorable was that the Nats took flight on the strength of a three-run homer from Gerardo Parra, who was released by the Giants in May after hitting .198 over 30 games.

Since joining the Nationals, Parra has hit .287 and his home run that increased their lead to 4-0 was his sixth since he was released.

“I say every time, thank you to the San Francisco Giants for giving me the opportunity to play the first month,” Parra said.

Parra’s home run left starting pitcher Shaun Anderson cooked once again. The rookie hurler hasn’t won since June 28, a span of seven starts. While the Giants won four of those starts, Anderson has trended downward, seeing his ERA balloon to 5.33. Anderson’s struggles mirror those of the Giants’ rookie starting pitchers, who haven’t won an assignment since Tyler Beede on July 14.

Offensively, the Giants produced three singles and three doubles, which added up to one, ninth inning run knocked home by Brandon Crawford. Similar to Monday’s matchup, the Giants appeared to have an edge facing Joe Ross, who is trying to establish himself at the big league level after injuries cost him almost all of 2018. But Ross had the upper hand, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out five in six innings of work.

The Giants benefitted from a wild card race that saw no one run away from the pack in July. But with their recent stretch of losses, the Giants are seeing the pack run away from them. Now four games behind the Phillies, the Giants have two other teams–the streaking Mets and Diamondbacks–between them and the second wild card spot. What’s more troubling, the next four games against the Phillies will be their final games against wild card contenders not in the NL West.

On Thursday, Madison Bumgarner will take the mound in a match up with Aaron Nola of Philadelphia.

NOTES: Steven Duggar left Wednesday’s game after reinjuring his shoulder making a diving catch. He’ll get an MRI with the hope he can avoid a return trip to the injured list.

By Emily Zahner and Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO,CA–The San Francisco Giants (63-79) could not solve the puzzle that was Arizona Diamondbacks’ (72-69) starter Brandon McCarthy, as they fell 2-1 to the visiting D-backs. The former Oakland Athletic improved to 4-9 on the season with the win tonight from eight strong innings. In a thrilling pitchers battle, Matt Cain also threw a great game, only giving up two runs on eight hits. Unfortunately for the Giants, McCarthy was just a little bit better. With the loss tonight, the Giants are now one loss away from elimination from the post season. The Diamondbacks sit 11 games back from the continually impressive LA Dodgers.

The silver lining Giants fans can grasp from from this loss and maybe for the remainder of the season is that after missing 14 games on the DL, Matt Cain (8-9) came back and appeared to have no trouble or pain. He went six and a third, gave up two runs on eight hits and struck out three. Cain even took a hard grounder to his right calf from Arizona’s power hitter Paul Goldschmidt. “Matt did a nice job since coming off the DL. It’s been a while since he’s been out there. Pitching and defense did a great job tonight keeping that game close but we couldn’t help with the offense” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. Offensively for the Giants, Hunter Pence continued his hot streak. His two singles tonight pushed him to his 49th multihit game of the year, good enough to tie him for third in the National League. Angel Pagan continued his amazing return to the line up when he dazzled the fans with what could be called the play of the night. After a deep double by Gerardo Parra, Pagan took the ball on the bounce and shot a dart to shortstop Brandon Crawford who relayed it to catcher Hector Sanchez, who tagged out Wil Nieves, who was trying to score from first. Bochy echoed Pagans accolades, “He’s worked hard to get to this point. He looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. It’s really amazing considering the surgery he had. This is big for him as we wind down the season, he goes into next season knowing he’s healthy and 100%.”

For Arizona, Brandon McCarthy (4-9) went eight strong innings, surrendered six hits and only one run. Paul Goldschmidt and Gerardo Parra provided the offense for the Diamondbacks as they went 5 for 8 with three singles, a double and a triple and driving in both Arizona runs. McCarthy was replaced in the ninth by another former Athletics, Brad Ziegler, who threw an easy 1-2-3 inning for his ninth save of the year. With his win tonight, McCarthy was questioned as to how he was able to come into AT&T and pitch as well as he did, “It’s just trying to execute as many pitches as I can. Focus on what I can control.” Bochy also had high praises for the Arizona starter, saying “We couldn’t figure out McCarthy. His pitches moved a lot and we didn’t hit any balls hard tonight.”

The scoring started in the bottom of the third when Brandon Crawford scored after Marco Scutaro hit his 110th single of the year to center field to give the Giant’s a 1-0 lead. Crawford had led off the inning with a single of his own and was scooted over to third by a sac bunt from Matt Cain and a grounder to first by Angel Pagan. The Diamondbacks got on the board then next inning when Gerardo Parra hit a line drive to Hunter Pence in right field and scored Paul Goldschmidt to tie the score at one apiece. Goldschmidt gave Arizona the lead for good when in the fourth when he hit shot to the deepest part of the AT&T park that scored Adam Eaton from first to seal the victory with a final score of 2-1.

The Giants will try to stave off elimination tomorrow as they take on Arizona’s Wade Miley (9-10, 3.78) and put Madison Bumgarner (11-9, 2.91) on the mound. Game time 1:05pm PST.