San Francisco Giants Remain Cold; Swept by Royals

Today, the San Francisco Giants hoped they could salvage one game of their three-game series against the Kansas City Royals, but the Giants had little chance from the get-go.

The Giants faced Danny Duffy, who they had never faced before in his short three-year career, and they do not have good luck when facing pitchers they’ve never seen.

In the top of the first inning, the Giants went down easy on just 11 pitches. That marked the 16th inning in a row of not scoring a run.

In the bottom of the first, Tim Lincecum was all over the place, and when he actually threw a strike, it was an 88 MPH fast ball at the belt of the plate. Lincecum gave up a single, walk, double, wild pitch, and then a two-run home run to Alex Gordon, and just like that the Giants were down 4-0 already after the first inning, with Lincecum tossing 34 pitches. That two degree flatter mound apparently was a huge issue for Lincecum.

In the second inning, the Giants were able to rally across a run. Pablo Sandoval led off the inning with a single to the five-six hole. Adam Duvall then struck out looking at that big curve from Duffy. Matt Duffy was then hit by a pitch, Joe Panik flew out to deep center field, and Andrew Susac sat on a curve and shot it to right field for an RBI single, which scored Sandoval and put the Giants on the board. The score was then 4-1 Royals.

Lincecum looked like Houdini in the second inning. Jarrod Dyson hit a single to left to immediately put Linceum back in the stretch, and he then stole second base on a 2-2 pitch to Nori Aoki, who eventually walked. Omar Infante then came up to bat, and on the first pitch, both runners stole, which put runners on second and third with no outs.

Lincecum struck out Infante on a high fastball for one out, and then got Salvador Perez to line out on the first pitch to Matt Duffy for out number two. Lincecum then got the scary Billy Butler to ground out on the second pitch to Sandoval to end the inning.

In the third inning, the Giants sent up the top of the order, but went down in order for the second time and again on just 11 pitches.

Lincecum had his best inning in the third. After giving up a leadoff single to Gordon, Linceum escaped the inning on 13 pitches courtesy of a double play turned by the farm system (Panik, Duffy, Duvall), followed by the second strike out of the game for Lincecum.

Duffy had yet another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth as the Giants were retired in order on yet another 11 pitches.

For the fourth time in a row, Lincecum allowed a leadoff base runner, as Alcides Escobar hit an infield single, advanced on a bunt, and then stole third base. Royals baserunners were running all day on Lincecum and getting huge jumps.

Aoki then singled to right field, scoring Escobar and making it a 5-1 game. Bochy then pulled Lincecum, after he was only able to go 3.1 innings on 73 pitches. He gave seven hits, three walks, allowed five stolen bases, and five earned runs.

Juan Gutierrez entered the game ,and two batters later, he gave up a two-run homer to Perez to make it a 7-1 ball game.

There was not a whole not of offense in the middle innings, as again, in the fifth inning, Duffy cruised on just 12 pitches, after Panik flew out to center, Susac flew out to left field, and Blanco hit a soft line drive for an out to left field. Duffy was only at 67 pitches through five innings.

Javier Lopez pitched a scoreless fifth inning for the Giants. Duffy had another easy inning in the sixth, and Yusmeiro Petit had a scoreless bottom of the sixth as well.

The Giants were able to score three runs in the seventh inning, as Andrew Susac collected his third RBI of the game on a one out two-run double. Hunter Pence also had a two-out RBI single up the middle.

Susac had a great game as he ended up going 2-4 with three RBI. He truly should be the Giants backup catcher the rest of this season, and perhaps we’ll even see him get a lot more starts behind the dish in 2015.

Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo both pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth inning.

In the ninth, the Giants had a little rally going with one out after getting two runners on. Pence struck out on a 3-2 pitch, and then Posey walked on four straight pitches making it a two-out bases loaded situation for Pablo Sandoval, who then lined out to center field to end the ballgame.

The Giants have tomorrow off, which is much-needed with how they’ve played. They’ll face the great Chris Sale Tuesday in San Francisco as the Giants will send out Ryan Vogelsong to pitch.