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MILWAUKEE–The Milwaukee Brewers are leading the National League Wildcard race, but by no means are they a lock to make the playoffs or a popular bet to advance deep into the postseason.
But when the Giants have taken the field against the Brewers this season, it’s clear just how big of a gap there is between a National League contender and a Giants club that fell to seven games under .500 with a 4-3 loss.
Though manager Bruce Bochy’s club only lost by a run Saturday, the Giants haven’t scored more than three in back-to-back games since August 25-26.
“You’ve got to keep pushing,” Bochy said. “That’s all you can do in this game.”
While San Francisco’s pitching staff has strung together respectable performances in a hitter-friendly Miller Park, the Giants’ offense simply hasn’t had the firepower to match up with any opponents of late and that was once again the case in Saturday’s defeat.
After falling to the Brewers Saturday, the Giants are in the midst of a season-high seven-game losing streak and are in danger of dropping every game on a six-game road trip if they can’t salvage Sunday’s matinee.
With Andrew McCutchen playing for the Yankees and Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford dealing with lingering knee injuries, the Giants started Saturday’s game without the leaders from an offense that was already below average with their names on the lineup card.
While Belt and Crawford did pinch hit, the Giants won’t have the luxury of using Buster Posey, Steven Duggar or Pablo Sandoval to end the losing streak as all three are out for the year.
“We can’t talk about what we don’t have,” Bochy said. “We’ve got some guys who are getting a chance to show what they can do up here.”
One of the auditioning talents is Ryder Jones, who cut a three-run deficit to one with a 112-mile per hour laser over the right center field fence in an eighth inning pinch hit appearance.
“That’s the goal, everybody here wants to be on the Opening Day roster next year,” Jones said. “You just try to go out there and do what you can and show your ability.”
The eight position players that started against Milwaukee Saturday had combined for 38 home runs this season, 30 of which came from Evan Longoria and Gorkys Hernández. On the opposing side, four of the first six hitters in the Brewers lineup had at least 25 home runs heading into their matchup with Giants starter Chris Stratton.
Stratton didn’t give up many hits to the Brewers, but the ones he did were crushed. In five innings of work, the right-hander allowed four hits, but two went for home runs and another was laced down the left field line for an RBI double.
Brewers second baseman Travis Shaw slammed his 28th home run of the year in the first before left fielder Christian Yelich matched Shaw’s season total with his own solo shot in the fifth. The Giants haven’t had a player reach the 28-home run threshold since Barry Bonds did so in 2007, his final season in the big leagues.
The only inning in which Stratton allowed more than one run came in the fourth, when the first two hitters reached on walks. Though Stratton’s command was much better after he returned to the rotation in August, he took a step backward Saturday against one of the toughest lineups in the National League.
“Made some good pitches that they ended up getting some hits on,” Stratton said. “The biggest thing was the two walks there to start the inning just crushed us. Ends up giving them two runs and that’s honestly the difference in the game.”
In his debut with the Brewers, left-hander Gio Gonzalez outlasted Stratton, recording 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball while allowing four hits to a San Francisco lineup that didn’t start a single regular with an OPS above .715. Though rookie catcher Aramis Garcia entered with an OPS of 1.750, Garcia only had eight at-bats under his belt and posted a .285 on-base percentage across two minor league levels this season.
Despite allowing at least five earned runs in three of his last four starts, Gonzalez had little trouble shutting down the Giants, limiting San Francisco to one extra base hit and a 1-for-4 mark with runners in scoring position.
That one hit with a runner in scoring position came courtesy of right fielder Austin Slater, who lined an RBI single to left field to put the Giants on the board in the sixth.
“We could use a break,” Bochy said. “You get in a rut like this and it seems like whether it’s bloopers or calls, all the little things seem to go against you.”
