SAN FRANCISCO — As an encore to one of their most complete offensive performances of the season, the Giants laid a dud Sunday.
A day after breaking out for a season-high 16 hits and a win, it took the Giants until the fifth inning to record their first against Diamondbacks starter Slade Cecconi, who helped hand them a 5-3 loss to split the four-game series between the National League West foes.
Manager Bob Melvin and third base coach Matt Williams were forced to watch the final two innings from the clubhouse after being ejected arguing with home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater.
“Wasn’t really what we were looking to do,” said Mike Yastrzemski, whose two-run home run in the fifth inning amounted to the Giants’ lone offense until Matt Chapman and Thairo Estrada manufactured a run with a pair of doubles against Diamondbacks closer Kevin Ginkel in the ninth.
San Francisco fell to 3-8 when scoring three or fewer.
Plagued by inconsistency through the first three weeks of the season, the Giants are undefeated when scoring at least five runs, as they did in Saturday’s 7-3 win, but they have reached that total only six times in 23 games, fewer than all but three teams (A’s, White Sox, Twins).
“We also put some pressure on them and had some opportunities today,” Melvin said. “We just didn’t get the big hit.”
Only learning the opposing starter shortly before first pitch, the Giants should have caught a break when they learned it would be the rookie right-hander starting the series finale and not Merrill Kelly. Their longtime nemesis was scratched with shoulder soreness, so Cecconi was called up from Triple-A.
With hardly any experience against the spot starter — eight plate appearances among four players — the Giants took an aggressive plan of attack. They were seeking to jump on first-pitch fastballs, a pitch they have laid off of this season, but Melvin said, “just didn’t do anything with it early.”
Retiring them in order his first time through the lineup, Cecconi needed only 23 pitches to complete his first three innings and didn’t require more than 11 in an inning until the Giants broke through in the fifth.
“We were probably a little underprepared to face him,” said Yastrzemski, whose homer was his first of the season. “But he threw really well. You’ve got to give him credit. I think we need to do a better job of sticking to our plan early in games. I think we got away from it a little bit and the game just crept up on us.”
Cecconi’s efficiency provided quite the contrast to the Giants’ starter, Jordan Hicks, who also didn’t allow a hit for three innings but still allowed a run on two walks and used almost triple the pitches (68). He settled in to complete five innings and was in line for the win until Erik Miller allowed the first two batters of the sixth to reach and score.
“I feel like I didn’t start making the pitches I wanted to make until the fourth or fifth,” Hicks said. “Not giving up a hit and still giving up a run, I think that tells the story of what it was today. But at the same time, I found a way to keep us in it and got through five. That was important for me.”
An astute 35,922 on hand recognized the significance of Thairo Estrada’s dribbler toward third base after Cecconi retired the first two hitters of the fifth. The volume rising as he raced down the first base line, Estrada beat the throw from Eugenio Suarez by half a step to give the Giants their first hit of the game.
Five pitches later, the Giants had broken through in the run column, too.
Working a 3-1 count, Yastrzemski whacked a changeup over the outer half of the plate and pulled it into the air above right field. Leaving the bat at 95.5 mph, the pop fly caught just enough of the jetstream blowing out to McCovey Cove to carry an estimated 335 feet, just beyond the Levi’s Landing sign, to give the Giants a brief 2-1 lead.
Coming up with runners on second and third and two outs in the seventh after Arizona pulled ahead again, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo opted to intentionally walk Yastrzemski, loading the bases. Melvin countered with Jorge Soler, pinch-hitting for shortstop Nick Ahmed, but he bounced out to third, ending the threat.
Signed to be a run producer in the middle of their order, Soler has six RBIs in 23 games — tied for seventh on the team — and two hits with 18 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“Obviously I put him up there,” Melvin said, reiterating his confidence in the designated hitter they guaranteed $42 million this winter. “You sign him for a reason. I felt like it was a good spot for him.”
The Diamondbacks extended their lead in the ninth against Nick Avila, after Scheurwater, the home plate umpire, ruled that Kevin Newman had fouled off a would-be strike three, prolonging the at-bat. Newman eventually poked a double into left field, leading to two more runs.
Melvin was ejected protesting the call, the second time he has been given an early exit this season.
“It was strike three,” Melvin said. “It’s an out instead of a hit and a run. It looked to me just from the naked eye, but I’m not an umpire.”