SAN FRANCISCO — For two straight nights, the Braves and Giants have played in a playoff-like atmosphere.
And for two straight nights, the Giants came up just short in the 10th inning.
In the series opener, San Francisco was a hit or two shy of rewarding Blake Snell for his masterpiece. Tuesday, it was more of the same: After going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Monday, the Giants 0-for-10 in the same situation, including a brutal extra innings.
Chasing a run in the 10th, just like they were on Monday, the Giants tried to bunt the placed runner over but failed. Tyler Fitzgerald, one of the team’s best hitters, got the signal from the dugout and was ruled out after touching his bunted ball outside the batter’s box. San Francisco’s next two hitters, LaMonte Wade Jr and Heliot Ramos, left the game-tying run at second.
“I have to be able to get a bunt down,” Fitzgerald said postgame. “I’m a rookie, I’ve known I’m going to be in that spot this whole year, and I wasn’t able to get it down. Kind of deadened it way too much. Practice it a lot, so I was ready for that moment, but I just deadened it way too much.”
Fitzgerald socked his 13th homer earlier in the game, but his flubbed bunt will be more memorable. The night before, manager Bob Melvin let Mike Yastrzemski and the bottom of the order swing away instead of trying to move the runner over with a sacrifice bunt. With their more dangerous top of the order up in a nearly identical situation, Melvin reversed course.
Neither strategy worked, and missed opportunities defined San Francisco (61-61) in their third straight loss — a 4-3 defeat to Atlanta. The Braves are now 3.5 games ahead of the Giants in the wild-card race that gets further clarified with every result.
“To lose three games in a row and get back to .500 is pretty frustrating,” Melvin said postgame. “Especially in the fashion that we’ve done it.”
Starter Kyle Harrison (5 IP, 6H, 3ER, 2BB, 6K) struggled at times to deploy his fastball, but otherwise battled to put his team in a position to win. They weren’t able to pull it out, and now the best they can do is split this pivotal four-game series.
“I’m going to build on it,” Harrison said postgame. “Still got a lot of season left. Got to put the head down and go.”
Harrison looked shaky to start, walking leadoff man Jorge Soler and serving up a lined single right after. To slugger Matt Olson, the southpaw hung a slider middle-middle and was lucky for it to land in center fielder Heliot Ramos’ glove on the warning track. But Harrison recovered to strike out Travis d’Arnaud on an up-and-away fastball, stranding runners on the corners.
In the bottom half, the Giants left Heliot Ramos at third after he smoked a two-out triple 108.2 mph into the right-center alley. The Giants have struggled with situational hitting all year and especially recently. Their .234 batting average with runners in scoring position entering Tuesday is the worst by a Giants club since 2011.
Meanwhile, Harrison never discovered his best stuff. Although his fastball returned to regular velocity and he said the pitch felt better, it wasn’t as effective as normal. Ramon Laureano went with an outsider four-seamer for a solo shot over the right-field bricks.
Three batters later, Soler smoked a double between Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski, putting Atlanta up 2-0.
Before Tuesday, Harrison’s four-seamer ranked in the 93rd percentile in fastball run value, per Baseball Savant. His extension, pitch sequencing and deception have made the pitch by far his best weapon in his young career. Yet five of the six hits Harrison allowed against the Braves came off fastballs — including home runs from Laureano and Travis d’Arnaud.
Harrison and the Giants didn’t let the game get out of control, though. They hit their first home run in five games when Fitzgerald cleared the home bullpen in center field. His solo shot sailed 425 feet and would’ve been gone in all 30 ballparks.
Fitzgerald’s home run trimmed Atlanta’s lead to 3-2. Harrison stayed in and struck out two — Marcell Ozuna on an elevated fastball and d’Arnaud with a slider — to get through the fifth inning unvarnished.
Sean Hjelle replaced Harrison after that fifth inning, taking the mound facing a 3-2 deficit as the sky above the China Basin had a cotton-candy hue. The lanky righty worked around a Fitzgerald error for a clean frame. Landen Roupp followed suit in the seventh, stranding runners on the corners and then staying in for a scoreless eighth, too.
But the one-run deficit was at a standstill as San Francisco’s offense went dormant. Between the fifth and the seventh innings, Matt Chapman was the only Giant to reach base, and he got caught stealing.
Then the Giants, with the heart of their order up, caught some breaks. To lead off the bottom of the eighth, Soler — who has solely played the outfield after only DH-ing for the Giants before the trade deadline — took a poor route to LaMonte Wade Jr.’s fly ball. With Wade on second, Austin Riley fumbled a sharp grounder, putting two on with nobody out.
Despite Michael Conforto rolling into a double play to bring the Giants to 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, Wade still scored on a wild pitch. Considering the Giants’ struggles with RISP, scoring the game-tying run without swinging the bat was a gift.
Jordan Hicks, the closer-turned-starter-turned-reliever struck out Ozuna looking to end the top of the ninth, giving the Giants a chance at their 10th walk-off of the season.
Slumping catcher Patrick Bailey nearly had it, but Eli White made a leaping grab at the wall, erasing what would’ve been a double. Instead, the Giants got retired in order, sending the game into extras for a second straight night.
And like on Monday night, the Braves did just enough in the 10th while the Giants came up empty. d’Arnaud snuck a grounder through the gap between first and second, allowing the automatic runner to wheel around third and score easily.
Facing a 4-3 deficit, the Melvin pulled a 180. Monday, he elected not to bunt to start the 10th inning, explaining that it’s hard to “play for a tie.” He preferred taking three shots with the man on second instead of giving up an out to move the runner over from second to third. This time, he bunted Fitzgerald, perhaps the hottest hitter on the team, which backfired. Instead of advancing Casey Schmitt to third, Fitzgerald was ruled out for touching illegally touching the ball by accident.
“I still don’t know what happened,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t know how I was out, but it doesn’t really matter. I didn’t get the bunt down.”
Right strategy or wrong, right call or wrong, the execution wasn’t there. In the biggest moments, the Giants fell short again — and will pay for it in the wild-card race.
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