SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants are running out of time.
They have 24 games remaining in the regular season. There are four teams — the Cardinals, the Cubs, the Mets, and the Braves — ahead of them for the National League’s final wild-card spot.
This weekend, they had a perfect opportunity to gain ground: a three-game set against the Marlins, one of the NL’s worst teams. As the saying goes, good teams beat up on bad teams.
Instead, the Giants have arrived at their season’s nadir. They lost Sunday’s game at Oracle Park, 7-5, before a sellout crowd. Logan Webb conceded six runs in six innings, playing into his demise by failing to convert a double play that set the stage for Miami’s four-run fifth inning.
After dropping two of three games to the Marlins (50-86), the Giants are two games under .500 (68-70). Their September schedule does not provide reprieves. And they are running out of time.
“This is probably as bad of a loss as we’ve had,” said manager Bob Melvin.
“I lost that game today,” Webb said. “That was on me today. It just sucks. We score five runs and we score early. I feel like I’m in a good spot. I had good stuff. Then, all of a sudden, I let one ground ball — I haven’t watched it. I don’t really want to watch it. It kind of caught me off guard, and I made a bad throw. It just can’t happen.”
This series represented San Francisco’s final opportunity this season to punch below its weight class. Now, the Giants face a gauntlet, as all their remaining opponents have a record above .500.
Seven of the Giants’ final eight series are against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. The lone exception is the Cardinals, who are one spot above the Giants in the Wild Card standings.
“It’s always tough being in these positions,” Webb said. “But it’s happened before where teams get hot. You can go on winning streaks. Anything can happen. If you have the goal of coming in and trying to be the best version of yourself and trying to win every day, I think good things happen.”
Before Webb’s errant throw, before he allowed six runs, the Giants assumed early control of the game, entering the fifth inning with a 2-0 lead. Mike Yastrzemski led off with a home run, the 100th of his career, and Michael Conforto scored in the third inning on an error.
Webb was cruising, needing 46 pitches to complete the first four innings. It was the blueprint to a win.
Soon enough, any semblance of control would slip through their fingers.
In the fifth inning, with one out and a runner on first base, José Devers hit a comebacker to Webb. If Webb delivers a throw to shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald cleanly, the Giants likely turn an inning-ending double play.
Instead, Webb’s throw was high. Fitzgerald leaped off the base and tagged Griffin Conine, but the Giants had to settle for a force out instead of a double play. The Marlins had new life, and they took advantage.
David Hensley followed with a single, putting runners on first and second. Nick Fortes pulled a single into left field; Devers scored, Hensley advanced to third, and Fortes took second base when center field Grant McCray unfurled an ill-advised throw home. Kyle Stowers sent a changeup into the Marlins’ bullpen with two on and two out.
If the Giants turned the double play, they would’ve ended the inning with a 2-0 lead. Instead, they entered the bottom of the fifth with a 4-2 deficit.
By the end of the fifth, they were back on top.
Matt Chapman drove in Yastrzemski with a bases-loaded groundout. Mark Canha entered the game off the bench and shot a single into right field to score Fitzgerald. Jerar Encarnacion scored Conforto with a sacrifice fly to give the Giants a 5-4 lead.
By the end of the sixth, the lead belonged, again to the Marlins — a lead they’d never relinquish. Jonah Bride doubled home a run, Otto Lopez drove in a run with a groundout and the Marlins had a 6-5 advantage. They expanded the lead to two runs in the following frame as Jesús Sánchez drove in a run against Camilo Doval with a sacrifice fly.
“It had all the makings of a really good game for us,” Melvin said. “We score a couple of runs, which we were having a tough time doing. Then, we don’t turn a double play, which (would’ve gotten) us out of the inning with no runs. Then, it just got away from us.”
Before the game got away from San Francisco, Yastrzemski totaled the 100th home run of his major-league career, sending a middle-middle fastball from Miami’s Darren McCaughan into the right-field arcade.
Yastrzemski and grandfather Carl Yastrzemski become the fourth grandfather and grandson duo to hit at least 100 home runs in their major-league careers. They join former Giant David Bell and grandfather Gus Bell, plus Aaron Boone, and Bret Boone with grandfather Ray Boone.
“To tack on that many as a guy who started so late in his career in the big leagues, I’m feeling pretty humbled and very lucky today,” Yastrzemski said.
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