Giants' bad habits creep up again in shaky loss to Mets

NEW YORK -- The Giants seemed to get back to playing a cleaner brand of baseball after rallying in Friday night’s series-opening extra-innings win over the Mets at Citi Field. But Saturday marked a slide back to the sloppy play that led to the club’s precipitous fall down the standings over the past six weeks.

Shaky pitching and defensive breakdowns culminated in an ugly 12-6 loss to the Mets, which evened this three-game series in Queens.

Here are three other takeaways as the Giants (55-56) lost for the 13th time in their past 16 games to slip one game under .500:

Teng stumbles
The Giants ran a bullpen game to plug the rotation hole that arose when Hayden Birdsong was sent down to the Minors on July 22, but they decided to select Taiwanese right-hander Kai-Wei Teng from Triple-A Sacramento and give him his first career Major League start on Saturday.

Teng, 26, logged a 9.82 ERA in four relief appearances for the Giants last year, but he was outrighted off the 40-man roster over the offseason before re-signing with the organization on a Minor League deal on Nov. 29.

Teng ended up pitching his way back to the Majors after recording a 3.67 ERA over 25 appearances (four starts) with Sacramento this year, but he put the Giants in an early hole after coughing up a three-run shot to Pete Alonso in the bottom of the first inning.

“I was a bit nervous in the beginning and I wasn’t really feeling my pitches at first, but after the first inning, I kind of settled in and got used to it,” Teng said via interpreter Andy Lin.

Teng got through the next two innings unscathed, but he was pulled after allowing a leadoff single to Cedric Mullins and issuing a one-out walk to Brett Baty in the fourth. He turned a 4-3 lead over to lefty Matt Gage, but the Mets tied the game on Brandon Nimmo’s RBI single and then pulled ahead for good on Francisco Lindor’s RBI bunt single.

“I was a bit upset and frustrated because I didn't actually set the tone,” Teng said. “I gave up a few runs in the first inning, so the team didn’t have a good start. It kind of led up to the loss today.”

Teng was charged with five runs on four hits over 3 1/3 innings, but manager Bob Melvin said he expects the rookie hurler to stay in the rotation and make a second start for the Giants next week.

Smith revenge game goes awry
First baseman Dominic Smith, who spent the first six years of his career with the Mets, came off the bench to deliver a go-ahead single in the 10th inning on Friday night, and then continued to haunt his old team by crushing a game-tying, two-run homer off New York right-hander Kodai Senga in the third inning on Saturday.

But Smith also cost the Giants with his glove in the fourth, when he came charging in to field Lindor’s bunt with runners on the corners and one out and missed a chance to throw out the go-ahead run at the plate. Instead of firing to catcher Andrew Knizner, Smith turned to second to try to start a potential double play, but he found no one covering the bag there and then couldn’t record an out at first after Lindor easily beat Gage to the bag.

“It was bunted pretty hard at me,” Smith said. “I was trying to get a double play there. I had an opportunity to get him at the plate. I chose the opposite route, and we didn't get an out there.”

McCray shows potential
After trading Mike Yastrzemski to the Royals, the Giants are expected to give youngsters Grant McCray and Luis Matos a chance to get more at-bats in right field for the remainder of the season. McCray, who was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento on Friday, made his season debut after getting the starting nod there on Saturday and ended up finishing 2-for-4 with an RBI.

McCray came up to face Senga with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, though he ended up grounding into a double play on the first pitch he saw. He came through later in the game, though, delivering a go-ahead RBI single in the fourth before reaching on a leadoff triple in the ninth. McCray -- a natural center fielder -- also committed a throwing error in the eighth, though he said he doesn’t believe it will take him long to get comfortable playing the corner outfield.

“He’s got a lot of ability, so it’s harnessing that a little bit,” Melvin said.