Giants' woes come to head with finale rout at hands of Padres

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants came into the week with a prime opportunity to try to claw back into the National League Wild Card race and gain some ground on one of the teams they were trying to chase down in the standings.

Instead, they flatlined.

The Giants reached a new low after they were routed, 11-1, to cap a three-game sweep at the hands of the first-place Padres on Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park.

With their fifth straight loss, the Giants (59-62) slipped three games under .500 for the first time this season, leaving them six games out of the NL Wild Card race with 41 games left to play. They’ve dropped 13 of their last 14 games at Oracle Park, their worst stretch at home since the franchise relocated to San Francisco in 1958.

The Giants haven’t looked like contenders for a while now, but their abysmal showing against the Padres likely snuffed out whatever ember of life remained in their dwindling playoff odds.

“The way we’ve been playing for the last two months hasn’t been the best,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “It’s still the same story. We haven’t figured it out. I thought we got something good going from New York and then Pittsburgh, but since we’ve come home, we haven’t figured it out here.”

Manager Bob Melvin seemed to acknowledge that the season had reached a turning point, saying after the game that the Giants could start to give their regulars more days off so they can take a look at some other players in the coming weeks.

The Giants expected their pitching and defense to keep them in the thick of the playoff hunt this year, but neither was up to par on Wednesday. Rookie starter Kai-Wei Teng struggled with his command and recorded only five outs in his third appearance of the year, sinking San Francisco into a quick 7-0 hole in the second inning.

The Giants’ misfortunes were best summed up by a bases-loaded jam shot from Jake Cronenworth that hit off the bag at second base and scored the first two runs of the game. Had it not taken that awkward bounce, the Giants likely would have been able to turn an inning-ending double play and keep the Padres off the board.

Things only continued to unravel after that, as left fielder Heliot Ramos committed a throwing error after spiking a ball into the ground, and the Padres added another run on a two-out passed ball by Gold Glove-winning catcher Patrick Bailey. Melvin said Ramos wasn’t entirely at fault for his miscue, as no one was in position to receive his cut-off throw at second base, but he recognized the urgent need to clean up the sloppy play that has plagued the Giants in the second half.

“It just looks bad,” Melvin said. “The way we’ve been playing, it looks horrible. Now all of a sudden it’s 7-0 and we’re in the second inning. The way we’ve been feeling, it’s just a miserable feeling.”

“It feels like for some reason nothing positive is coming,” Adames said. “Something negative is in the air. We haven’t been able to figure out how to beat it and how to be better out there.”

The Giants found ways to stay resilient and rally for dramatic comebacks at the beginning of the season, but even the smallest deficit has felt unsurmountable lately given the state of their listless offense. San Francisco has scored only five runs over its current five-game skid and is averaging only 1.8 runs per game over its last 14 contests at home.

The Giants gave slumping third baseman Matt Chapman a rare day off on Wednesday to help him recover from some discomfort in his right hand, but it’s clear the rest of the team could use Thursday’s break in the schedule to try to reset, as well.

“There’s ups and downs during the season, but it feels like we’ve been down for like two months,” Adames said. “It’s hard. It has been toughest for me mentally to try to get something going, even for myself at the plate. But we’ve got to figure it out. We’re here to play better baseball and give our best out there.”

Where do the Giants go from here?

“We’ve just got to concentrate on winning a game,” Melvin said. “Not worry about the standings, not worry about where the Wild Card is. Playing a clean game and winning a game. Getting back to playing clean baseball. At this point in time, we have to go inning-to-inning, game-to-game and not worry about the standings at this point.”