CHICAGO -- Given their ongoing struggles to score runs, the Giants can’t afford to make costly outs on the bases.
But they saw their most promising rally of the afternoon crumble after Brett Wisely was picked off at third base as part of a painful double play in the sixth inning of a frustrating 1-0 loss to the White Sox on Saturday afternoon at Rate Field.
The Giants mustered only one hit against Chicago starter Adrian Houser over the first five frames, but their offense finally showed some life after Wisely and Christian Koss singled and Houser balked to put runners on second and third with no outs for star slugger Rafael Devers in the sixth.
Still, the Giants ultimately came away empty-handed after Devers struck out swinging on a changeup and Wisely was picked off at third by White Sox catcher Edgar Quero. Had Wisely not been thrown out, he likely would have scored easily on Heliot Ramos’ subsequent fly ball to center field, which ended up being caught by Michael A. Taylor for the third out of the inning rather than a sacrifice fly.
“I was on contact, so on a ground ball or something on the ground, I’m going for it,” said Wisely, who was also picked off at first base in the Giants’ 3-1 series-opening win on Friday night. “I saw Rafi swing, and I was a little heavy on the top foot there. He just made a really good throw. I guess I probably should have came up standing up to make the ball hit me instead of slide, but it was just a really good play there.”
“He was trying to get a good jump on the ground ball, but he’s got to be able to get back,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Once the ball crosses home plate, he’s got to be able to get back. I know he’s trying to get out there and be aggressive and when the ball hits the ground, take off, and give us a chance to score a run. But you’ve got to be able to get back.”
The baserunning miscue ended up being a huge swing in the game, as the White Sox went on to break the scoreless tie when Andrew Benintendi cranked a down-and-in fastball from left-hander Robbie Ray out to right field for the lone run of the game in the bottom of the sixth.
“It did feel like kind of a momentum shift, for sure,” Ray said. “Typically, a solo home run is not going to beat you. But their guy was just a little bit better today.”
Ray departed after allowing one run on four hits over six innings, but he was outdueled by Houser, who gave up four singles and needed only 88 pitches to cruise through seven shutout innings for the White Sox.
The Giants (45-38) have now lost 10 of their last 15 games, slashing only .170/.289/.321 with runners in scoring position over that span. They’ve tried to manufacture some runs by pushing the envelope on the bases, but they’ve ended up running into 28 outs, the fifth-most in the Majors this season.
San Francisco’s lineup should get a boost from the return of third baseman Matt Chapman (sprained right hand) in the coming weeks, but the team will need its other regulars to capitalize on more scoring opportunities and create a bigger margin for error for the pitching staff moving forward.
“We’re trying to be aggressive and do some things to score some runs,” Melvin said. “In this case, it backfired. We’ve got to keep working to take that kind of pressure off ourselves offensively. We’ve got to be able to score more runs and put more pressure on the starting pitcher, whether it’s early in the game, in the middle of the game. Granted, [Houser] had good stuff. He had a really good sinker. It was down in the zone, balls on the ground.
“But we have to be able to put more pressure on, because every opportunity that comes and something goes wrong, it’s just magnified. It comes down to a lack of offense.”