ST. LOUIS -- The roaring offense that powered the Giants through their second-longest winning streak of the season petered out in the midst of Saturday’s shocking loss. By the time it re-emerged on Sunday, it was a little too late to dig out of the hole, which was dug in part by a lack of command from the mound. The Giants (72-71) fell to the Cardinals, 4-3, to miss an opportunity to make up ground on the Mets (76-67), and they remain four games back of the final Wild Card spot in the NL.
After failing to record a hit -- and tallying just one walk -- against Sonny Gray in the game’s first five innings, three walks and three singles in the top of the sixth brought nine men to the plate and trimmed a four-run deficit to just one. They would draw no closer.
“He kept the ball down, he elevated when he had to,” said manager Bob Melvin, who managed Gray in each of the righty’s five seasons with the Athletics. “... We got him on the run, got him out of the game. After giving up four, to come back and score three off him, get him out of the game, was a pretty good feeling in our dugout. Felt like we were going to come back and win that game.”
“Looked like the Sonny that I’ve seen before,” added third baseman Matt Chapman, a teammate of Gray’s in 2017. “[He] was locating and missing barrels and staying on the outside of the plate, so he did a good job.”
Kai-Wei Teng matched a career high with eight strikeouts in just four innings pitched in Sunday’s rubber match at Busch Stadium, but also turned in a career-high five walks. He walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth before exiting the game after allowing a go-ahead single to Lars Nootbaar, and he would ultimately be charged with all four St. Louis runs in the decisive frame.
Teng attributed some of his struggles in the fifth to fatigue, which he surmised was in part due to starting the season in a relief role for Triple-A Sacramento and having to adjust to a starter’s routine, and in part due to putting up his two longest starts of the season in his two most recent appearances.
“As a starter, I have to go as deep as I can and help the team win, so I wouldn’t take that as an excuse,” Teng said through interpreter Andy Lin.
San Francisco scored at least seven runs in each of the five games of its extended winning streak, and the Giants' 18 base hits on Friday night matched a season high. They scored only twice in support of Justin Verlander on Saturday, however, and Sunday’s spillover leaves them scrambling to remain in the race as they return home for a matchup with Arizona.
“Disappointing,” Melvin said when asked to sum up his thoughts on the weekend. “We’ve got to at least win the series. Normally you’d think a 4-2 trip’s not a bad trip, but in our position right now, we have to win more games than that. After winning the first game [in St. Louis], winning one of the next two was important.”
Willy Adames drew two walks against Gray, but no other Giants hitter reached base against him more than once. Chapman was the only other hitter to reach twice after notching an RBI single in the sixth and being walked intentionally in the eighth. Both of Gray's hits allowed were singles, and San Francisco did not tally an extra-base hit until Wilmer Flores doubled with two outs and the bases empty in the eighth.
“We missed some opportunities, didn’t cash in when maybe we should have,” Chapman acknowledged. “But we’ve been swinging the bats really well over the last couple weeks, and we can’t expect to go out there every single time and score eight runs. But it gets magnified when you’re trying to close the gap with teams in front of you.”
The stakes will be intensified in the coming days, as San Francisco plays one home and one road series each against the Diamondbacks and Dodgers over its next 13 games. The opportunity exists to close the gap in the postseason race, but seizing it -- especially against division rivals -- will be a challenge.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing right now,” Melvin said. “We played well against Milwaukee, we swept the Cubs. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing right now. We just have to play well and expect to win games.”