SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Giants hosted the Padres Saturday night, Bob Melvin was asked about the chase for history taking place on the other side. It’s a foreign pursuit in league where swinging and missing has become a part of the game, especially so for Melvin’s ballclub.
Luis Arráez put the ball in play all six of his times to the plate, running his streak without striking out to 135 plate appearances, dating back to August 10. Tony Gwynn once came to the plate 170 times between strikeouts, and Dave Cash holds the expansion-era record with 223 straight plate appearances in 1976.
“The way he’s swinging right now,” Melvin admired, “he’s up there taking pitches (inches) off the plate last night and if you throw it on the plate, he puts the barrel on it.”
Qualities largely absent from a group of Giants hitters that sputtered its way to a third straight shutout loss, 8-0, striking out 10 more times in the process.
The loss was so ugly that it ended in Donovan Walton, a position player, on the mound for the Giants, which so happened to be the last situation in which they scored a run, in the eighth inning Wednesday night. They have failed to score in 27 straight innings, one of only four times since the team moved to San Francisco that it has been shut out three games in a row and the first time since June 23-25, 1992.
It was the Giants’ 65th game this year striking out 10 or more times, and the issue has only gotten worse as the season progressed. They’ve racked up 38 of those strikeout bonanzas in 66 games since the start of July after finishing only 27 of their first 85 games with double digits in the Ks column.
Falling to 4-8 in September, only the lowly Rockies (32.2%) have ended a larger share of their plate appearances with strike three than the Giants (29.8%) since entering the final month of the season. It should come as no surprise that the rise accompanies a larger share of the playing time going to young players, who are typically more prone to striking out and populate the list of the Giants’ worst offenders.
While Grant McCray has struck out in half his plate appearances since his two-homer game last weekend and Marco Luciano isn’t far behind after going down swinging two more times Saturday, the veterans in the middle of the Giants’ lineup aren’t immune, either. Michael Conforto and Matt Chapman combined to account for half of Joe Musgrove’s eight punchouts, and Mike Yastrzemski has struck out in 34.1% of his September plate appearances.
Arraez, meanwhile, entered the game with seven hits in 14 at-bats against the Giants dating back to last weekend and went 2-for-5.
The Giants allowed him to come to plate three times with runners in scoring position and finally paid the price in the sixth, as Arraez poked an RBI single for the first of three runs off Sean Hjelle that extended San Diego’s lead to 5-0. The bigger menace was Donovan Solano, who doubled three times and scored on Arraez’s sixth-inning single in a four-hit performance.
Facing the Padres for the second time in a row, Mason Black fared better than last weekend in San Diego but was still handed the loss. He had allowed a home run in each of his six big-league starts entering the game and served up a solo shot to Xander Bogaerts in the fourth to make it seven-for-seven, extending the Padres’ lead to 2-0.
San Diego got out to an early 1-0 lead when Manny Machado lined a double off the wall in center field and the Giants botched the relay. Jurickson Profar was able to score all the way from first when Heliot Ramos’ throw from the warning track had to be recovered in no man’s land.
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Notable
RHP Jordan Hicks (shoulder) was activated from the 15-day injured list and entered the game in the seventh inning, allowing three runs on four hits and one walk over 1⅔ innings in his first appearance since August 24. RHP Austin Warren optioned to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. … OF Grant McCray was feeling better a day after crashing awkwardly into the center field … SS Tyler Fitzgerald (back) will likely get one more day off Sunday before returning to the lineup when the Giants begin their final road trip of the season Tuesday in Baltimore.
Up next
The Giants wrap up their penultimate home stand of the season with RHP Landen Roupp (0-1, 3.44) on the mound against LHP Martín Pérez (4-5, 4.46). Before the 1:05 p.m. first pitch, Juan Marichal, Dusty Baker, Barry Bonds and Tony Oliva are scheduled to speak at the celebration of life for Orlando Cepeda. Fans are encouraged to be in their seats by 12:30 p.m.