NEW YORK — The good vibes lasted only a day.
The Giants dropped back below .500 with a 12-6 blowout loss to the New York Mets on Saturday evening at Citi Field. San Francisco (55-56) has now lost 11 of their its 14 games to begin the second half and are currently 6.5 games back of the San Diego Padres the final NL Wild Card spot.
Tyler Rogers, who appeared in 392 games for the Giants, faced his old teammates as he made his Mets debut. Rogers allowed a single to Heliot Ramos on a grounder that bounced off first base but pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
Rogers wasn’t the only player on Saturday who had success against his former team. Dominic Smith, who spent the first six seasons of his major-league career, hit a two-run homer of Kodai Senga, his third home run of the season. On Friday night, Smith drove in the winning run in the top of the 10th with a single up the middle.
Despite the homer, Smith made a curious defensive mistake in the bottom of the fourth.
With runners at first and third with one out, Francisco Lindor laid down a push bunt right at Smith. Brett Baty, the runner on third, immediately broke home. If Smiht threw to the plate, the Giants would’ve likely gotten the out. Smith instead tried to throw to second, but held onto the ball because no one was covering the base. Smith turned back to first for the force out, but Lindor was already crossing first. The Mets took a 5-4 lead, a lead they’d never relinquish.
“It’s home that we need to be going on the play, and Dom knows,” Melvin said. “He thought maybe he could turn a double play, and he wasn’t going to get Lindor. The play’s right in front of him. We should’ve made a play at home.”
“It was bunted pretty hard at me, so I was trying to get a double play there,” Smith said. “I had an opportunity to get him at the plate. I chose the opposite route and we didn’t get an out there.”
Kai-Wei Teng was roughed up by New York’s potent offense, allowing five earned runs over 3 1/3 innings with three walks to four strikeouts. Three of those runs came in the first when Pete Alonso eviscerated a three-run homer, bringing himself within two home runs of tying Darryl Strawberry’s record of 252 for the most in franchise history.
With Landen Roupp still on the injured list, Melvin said he envisions that Teng will receive another start. Prior to being called up, Teng had a 0.52 ERA with 31 strikeouts over 17 1/3 innings over his last four appearances for Triple-A Sacramento.
“I was bit upset and frustrated because I didn’t actually settle the tone,” Teng said through team interpreter Andy Lin. “I gave up a few runs in the first inning, so it led up to the team not having a great start.”
Added Melvin: “The first inning was a little bit of a problem for him. Recovered pretty well and pitched much better in the next couple innings. We were looking two times around the lineup for him and then we were going to go lefty at the top. He came up a little short of that and gave up another run, but there was some good.”
Following Teng’s departure, the Mets continued attacking the Giants’ bullpen. Spencer Bivens allowed two runs during his lone inning of work on a pair of RBI singles from Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor, while Tristan Beck allowed five runs over two innings that put the game out of reach.
Outfielder Grant McCray bolstered his case to receive more playing time in right field following the trade of Mike Yastrzemski, totaling a single, a triple and an RBI. Shortstop Willy Adames hit a two-run homer, his 17th of the season, in the top of the ninth as the Giants trailed by eight runs.
“He’s got a lot of ability,” Melvin said. “It’s about harnessing that a little bit.”
Originally Published:
<
