LOS ANGELES — A few minutes into his pregame session with reporters on Thursday, manager Gabe Kapler paused as he was answering a question. He had given a few updates on what playing time would look like for Giants rookies, but there was one thing he wanted to make clear.
The Giants had not punted on the 2023 season when they called up Marco Luciano and Tyler Fitzgerald. Kapler said the focus was still on winning every game down the stretch and trying to make an improbable run, and right now they feel the rookies are the way. Fitzgerald, for instance, was deemed a better option in the outfield on Thursday night than Mitch Haniger, who is six months into the largest deal Farhan Zaidi has given a free agent.
The newcomers, all playing at Dodger Stadium for the first time, did their part.
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Kyle Harrison shook off a bug that had him 50-50 to even make the start, showing a better command of his full repertoire while allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings. Luciano reached base twice and Fitzgerald did the same, pushing across the game's first run by drawing a bases-loaded walk after he fell behind in the count.
The Giants still lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2, falling under .500 for the first time since June 5. They lost because of a series of mistakes by veterans who admit they should know better, but that has become a theme.
The biggest mistake came in the sixth, when Mike Yastrzemski lost track of the outs and allowed Will Smith to score the go-ahead -- and winning -- run on a medium fly ball to right. Yastrzemski said the lapse was "inexcusable." He said he couldn't remember the last time he forgot how many outs there were in an inning, and it's easy to believe him.
Yastrzemski is as fundamentally sound as any player the Giants have, and nobody has ever doubted his preparation or focus. Mistakes happen, and nobody was holding that one against a player who battled back from multiple hamstring strains this year just to be in this position. The problem for the Giants was that it was part of a large collection of misplays by veterans.
San Francisco Giants
An inning later, J.D. Davis booted a grounder to put a runner on. Wilmer Flores couldn't haul in a hard shot down the line and all of a sudden the Dodgers had two in scoring position. Luke Jackson spiked a pair of sliders and that was it. In a quiet clubhouse an hour later, Kapler said his team was "not crisp enough across the board."
"It's just not good enough to win baseball games against good teams," Kapler said. "We've got to get better or we'll continue to get beat by teams like the Dodgers."
At this point, they have run out of time to meaningfully do that in 2023. Their lineup failed them in July and August, but in September it has been the defense far too often. The Giants vowed to fix it after an embarrassing effort on that side of the ball in 2022, but they have returned to that form at the worst possible time.
It has left them under .500 and closer to the fourth-place San Diego Padres than to any of the teams they're chasing for a Wild Card spot. It has left them 5-26 in their last 31 road games, a record that almost defies logic and is their worst over a 31-game road stretch since 1902.
There's not much to do at this point but to play the kids and hope for some moments of inspiration, and the Giants at least took solace in some of the rookie contributions on Thursday. Fitzgerald got his first big league hit out of the way with a hard double down the left field line. He couldn't haul in a liner to right-center that turned into a triple, but he at least showed the athleticism that's sorely lacking on this roster.
"I was in awe that he even got to that ball," Yastrzemski said of the diving effort. "It was a sign of things to come."
There will be more of that over the next nine games. Luciano is expected to start just about every game at short and Fitzgerald will get an extended look in center. Harrison will make at least one more start. With lefties going the next two days for the Dodgers, Luis Matos should be heavily involved.
The rookies brought some life to the roster on Thursday, but that's not the way things were supposed to go over the last couple weeks of September. The Giants built this team around veterans who have been here before. They haven't been able to hold up, and that will lead to an offseason of difficult questions.
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Asked why there have been so many mistakes, Yastrzemski said he's not sure. But he's been around long enough at this point to know that something is wrong.
"I think there's a way that we can play with a little bit more edge in every game," Yastrzemski said. "I think I've seen it, we've all seen it, where we come out firing and things are going well and then there's times where we just come out flat and I think it's just an attitude thing where we should take a little more pride in our work. I've got to look in the mirror and say myself first, more than anybody, but it's just one of those things where I think there's times where we deserve to be embarrassed, kinda like we are right now. You just have to wear that for the next 10 hours until we get to play again."