SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants entered Friday night's game mired in the worst offensive slump of the Gabe Kapler Era, and the environment they faced was not one in which you would expect any sort of breakthrough,
On a cold and foggy night at Oracle Park, the kind that suppresses offense, they faced a St. Louis Cardinals pitching staff that combined for 23 pitches at 100 mph or above, including six that clocked in above 101 mph. The Giants have their own flamethrower, but unfortunately for them, he gave up the winning run.
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The Cardinals scored in the top of the ninth against Camilo Doval to win 3-2. The loss was the fifth straight for the Giants and seventh in eight games.
The Giants trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth, a less-than-ideal situation given that they had scored exactly one run in their three previous games, but Darin Ruf's two-run single knotted things up.
The bullpens did a good job from there, but the Cardinals set themselves up nicely in the eighth. Tommy Edman tripled and Paul Goldschmidt drew a two-out walk ahead of Nolan Arenado, who has roughly 1,278 career RBI against the Giants, but Doval entered and got a bouncer back to the mound.
Doval came out for the top of the ninth and allowed a one-out double and a single that put the Cardinals on top.
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Hjelle Dance
Sean Hjelle, the Giants' second-round pick in 2018, made his MLB debut in the seventh inning. It couldn't have gone much better.
Hjelle needed just 11 pitches to get through the inning, seven of which were strikes. He got two grounders and a strikeout of Corey Dickerson, topping out at 95 mph with a sinker that the Giants hope will generate plenty of soft contact in the big leagues.
Hjelle was a starter in Triple-A, but the Giants needed some bullpen help this weekend and viewed the righty-heavy Cardinals as a good matchup for Hjelle. It's unclear how long he'll be in the bullpen, especially because Dominic Leone and Jakob Junis both should be back soon, but it was a good first impression and should give the Giants faith that Hjelle can help them later this weekend and throughout the season.
First Night Back
LaMonte Wade Jr. made his season debut and went right back to the top of the lineup, but he'll have to wait at least another day to make an impact. Wade grounded out to second in his first at-bat and struck out the next time up. In the fifth, he was part of a change that became very familiar last year. With two on and the Cardinals turning to a left-handed reliever, Wade was replaced by Austin Slater.
Slater grounded out, but for the first time all season, Kapler had the ability to turn to a collection of experienced platoon options off the bench. Slater was followed by Ruf, who replaced Mike Yastrzemski and dropped a two-run single into right field to tie the game.
Matching The Advanced Stats
Alex Cobb came into the game with a 5.40 ERA, but that doesn't at all tell the story of how well he had thrown in his first three starts in orange and black. Cobb entered the night with by far the Majors' largest gap between slugging percentage allowed and expected slugging percentage, which is based on quality of contact. He was allowing hitters to bat .311, but their expected average was .159, another gap that was the largest in the league.
Simply put, Cobb had been getting really, really weak contact and had just been unlucky. Some of that turned Friday night.
Cobb retired the first 10 hitters he faced, with three grounding back softly to the mound and four striking out. He finished with eight strikeouts in five innings and got 14 swinging strikes on his splitter. One of them hung a bit too high, though, and Harrison Bader yanked it just over the left field wall for a two-run homer.
If Cobb keeps throwing this way and getting strikeouts and weak contact, there will be plenty of better nights. On Friday, at least it was a big step in the right direction.