OAKLAND — Alex Cobb sat and stewed.
All he could do was watch as the Giants’ lead evaporated in the sixth inning of an eventual 8-6 loss Sunday afternoon to the Oakland A’s.
Removed with one out in the sixth, after throwing only 77 pitches, the Giants’ All-Star starter watched from the bench in the first-base dugout as Brandon Crawford bounced a throw to first base. He rested his head in his hands as Luke Jackson, called on to relieve him, walked back-to-back batters, forcing in a run.
Cobb remained there for all of it, unable to do anything about it, as the ugly inning culminated in a go-ahead base hit from Shea Langeliers, unloading the bases with a line drive over the glove of a leaping J.D. Davis, after manager Gabe Kapler refused to pull his erratic reliever from the game.
All told, the Giants (61-51) wasted one of their best offensive performances of the past month-plus, as well as both of their best opportunities to pick up wins before beginning a daunting stretch of the schedule that features 21 consecutive contests against teams at or above .500 entering Sunday.
“I just couldn’t believe that I had that opportunity in front of me today,” Cobb said of his emotions in the dugout. “The team seemingly gave me everything I needed early and I felt in that moment that I let the team down.”
They were swept in the two-game weekend series by the A’s (32-80), the worst team in the majors, and had to settle for a split in the four-game, home-and-home Bay Bridge series.
“Not a good baseball game, not a clean baseball game,” Kapler said. “We’re better than that as a group. Granted we did swing the bat better and got some big hits. We just didn’t play good, all-around baseball. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It’s hard to win when you’re not playing good, all-around baseball.”
Langeliers’ two-RBI single in the sixth was the A’s eighth hit of the game, snapping a streak of 10 straight games by the Giants’ pitching staff of holding opponents below that number, one away from matching a major-league long this season.
Cobb surrendered seven of those hits while allowing five runs — three on a pair of home runs by shortstop Nick Allen, who entered Sunday batting .181 with one homer this year — but possessed a 6-4 lead when he took the mound to begin the sixth inning.
“I don’t think it was Cobb’s best outing,” Kapler said. “I think he missed with a couple of pitches, and that hurt us. But he grinded through better than five innings for us and had a chance to get through the sixth but wasn’t able to do it.”
Jackson should have easily recorded the second out of the inning on a ground ball to Crawford from pinch-hitter Tony Kemp. While Kemp is speedy, Crawford had enough time to double clutch but still failed to get the ball to Wade, who made an unsuccessful stab at the one-hopper.
Jackson followed by walking the next two batters to load the bases — including four straight balls to Tyler Soderstrom — but Kapler opted to leave him in to face Langeliers, who laced the second pitch he saw into left field.
“Quite simply Luke is an excellent, excellent major-league reliever,” Kapler said. “Has been for a really long time. He’s had a great year for us so far. I had no reason to do anything but trust Luke Jackson right there, and I’ll keep doing it going forward.”
Crawford committed a second throwing error on a slightly less routine grounder from Nick Allen in the eighth, charging and throwing on the run wide of Wade at first, while Michael Conforto lost a fly ball in the sun in the seventh that allowed the A’s to push across an insurance run that made it 8-6.
The Giants lost for only the fourth time in 32 games this season when scoring at least six runs. It was a total they had reached only once in their past 17 games and four times in 30 previous contests since the start of July.
“We’ve been waiting for that breakout as a team, offensively,” Cobb said. “You get the first run early and immediately give it up. You take the lead again and give it up. Just extremely frustrating series for us in general. But as one of the guys that wants to work deep into the game and protect the lead, I did anything but that.”
Oakland starter Luis Medina had even worse command than Jackson, requiring 88 pitches to record 10 outs and only throwing 53 for strikes. Walking five batters over 3⅓ innings, Medina allowed the Giants to place runners in scoring position in all of the first three innings.
And, unlike most of the past month and change, they were able to capitalize.
J.D. Davis opened a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with an opposite-field single to drive home LaMonte Wade Jr. from second. Wade made it 2-1 in the second with another RBI single, this time driving home Brandon Crawford from third. And, with the bases loaded in the third, Patrick Bailey slapped a single into left field.
That’s right: hits with runners in scoring position in three consecutive innings. The Giants had been an MLB-worst 36-for-197 (.183) in such situations since the start of July. They also had the third-fewest opportunities in that span but had no shortage Sunday.
In 16 chances, they came through five times, a .313 batting average nearly double their mark for the past five weeks.
But they also left 11 men on base, didn’t put a ball in play over 100 mph off the bat and failed to record a hit after the fifth inning.
Up next
The Giants’ schedule only gets tougher from here on out: Starting Monday, they play 21 consecutive games against opponents with winning records. Their swing through the AL West continues with three games against the Angels in Anaheim before returning home to play host to Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers.
Monday, 6:38 p.m. PT – RHP Logan Webb (9-9, 3.45) vs. LHP Patrick Sandoval (6-8, 4.11)
Tuesday, 6:38 p.m. PT – TBA vs. RHP Lucas Giolito (6-8, 4.36)
Wednesday, 6:38 p.m. PT – TBA vs. RHP Shohei Ohtani (9-5, 3.32)
Source: www.mercurynews.com