SAN FRANCISCO — The executives soon interviewing to be head of baseball operations at AT&T Park surely know how steep the climb may be. But just in case they have any doubts, they should probably watch the bottom of the seventh inning of the Giants' 3-1 loss to the Dodgers.
If ever there was a sequence to show the gap in the NL West, this was it.
Trailing by two, the Giants got going with a leadoff walk from Brandon Crawford and a single from Aramis Garcia. Gregor Blanco struck out and Gorkys Hernandez did the same, which is not that unusual when runners reach scoring position around here. The alarming part came when Bruce Bochy sent Alen Hanson, his best bench weapon, up to hit against Pedro Baez.
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Dave Roberts brought in lefty Alex Wood to face Hanson, who bats just .186 from the right side. Bochy countered by sending up Chase d’Arnaud, who struck out.
With one hand signal, Dave Roberts wiped Bruce Bochy’s best chess move right off the board. Oh, and the lefty reliever he countered with has a 3.71 ERA and might be the No. 3 starter if he pitched in San Francisco.
Roberts turned to Kenta Maeda, another starter pushed out of a rotation that’s too deep, for the eighth. He used Cody Bellinger (24 homers), Joc Pederson (24) and Yasiel Puig (22) off the bench.
The Giants have Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Johnny Cueto and others on the DL, but still, the talent deficit is tremendous. The next head of baseball ops has a lot of work to do.
San Francisco Giants
--- Austin Slater was removed after just one at-bat because he strained his elbow making a throw home in the third inning. Slater said he has been getting treatment for soreness for about a month, but this time the tingling didn't go away after a few seconds. He was relieved that he didn't hear a pop, but there's still concern about the injury. Slater will get an MRI on Saturday morning.
--- The Giants have been held to two runs or fewer in 10 of their last 12 home games.