Giants don’t get no-hit

Helluva silver lining, huh.

For the last handful of months, as the San Francisco Giants flirted with and then emphatically maintained their mediocrity, I heard a common refrain from the fanbase. Just play the kids, they’d shout. At least it would be entertaining.

I haven’t always disagreed.

Were Farhan Zaidi replaced as president of baseball operations by Brady’s Fandom Desires, then Nick Ahmed would never have been on the team, as Marco Luciano would have been the Day 1 shortstop. Heliot Ramos would’ve received an opportunity before the team quite literally ran out of alternative options. Tyler Fitzgerald would have been granted the leniency to make one mistake in his rookie year.

And yet, despite those feelings, when I’ve heard that grumpy refrain time after time after time, I’m always tempted to snarkily respond, You sure about that? Careful what you wish for, bub.

I applaud a goldfish’s memory, but it’s fairly stunning to me that fans can be so adamant that turning to inexperienced youth will provide a spark of joy, when this time last year was, if the calendars are to be believed, only a year ago. Have we not forgotten the string of games in which Wade Meckler, Luis Matos, Brett Wisely, Casey Schmitt, and Patrick Bailey led a balanced offensive attack where the Giants scored two or fewer runs 35 times in 20 days?

So that was on my mind as the Giants waved their white flag in the face of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, adorning the infield with Luciano, Fitzgerald, and Wisely, flanking Matos and Ramos at the corners of the outfield, and placing 22-year old Hayden Birdsong on the mound.

I was excited for the game. I want to see the youngsters play, and it’s the point in the season where it’s imperative that the Giants start to figure out what they have internally.

I was also nervous. Because the grim reality is that for every Ramos third-year breakout, there’s a Jarrett Parker, a Jaylen Davis, a Chris Shaw, a Ryder Jones, a Ramos first and second-year pre-breakout. The proven veterans, mediocre as they occasionally may be, are proven veterans, and the unproven youngsters are not guaranteed a future as a proven veteran. Most never quite make it there.

I’m optimistic that some of the current Giants will make it there, and even exceed such a label, but that doesn’t guarantee a smooth journey. Part of why the Giants are turning to their youngsters is to see what they have ahead of the offseason; but part of it is in hopes of getting the learning curve out of the way in a lost season, so they can hit the ground running next year. If Luciano can be 2022 and 2023 Ramos this September and 2024 Ramos come March, then it will have been a fruitful endeavor.

But the fears of having to watch those listless journeys play out over a looooong September were immediately realized. Birdsong struggled out of the gates, walking the first two batters he faced en route to a one-run first inning. He gave up a solo home run to Eugenio Suárez in the second, and loaded the bases (courtesy of two more walks) before getting out of the inning. He escaped the third unscathed in the run department, but a single and a walk had driven his pitch count up to 77, and his night was over.

The offense, meanwhile, did nothing. Almost quite literally. Save for a funny second-inning, two-out rally in which Matos, then Luciano, then Wisely all spat on some of Zac Gallen’s most artistic off-speed pitches, drawing consecutive walks to load the bases (the inning would end when Curt Casali nearly did the same, but gave in and chased ball four), the Giants couldn’t muster a damn thing against Gallen. He didn’t allow a hit in the first, or in the second, or in the third, or in the fourth, or in the fifth, or in the sixth.

But thanks to those walks (plus one drawn by Mike Yastrzemski), those six innings took Gallen cleanly to the 100-pitch mark, and his night was over. And while the Chicago Cubs might have thrown a combined no-hitter just hours earlier, the Giants only needed to see two pitches from Kevin Ginkel to put any dreams (fears?) of being no-hit to bed, as Fitzgerald bopped a leadoff single in the seventh. Five pitches later, LaMonte Wade Jr. brought the tiny crowd to life with a Splash Hit, which cut the deficit in half (the D-Backs had, while the Giants were busy getting no-hit, hung a pair of runs on Spencer Bivens).

The Giants were on the board and threatening to gain momentum, but just as they did the night prior, they messed around and gave up the insurance runs that Arizona ultimately proved to need. Camilo Doval caught too little plate in walking the leadoff batter in the eighth, then caught too much plate in allowing a Suárez double off the literal top of the wall, with both runners eventually scoring on balls that didn’t leave the infield. The deficit had ballooned back to four, which hurt doubly when the Giants scored a pair of runs in the ninth. Again it was a Fitzgerald and Wade rally (a double and a single, respectively, following a Michael Conforto leadoff walk), and while the Giants would get the tying run to the plate with no outs, that pesky youth came back to bite them, with uncompetitive at-bats from Matos, Luciano, and Wisely.

And so they lost 6-4.

They earned no hits beyond that quartet from Fitzgerald and Wade. They struck out 14 times. Birdsong looked like someone who only made two starts in AAA, which he did. You probably didn’t have too much fun watching the game, if you watched it at all.

But they played the youth. The youngsters got a chance to grow, even if watching people grow isn’t always enjoyable. Luciano looked significantly more comfortable defensively than on Tuesday. Matos looked significantly more comfortable offensively than on Tuesday.

And when the dust of yet another loss had settled, the Giants announced a six-year contract extension with Matt Chapman.

It wasn’t a fun day for the Giants. But it just might have been a productive one.