Giants hope key regulars break out in May after sweep at Petco Park originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN DIEGO — The signs are there, particularly with Mike Yastrzemski, who played the two games at Petco Park with stubble on his chin. The next time Yastrzemski and the Giants take the field, it will be Mustache May, and some in the lineup are desperate for the calendar to turn.
April was a good month for the Giants, a surprise contender early on, but it wasn’t kind to everyone.
The Giants essentially have nine regulars in their lineup, and they all have been healthy. But not many of them can say they’re happy about where they’re currently at. Jung Hoo Lee is turning into a star and Yastrzemski has turned back the clock. But as the Giants head home after a two-game sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres, they’re the only starters with an OPS over .800
At times, manager Bob Melvin has seen a third or fourth join the party, and that was the case in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss, but too often, the load is not evenly distributed.
Heliot Ramos hit a loud homer Wednesday, but it was his first in 26 games. Three of the other four hits came from Lee and Yastrzemski, who hit his fifth bomb of the season. The Giants can’t match the star power of a Tatis, Machado, Merrill trio, but they anticipated having a strong one-through-nine attack this season. It hasn’t shown up often, though.
Willy Adames looked like his old self in San Diego, but finished April with a .592 OPS. That still puts him well clear of LaMonte Wade Jr. and Patrick Bailey, who are under .500.
“It is what it is. I think the at-bats are better [lately] with some of the guys, certainly LaMonte,” Melvin said. “We have faith that they’re going to get going.”
Wade has been moved down in the order and now is seventh, one spot ahead of Bailey. But on Wednesday it was the heart of the order that faltered. Matt Chapman twice came up as the tying run in the late innings and struck out twice on elevated fastballs. He’s among the league leaders in walks but is 5-for-39 over his past dozen games.
“They were probably both not strikes and [he’s] maybe trying to do a little bit too much,” Melvin said of the strikeouts. “I think both of those were up out of the zone. He’s obviously trying to get something up and drive one, but maybe too far out of the zone.”
For the last three weeks, the key right-handed hitter who had been expanding was Ramos. He said he was over-thinking, but some loud contact Tuesday snapped him back into place.
“It can take one hit, one pitch,” he said. “Even if it’s an out.”
The hope is that others soon experience that, and it’s not like the sweep was entirely or even mostly on the lineup. Logan Webb gave up five runs Tuesday, and Landen Roupp was charged with four earned Wednesday. That meant the Giants were always playing from behind, and while they have plenty of comebacks this season, the sledding was much more difficult against a good Padres pitching staff.
Melvin is hopeful that some regulars break out in May. Perhaps a few mustaches will help, or perhaps they’ll just find a fix during BP one day and take off from there. It’ll need to happen, because there’s no margin for error in this division.
The Giants were in first place when they flew to San Diego. After 18 disappointing innings, they dropped to third.
“It was basically kind of the same game, where we didn’t do enough early in the game to put some pressure on their starter and [the Padres] did,” Melvin said. “We had to do our work against their relievers — which we did, we had the tying run up a couple times late in the game. It’s tough to do it off those guys but it’s early in the game that we didn’t put enough pressure, and we gave up too many runs in the first half of the game, as well.”
