ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Giants paid $62 million to add a two-time Cy Young winner to their rotation. Two and a half weeks into the season, they are still waiting for his arrival.
The Giants also committed those dollars to a pitcher with a history of slow starts and questionable command, and it was Blake Snell who showed up again Sunday in his second start for his new team in the venue he has called home for the first five years of his big league career.
His old club, the Tampa Bay Rays, had the right plan of attack against their friend-turned-enemy, waiting for him to find the strike zone and ambushing him on the rare occasions he did. They chased him after four innings, 78 pitches and seven runs, sending the Giants to their second loss, 9-4, in two starts at Snell.
Not exactly the results they were hoping for when they signed the 31-year-old southpaw late in spring training. It was only after finalizing the deal on March 19 that this was the reality they signed up to. Before the first pitch, manager Bob Melvin acknowledged that the goal was always for him to “settle in and get comfortable.”
Afterward, Melvin said, “Really, it’s just about getting a foothold out there and getting a good outing under his belt.”
His start Sunday was just the fifth time he took the mound in a Giants uniform, counting two appearances during extended spring training and a simulated game at Dodger Stadium, and it was evident from the start that ‘there was still a bit of installation. TO DO.
Snell’s first left-handed pitch was a fastball one foot outside and about the same distance above the strike zone. The first two curveballs he threw were buried in the dirt, and the third, Randy Arozarena, uncorked at 104 mph to bring home the Rays’ first run of the game.
Arozarena’s RBI single was already the third of Tampa Bay’s eventual six fly balls in the game against Snell that left their bats going over 100 mph.
“You don’t often see him get hit hard,” Melvin said. “He’ll give up a few walks and get a little upset, but it’s rare you see him get hit like that. I think it’s still more trial and error.
In two starts, Snell allowed 10 runs in seven innings and suffered the loss each time.
Overall, Snell landed just 48 of his pitches Sunday for strikes and counted two or three balls against nine of the 20 batters he faced.
The Giants figured that was part of the deal, but the problem with Snell, even though he won the National League Cy Young last season, was that he was so good at missing at bats and so difficult to making quality contact against which he was rarely penalized by all the extra base runners.
Snell didn’t walk his first batter until his final inning, but the Rays made him pay when he did. Delivering consecutive free passes to the first two batters in the fourth, both walks turned into runs when René Pinto, the backup catcher on the ninth hit, sent a 3-2 fastball screaming at 108.1 mph into left field seats, 433 feet.
The home run, extending the Rays’ advantage to 7-1, was the second of the day surrendered by Snell, and Pinto would later add another against Kai-Wei Teng in the sixth. It was Amed Rosario who delivered the other big swing, capping a three-run first inning with a line drive that snuck over the left field wall.
The Rays’ first three runs erased a 1-0 lead built when LaMonte Wade Jr. hit Jung Hoo Lee on a single in the top half of the inning, and the Giants never regained the lead. The RBI single extended Wade’s on-base streak to 10 games, but it proved to be their last hit until Tyler Fitzgerald led off the sixth with a double.
After their bats broke out to earn an 11-2 win Saturday, they were largely flummoxed by a Tampa Bay team featuring right-hander Shawn Armstrong, who covered the first two innings, and left-hander Tyler Alexander, who won the match. next six images.
After Wade’s first-inning single, the Giants went up 14, 14, but Jorge Soler at least made sure their next baserunner was worth it, ripping a two-out single to the left side of the field inside to score Fitzgerald, reducing the deficit. at 7-2.
A solo shot by Michael Conforto in the seventh – his team-leading fourth of the season and his second against a lefty – brought the Giants within five, but Isaac Paredes stole the point in the bottom half with the fourth of Rays. home run of the game, the second allowed by Teng.
Notable
Losing two of three at Tropicana Field, the Giants have won just one of their five series to start the season.
Melvin had Taylor Rogers record the final out in the eighth inning, giving the left-hander his first work since Tuesday. Likewise, Tyler Rogers hasn’t appeared in a game since Tuesday and Camilo Doval hasn’t been needed in over a week, with his first and only save coming last Sunday, two full series ago.
Following
There’s no better opponent for the Giants to rebound against than the Miami Marlins, who own the worst record in the majors at 3-13. The Marlins have not announced their starters for the series, but the Giants will start Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks and Keaton Winn. They will also reunite with former manager Gabe Kapler, who is now an assistant general manager in Miami.
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