SAN FRANCISCO — This is not what the Giants anticipated every fifth day when they signed Blake Snell.
Week after week, the Giants’ worst days have been the ones on which their $62 million free-agent prize was scheduled to start. Scratched and placed on the injured list before first pitch Wednesday, the pattern only continued in an 8-2 loss to the Mets and Sean Manaea.
“As we sit here right now, it hasn’t been our best day,” manager Bob Melvin said afterward.
Watching from the dugout after being diagnosed with a strained adductor, Snell bore no blame for the mess that transpired on the field. The Giants reverted to their worst tendencies, stranding runners and running into outs, and their first game of reliever roulette went south quickly.
“It just got away from us a little bit,” Melvin said. “Next thing you know it’s an uphill battle.”
The loss prevented the Giants (12-14) from climbing back to .500 for the first time since the fourth game of the season or securing their first sweep. Besides a four-game skid after they evened their record to 2-2, the Giants have not won or lost more than two in a row through their first 26 games.
By the time Manaea exited midway through the fifth inning, the Giants had cycled through two bulk arms who put them in a 6-0 hole.
Sean Hjelle was bitten twice by the home run ball for three runs, and Landen Roupp allowed the deficit to balloon by another three runs.
Recalled before first pitch to take Snell’s roster spot, Roupp was one strike away from a 1-2-3 fifth inning, but Pete Alonso sent a line drive that tailed away from Thairo Estrada and under his glove for a base hit. Roupp walked the next batter and before he struck out Harrison Bader for the third out, three runs had scored.
With Roupp and Erik Miller taking down 2⅓ innings, the Giants have gotten 99⅓ innings from rookie pitchers this season, almost 30 more than the next-closest team (Cubs, 71 ⅓). The rookies, however, have combined for a 5.62 ERA.
“That’s been a problem,” Melvin said. “We give up too many runs in games where we’re not using key guys. Those guys just have to pitch better.”
The eight runs allowed by the mixture of Giants relievers still equaled the fewest the club has allowed on any of Snell’s scheduled start days. Counting the bullpen game that filled in for him Wednesday and Daulton Jefferies’ spot start in the fourth game of the season, the Giants fell to 0-5 in those contests. They have been outscored 55-12, amounting to a 10.47 ERA from their pitchers, compared to a 3.39 mark in all of the Giants’ 21 other games this season.
“Hopefully (Snell) comes off the IL and pitches better than he had before,” Melvin said. “We talked about what a tough spring it was for him, really no spring. April’s not his best month to begin with. There’s nothing we can do about it now except try to patch it up and pitch better on that turn.”
Manaea opted out of his contract in San Francisco after last season and secured a spot in the Mets’ rotation — plus a few more million and the ability to opt out again — though he didn’t exactly leave the Giants yearning for his services, even with the pregame development of Snell hitting the IL.
The Samoan southpaw — as large as ever, though with considerably less hair — held the Giants scoreless on a handful of hits but put four batters on base via walks and ran three-ball counts to another five hitters. He required 101 pitches to fall an out shy of completing five innings, but the Giants were unable to crack him.
“That might’ve been one of the best worst games I’ve ever had in my life,” Manaea told reporters in the visitors’ clubhouse.
Loading the bases with nobody out in the second, the Giants failed to get anything out of the situation when the bottom three hitters in their lineup couldn’t make a productive out, let alone a deliver a timely hit, and the next inning ran themselves into an out after the first two men reached base.
Stealing second after a leadoff walk, Austin Slater was promptly picked off when Manaea caught him leaning toward third.
The Giants went hitless in seven tries with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 men on base. They only got on the board after chasing Manaea from the game, when Tyler Fitzgerald lined a solo shot off reliever Reed Garrett, his first home run of the season.
Notable
Thairo Estrada left the game in the sixth inning with left hamstring tightness, but Melvin said the move was precautionary. “He wanted to stay in the game, but we wanted to be proactive,” Melvin said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. He’s going to come in and get some treatment.”
Mitch White, from San Jose, made his team debut in the ninth inning, walking the first batter he faced and issuing a two-run home run to Francisco Lindor, the second of the game from the Mets shortstop.
Up next
The Giants will enjoy only their second day off at home Thursday before welcoming the Pirates for three games to close their longest home stand of the season. Kyle Harrison (2-1, 5.00), Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.61) and Keaton Winn (2-3, 3.54) are lined up to start the series, which will also mark Joey Bart’s return to San Francisco.