With three consecutive wins to open their series against the Cubs, the Giants revealed the blueprint to beating Chicago.
They took advantage of early scoring chances, forced the Cubs to go to their bullpen early and stayed away from a group of the top high-leverage arms in the majors.
In the early innings of Sunday’s series finale, the Giants appeared poised for a sweep as they tagged Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks for three runs in the first two innings, but a pair of Patrick Wisdom home runs and a shaky outing from starter Johnny Cueto cost the club in a 4-3 defeat.
“It wasn’t a perfect game, but it’s a game we expect to win and we need to find ways to win,” manager Gabe Kapler said.
Giants shortstop Mauricio Dubón came a few feet from tying the game in the ninth, but his long flyball hit toward the left field bleachers nestled in the glove of a leaping Kris Bryant in front of the wall for the first out of the frame.
Kris Bryant is a left fielder today! #CubTogether https://t.co/iq0lKgoH7i pic.twitter.com/Z1kSZCQTx4
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 6, 2021
Through 59 games this season, the Giants’ .627 winning percentage still represents the best mark in the majors. Their 37-22 record has vaulted them ahead of the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, but in a season in which injuries across the majors have skyrocketed and different stars are being sidelined on a day-to-day basis, depth is expected to play an even greater role than usual in determining which clubs survive a marathon regular season and advance to the playoffs.
A remarkably deep 40-man roster has provided the Giants with a significant advantage already this season, but with more than 100 games left to play, the club is facing another monumental test.
Kapler announced Sunday that third baseman Evan Longoria will miss the next four-to-six weeks with a left shoulder sprain, robbing the club of a 14-year veteran who has posted the best numbers of his major league career this season.
“It’s going to be tough, but I’m not the team,” Longoria said. “I can’t go out there and do it all myself, so I think we’ve proven that without guys in the lineup, we can still win games and it’s just going to take other guys to step up, which I think we’re completely capable of doing.”
Longoria’s 150 OPS+ is the highest mark of his career and his 146 wRC+ ranks third among all major league third basemen. A consistent force in the Giants’ lineup, Longoria was well on his way to making his first All-Star team since 2010 before a collision with shortstop Brandon Crawford in the ninth inning of Saturday’s game robbed him of at least the next month of games.
“There’s nothing he could do, there’s nothing I could do, it happened the way it happened and there’s no blame on him,” Longoria said. “He’s trying to make a play, I’m trying to make a play and it was just unfortunate.”
The Giants replaced Longoria on the 26-man roster with infielder Thairo Estrada, who was designated for assignment by the Yankees earlier this season. Estrada has led the Giants’ Triple-A Sacramento affiliate in batting average and OPS this year, but Kapler indicated the club will rely more heavily on veteran Wilmer Flores to fill the void left by Longoria.
It was Flores who started in Longoria’s place Sunday and while he’s produced at a league average rate offensively this season, Flores went 0-for-4 in the series finale. With runners on first and third in the seventh inning and the Giants having an opportunity to tie the game, Flores flew out against Cubs reliever Ryan Tepera.
“We were in this game today,” catcher Buster Posey said. “Especially after missing Longo today, Belt, Craw, Yaz is down, I think it just speaks volumes about the guys that are able to step up and take some at-bats and take the ball on the mound and I think we’re all confident we can continue to win games while guys.”
Cueto appeared to be locked in during his first three innings as the only blemish on his line was a long solo home run out to dead center field hit by Wisdom. His outing took a turn in the fourth after he walked the first batter he faced, Ian Happ, on five pitches.
After recording a pair of outs, Cueto had the chance to pitch around Wisdom as Happ had already reached scoring position, leaving first base open. That appeared to be the veteran’s intent after falling behind in the count 2-1, but he threw a slider right down the middle that Wisdom crushed out to center field to tie the game at 3-3.
“He hit two home runs with me making a location mistake with leaving the ball up in the middle,” Cueto said.
Cueto was unable to make it out of the fifth inning as his counterpart, Hendricks, led off with a double into the left field corner.
After the Cubs loaded the bases with one out, Giants shortstop Mauricio Dubón attempted to keep Chicago from taking the lead by firing home after corralling a slow chopper hit by Javier Báez. A perfect throw would have led to a force out, but catcher Buster Posey was charged with an error as he was unable to cleanly handle a low offering from his shortstop.
“It was a really close play,” Kapler said. “I think it’s a play we can convert and we just weren’t able to complete the play.”
The run proved to be quite costly, as the Cubs maintained their one-run lead the rest of the way thanks to a lights-out effort from Tepera, set-up man Andrew Chafin and closer Craig Kimbrel out of the bullpen.
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SF Giants lose Evan Longoria to shoulder injury, then lose series finale to Cubs as depth is tested - Vacaville Reporter
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