SEATTLE -- The Giants hoped to set a better tone for themselves coming out of the All-Star break, but their first series of the second half featured many of the same pitfalls that have plagued them throughout the year.
A short start from veteran left-hander Robbie Ray and costly defensive miscues added up to a 6-3 loss to the Mariners in Sunday afternoon’s series finale at T-Mobile Park.
The game was tied at 3-3 after five innings, but the Mariners went ahead on Luke Raley’s pinch-hit home run off right-hander Adrian Houser in the sixth and tacked on a pair of insurance runs on Cole Young’s two-run shot in the seventh.
After dropping two of three to Seattle, the Giants will head to Kansas City to take on the Royals in the second leg of their six-game road trip.
“I think everybody’s mind is going to be on a difficult loss today,” manager Tony Vitello said. “But it’s baseball. It’s an everyday thing. Right now it’s a bad day. We’ll get on the flight. Pouting on the flight ain’t going to change anything. You do what you do on the flight -- play cards, take a nap, whatever -- and then when we land, it’s go time against the Royals.”
Here are three takeaways as the Giants fell to 42-57 on the season:
Eldridge joins elite company
The Giants jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to Bryce Eldridge, who deposited Seattle right-hander Logan Gilbert’s fifth pitch of the game -- a 98.6 mph fastball -- over the center-field fence for a solo home run.
It marked the second homer of the series and the 10th overall for Eldridge, who became the first 21-year-old to hit double-digit home runs for the Giants since Jack Clark hit 13 in 1977.
“It was impressive what he did in the first inning on that swing,” Vitello said. “Where he hit it, the location of the pitch, how hard he hit it, how loud it sounded. But he’s just kind of picking up where he left off.”
Eldridge also drew a walk off lefty reliever Gabe Speier in the top of the eighth and proceeded to swipe second for his first career stolen base. The 6-foot-8 slugger isn’t known for his wheels -- he ranks in the 23rd percentile in sprint speed -- but he stole eight bases in the Minors and could look to be more opportunistic on the basepaths moving forward.
“I don’t know when the next one will come, but that one will go down in the statistics today,” Vitello said.
Shaky defense
Casey Schmitt helped extend the Giants’ lead to 2-0 in the top of the first by singling, stealing second base and scoring on a two-out RBI single from Heliot Ramos. But he also committed two errors at third base, the second of which helped the Mariners score a pair of unearned runs off Ray in the bottom of the fourth.
Randy Arozarena led off the inning by bouncing a grounder to Schmitt, who made a spinning stop before airmailing a throw to first base. The ball ended up bouncing off the wall and caroming back into play toward Luis Arraez on the right side of the infield, but shortstop Willy Adames was late covering second base, which enabled Arozarena to take two bases on the error.
Arozarena advanced to third on a sacrifice fly and scored on Josh Naylor’s RBI single to left field to cut the Giants’ lead to 2-1. The Mariners later tied the game on another two-out RBI single from Weston Wilson.
The Giants have struggled to consistently play clean defense, as their 69 errors are tied for the second-most in the Majors this season.
“It’s tough,” Ray said. “You can’t give Major League teams extra outs. In that situation, the ball gets away and [Arozarena] gets to second base, all of a sudden it becomes a high-stress situation, high-stress pitches. I just threw too many pitches in that inning. That’s what it came down to.”
Ray’s day
Ray returned to the mound for the bottom of the fifth, but he was removed after giving up back-to-back singles to Young and Arozarena to open the inning. Left-hander Sam Hentges came in to replace Ray and allowed an inherited runner to score after getting Cal Raleigh to ground into a double play.
Ray was charged with three runs (one earned) on seven hits while striking out six over four-plus innings, though he actually saw his ERA fall from 3.38 to 3.33 on Sunday. The 34-year-old veteran has a 1.20 ERA with 30 strikeouts over 37 1/3 innings over his last six outings and is on an expiring contract, which should make him an attractive target for teams who are looking for rotation upgrades leading up to the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.