ST. PETERSBURG – In a road trip that featured one gut punch after another, the Giants were dealt a final blow Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field.
The Rays prevailed 2-1 in 10 innings on Jonathan Aranda’s bloop RBI single to short right field, marking the Giants’ third walk-off defeat in four days, the latest indignity in what has become a season-high six-game losing streak.
“Confidence is a choice, but it’s not an easy choice,’’ Giants manager Tony Vitello said. “A lot of times it’s dictated by results and outcomes. And we literally had nothing to show for the road trip. You end the day searching for positives.’’
Once again, the Giants were haunted by an inability to hit in the clutch. Three batters into the game, they led 1-0 after Rafael Devers sliced a one-out double to left field and scored on Casey Schmitt’s RBI single. But after that, the Giants were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position, failing to produce after three times having a runner on second base with one out in regulation.
For the longest time, it looked like that one-run lead might stand up. Starter Tyler Mahle tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings, walking one and striking out five, while getting effective relief assistance from Matt Gage and Keaton Winn.
In the eighth, Ryan Walker issued a leadoff walk to Junior Caminero, who raced to third on Aranda’s single. Caminero scored the tying run on a sacrifice bunt by cleanup batter Ryan Vilade.
Caleb Kilian (1-1), the fourth reliever, worked an effective ninth inning. After the Giants failed to score in the 10th, getting retired in order, Kilian came back out. With speedy Chandler Simpson on second as the Rays’ automatic runner, Kilian issued an intentional walk to Caminero. Aranda followed with a soft single over the head of second baseman Luis Arraez. Right fielder Jung Hoo Lee had no realistic shot at Simpson, one of the fastest players in baseball.
For the three-game series, the Giants scored two runs on 19 hits. For the first time since 2008, the Giants went homerless on a multi-city road trip (four-game minimum) and that six-game power drought is the club’s longest since a seven-game span from April 5-12, 2024.
“We’ve got to turn it around and start playing better and that’s all there is to it,’’ Mahle said. “We’ve just flat-out got to play better in all facets of the game. We’ve got a long flight home and a long time to think about it. Tomorrow [Monday], we’ve got to show up to the field ready to go with some energy.’’
Despite the Giants’ prolonged offensive slump, Mahle said the pitchers aren’t feeling pressured to be perfect.
“We just have to do our thing and we’ll be fine,’’ Mahle said. “All I can do is control what I can control and that’s making good pitches. They’ve been playing great defense behind us, so that’s what we can control.’’
After the game, the Giants flew home to San Francisco, where they will hope for better results while opening a six-game homestand on Monday night against the Padres.
“Painful,’’ Vitello said in describing the 0-6 road trip. “It was a little bit of a grind with a doubleheader [Thursday after a Wednesday rainout in Philadelphia], kind of throwing the schedule off. You’ve got extra travel all the way to the East Coast, playing on turf, all those things.
“We have a long trip back home, then you turn around and you play a divisional opponent [Padres] that’s obviously a really good team as pretty much everybody is in this league. Our guys have to recover on the physical side. Then the mental side is a confidence challenge.’’
It has to get better – mostly because it can’t get much worse.
“We came up short for a variety of reasons,’’ Vitello said. “That was the theme of the road trip.’’