ST. PETERSBURG -- For the Giants, who have struggled to score (or hit home runs), frustration boiled over on Saturday night in a 5-1 defeat against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
As if the team’s season-high five-game losing streak wasn’t enough, the Giants were incensed by a bizarre momentum-shifting play. In the second inning of a scoreless game, left fielder Heliot Ramos hit what appeared to be a mammoth two-out home run to center field off Griffin Jax. It went up … and up … and up … and then?
It suddenly landed in the waiting glove of center fielder Cedric Mullins.
The Giants’ dugout believed that Ramos’ ball had hit one of the Trop’s lower two catwalks, which would make it an automatic homer, according to the building’s ground rules. Statcast initially projected Ramos’ blow at 424 feet (even though it was ultimately ruled as an out). Manager Tony Vitello was befuddled after watching Mullins retreating to the wall, then suddenly coming in to make the catch.
After a replay review, crew chief Vic Carapazza said the New York office stated that there was no visible evidence to reverse the call.
“I was just running out, going as far as I could, and I saw a catch,’’ said Carapazza, who was stationed at second base, during a postgame interview. “I’ve seen guys run back before, then come in, misjudging it or whatnot.’’
After the ruling, the Giants’ dugout continued to argue. Frank Anderson, the director of pitching, and pitcher Adrian Houser were ejected. Vitello, who based his immediate opinion of the play off the quick-changing reaction of Mullins, went onto the field to confront home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, and said it “got pretty hot pretty quick.’’
Vitello, whose team has the fewest runs (105) and homers (19) in MLB, said it was one play in a game with a lot of twists and turns.
But for a team struggling on offense, the notion of a home run being taken away was deflating.
“You want to feel like you can overcome anything,’’ said Vitello, whose team has been shut out an MLB-high seven times in 33 games. “Having said that, the extra energy out of our dugout is understandable [after being shut out on Friday]. Our guys definitely listen way more than I do to the quote-unquote noise you hear about however many shutouts it has been. You’re dying for a run. … So scoring first or scoring in general is going to affect confidence.’’
The Giants trailed 1-0 heading to the fifth inning, when starter Landen Roupp (5-2) was charged with three runs after surrendering three hits and walking two (including a bases-loaded walk to force in the Rays’ second run). Roupp believes there was a missed strike-three call on Hunter Feduccia, who eventually doubled to lead off the inning, and agrees that Ramos’ would-be home run probably hit a catwalk.
“When [Mullins] is about to jump on the wall, then just randomly darts in 10 feet, it’s kind of obvious,’’ Roupp said.
What did Mullins see?
“It got to its peak and I was just trying to find the wall,’’ Mullins said. “I honestly didn’t even see the ball on its way down, so I didn’t even know what it did up there, if anything. So [I was] just making a play.’’
Trailing 4-0 in the sixth, the Giants broke their scoring drought on Rafael Devers’ two-out RBI double, but they couldn’t get another runner into scoring position.
Vitello wanted to move on and concentrate on Sunday, when the Giants will try to avoid a sweep before returning for a homestand that begins Monday.
“Regardless of where we stand here going into [Sunday], you’ve got to believe you make your own breaks,’’ Vitello said. “If you keep doing things the right way … things are going to work out a high percent of the time for you.’’
But one question might linger. Were the Giants robbed of Ramos’ homer?
“If you get robbed, it means someone broke into your house and they took something or a variation of that,’’ Vitello said. “I don’t think anyone was out to get us or anything like that. It’s easy to kind of say that [call] falls in line with how things have gone for us. But I think, regardless, we can’t change that right now.’’