Manaea's solid start not enough as Giants' win streak ends

SAN FRANCISCO -- Left-hander Sean Manaea made the most of his first starting opportunity in four months, but he found himself on the wrong end of a pitchers’ duel in a 3-1 loss to the Guardians that snapped the Giants’ four-game winning streak on Tuesday night at Oracle Park. 

Manaea gave up three runs (one earned) on two hits over 5 2/3 innings in his first start since May 10, but he was bested by Cleveland right-hander Cal Quantrill, who fired six innings of one-run ball to even this three-game Interleague series.

• Games remaining (17): vs. CLE (1), at COL (4), at AZ (2), at LAD (4), vs. SD (3), vs. LAD (3)
• Standings update: The Giants (74-71) are 1 1/2 games behind the D-backs (76-70) for the third and final National League Wild Card spot. They also trail the Reds (75-71) by a half-game and are tied with the Marlins (74-71) in the race.

Blake Sabol launched a game-tying home run off Quantrill in the fifth, but the Guardians went ahead for good behind Tyler Freeman’s two-out, two-run single in the sixth. San Francisco outhit Cleveland, 6-4, but it finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven men stranded.

The Giants missed a golden opportunity to gain ground in the NL Wild Card race, as several of the teams they’re chasing, including the Phillies, Cubs, D-backs and Marlins, also lost on Tuesday. 

“I don’t think there’s any time or use in getting frustrated,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “We’ve got to go back out there and win a baseball game tomorrow. So do all those teams. … Not much time to kind of wallow in what happened tonight.” 

Manaea’s performance served as a bright spot for the Giants, whose rotation finally seems to be normalizing now that rookies Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn have gotten the opportunity to join Logan Webb and Alex Cobb as traditional starters.

Manaea lost his starting spot after logging a 7.96 ERA over his first eight appearances of the year, but he got back on track after moving to the bullpen on May 17, recording a 3.86 ERA over his next 25 relief outings. The Guardians’ lineup skews left-handed, so the Giants felt it was a good time to reward Manaea and give him another chance to get back into his starting routine. 

“I don’t think he came out feeling in his rhythm and in his delivery, so it took him a second to feel right,” Kapler said. “Once he went out there for the second inning, I thought he was dominant. Very efficient. Even without that really heavy, high-velocity fastball that he had in the first, he was able to stay off barrels, get weak early contact and take us deep into that game. I thought he did a really nice job overall.”

Manaea needed 33 pitches to get through the first inning, allowing Cleveland to take a 1-0 lead on Kole Calhoun’s RBI groundout, but he would have escaped damage had the Giants managed to turn a potential inning-ending double play. 

After Steven Kwan and David Fry walked and José Ramírez singled to load the bases with one out, Calhoun bounced a grounder to the right side of second base that both middle infielders -- Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada -- attempted to field. Crawford had to stop and scramble back toward the bag to receive the feed from Estrada, allowing Kwan to score from third.

“It was the way the defense was set up,” Manaea said. “They did the best they could. I don’t think it was a lack of trying or anything like that. It was the way the ball was hit and where they were set up to begin with. It happens.”  

Despite the long first inning, Manaea settled in and went on to retire 15 in a row before yielding a one-out single to Ramírez in the sixth. After Josh Naylor grounded into a forceout, Manaea hit Fry to put a pair of runners on for Calhoun, who reached on an error by first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. to load the bases with two outs. 

Manaea’s pitch count was at 80, but Kapler opted to lift him in favor of right-hander Ryan Walker, who surrendered the go-ahead hit to Freeman on a first-pitch sinker.

Wade’s miscue marked the Giants’ Major League-leading 100th error of the year. Given how tight the standings are, San Francisco can ill afford to continue making costly mistakes down the stretch.  

“They just played cleaner defense than us,” Kapler said. “Not a surprise that that was the difference in the game.”

While Manaea hoped he showed enough to stick in the Giants’ rotation, Kapler said the club would take a few days to reassess before finalizing any decisions. 

“I will ask, but I’m not expecting anything,” Manaea said. “Whatever happens, happens.”