SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants have absorbed quite a few gut punches from the D-backs this year, but they were also complicit in their own demise on Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park.
A pair of baserunning gaffes scuttled a potential rally in the eighth inning and squandered a strong start from rookie Trevor McDonald, resulting in an excruciating 3-2 loss that sealed another sweep at the hands of Arizona.
The Giants are now 0-6 against the D-backs this year, marking the first time they’ve dropped their first six games to the same opponent since 2010, when they lost their first seven games against the Padres. Their inability to solve their division rivals left them a season-high 12 games below .500 (22-34) as they embarked on a 10-game road trip to Colorado, Milwaukee and Chicago.
“It’s annoying,” shortstop Willy Adames said of the Giants’ winless streak against the D-backs. “Obviously, when you get swept twice by the same team, it’s embarrassing. We played our baseball today and didn’t get the results that we wanted.”
The Giants had a golden opportunity to erase the one-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth, when D-backs left fielder Ryan Waldschmidt lost Adames’ fly ball in the sun, allowing it to bounce off his chest and fall for a one-out double.
Luis Arraez followed with a flare that got past a diving Jorge Barrosa in left-center field, prompting third-base coach Hector Borg to aggressively wave home Adames from second. But Waldschmidt was quick to back up Barrosa on the play, kicking off a relay throw that easily nabbed Adames at the plate. The send was even more egregious considering the Giants had their best hitter -- Casey Schmitt -- on deck.
“I was just following Borgie’s decision,” Adames said. “Unfortunate that we had that result at the plate. I tried to get in there, but I don’t think I could have done anything else.”
Manager Tony Vitello’s thoughts on the send?
“It’s kind of hard to say without having a full scope of looking at it,” Vitello said. “We’ve got most of that play in front of us, but it’s very easy to say you’d like to do it the other way when the guy gets thrown out.”
Arraez advanced to second on the play, giving the Giants another chance to tie the game, but he ended up being picked off by Arizona right-hander Kevin Ginkel to end the inning. It was a disastrous sequence that exemplified why the Giants entered Wednesday last in the Majors with -4.9 baserunning runs above average this year, according to FanGraphs.
“We’ve created a lot of problems by digging ourselves in a hole early and trying like crazy to get out,” Vitello said. “I think what we’ve all done is driven ourselves a little bit too crazy.”
Borg has made several questionable calls while coaching third base this year, though he also helped the Giants take a 2-0 lead by sending home a pair of runners from second and third on Arraez’s single up the middle in the bottom of the third.
Arraez’s timely hit provided early run support for McDonald, who needed only 63 pitches to cruise through his first five innings. Still, the D-backs managed to get on the board in the sixth, when Ketel Marte led off with a swinging bunt and Geraldo Perdomo rapped a seeing-eye single to right field to put runners on the corners with one out. Adrian Del Castillo kept the rally going with an RBI single before Ildemaro Vargas tied it with a sacrifice fly to right field.
McDonald returned to the mound for the seventh, but he was pulled after giving up back-to-back singles to Tommy Troy and Marte. Vitello subsequently brought in left-hander Matt Gage to face Corbin Carroll, who hit a dribbler to the right side that Gage couldn’t field cleanly.
Gage’s error loaded the bases with one out for the D-backs, setting up Perdomo’s go-ahead sac fly to left.
McDonald was charged with the loss after giving up three runs (two earned) over 6 1/3 innings, but he should have a good case to stick in the Giants’ starting rotation even after Logan Webb returns from the injured list on Friday. The 25-year-old rookie has a 4.34 ERA over five starts this year, though that figure was inflated by his clunker against the White Sox on Friday, when he gave up seven runs over 3 2/3 innings.
“It’s not my decision,” McDonald said of his future role. “My job is to pitch, not play GM.”
McDonald’s emergence might not bode well for veteran right-hander Tyler Mahle, who is 1-7 in 11 starts with a 6.04 ERA, the highest mark among qualified starters in 2026. Vitello didn’t rule out the possibility of Mahle moving to the bullpen to try to get back on track in a different setting moving forward.