SAN FRANCISCO -- Cory Gearrin put the Giants in position for another stirring comeback Friday night. But the offense couldn't quite cooperate in San Francisco's 11-4 loss to the New York Mets.
The rallies that bookended the Giants' otherwise forgettable trip would not be repeated at AT&T Park. They couldn't scramble from a 9-1 deficit before losing, 10-9, as was the case in Colorado. Nor could they surge back after trailing 12-6 to fall, 12-11, which happened in Atlanta.
Had the Giants again managed to turn a lopsided affair into a close one, they would have owed Gearrin considerable thanks. Relieving Ty Blach, who yielded six runs in the second inning and seven in three innings, Gearrin pitched two scoreless innings and froze the Mets' offense, which generated five doubles, a homer and a single in the second inning alone while scoring six runs.
"I don't feel like I reinvented the wheel," said Gearrin, who owns a healthy 2.23 ERA. "I just attacked the strike zone and let the defense do its thing."
Gearrin's efforts weren't enough to save the Giants, who allowed a season-high 20 hits. San Francisco has recorded an 8.30 ERA in the team's last nine games. The Giants allowed double-digit runs for the ninth time this season, compared with seven all last year.
"It's been a weird season for all of us," Gearrin said after the Giants (27-49) fell as many as 22 games below .500 for the first time since the end of the 1996 season (68-96).
This appearance marked a turnaround for Gearrin, who had been scored upon in three of his previous four outings.
"Some of those games were a little frustrating," he said, referring to the hitter-friendly parks the Giants recently visited (Denver's Coors Field and Atlanta's SunTrust Park). "You just try to keep doing what you've been doing. More times than not, it's a matter of trusting yourself."
Gearrin added, "I don't think I threw way better pitches tonight than I did in those games that they scored runs."
However, his command was unquestionably sharp. He needed just 18 pitches to complete his pair of innings.
It hasn't always been this easy.
"This has been a season where I feel like I had to adjust a lot," he said. "Early on, I definitely wasn't attacking the strike zone like I'd like to. My command wasn't as good as I would have liked. But the past month and a half or so, I feel better about that. There's still a lot of room to improve."