SAN FRANCISCO — Not long from now, Bruce Bochy will gather with pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner. They might even bring in a reliever or two, and collectively they’ll address a growing eyesore attached to a team tied for the most wins in baseball.
The bullpen pieced together another letdown, allowing seven runs against the Rockies after Madison Bumgarner shutout the visitors over six innings. Bochy tabbed inconsistency as the biggest issue facing his relievers, and that’s a fair, overarching assessment. The nitty-gritty of it is a 6.98 bullpen ERA over the last 10 games, and a seven-run implosion coming a week after a 10-run meltdown.
These aren’t isolated incidents between one or two pitchers. Nearly every reliever has been burned in this rough patch.
“We’re trying to get this thing sorted out,” Bochy said. “At times they’re really good, so you’re sticking with them. Then they have their hiccups.”
Tuesday’s hiccup took place in the seventh and eighth innings, when George Kontos, Cory Gearrin and Hunter Strickland combined to allow seven runs on eight hits. That spelled defeat before the ninth inning rolled around, and the Giants (53-33) fell to the Rockies (38-45), 7-3. Not only was the bullpen blowup a familiar sight for Giants’ fans, but the culprit was all too familiar.
The Rockies walked with the bases loaded and scored on an infield single, but the decisive blow came from Nolan Arenado. He slashed a three-run home run off Gearrin, clobbering a hanging two-out, two-strike pitch. What was the thought process there?
“It was a slider,” Buster Posey said, “and I was hoping it would get him out.”
It didn’t, and the Giants are left wondering how to sort their deck of relievers. Sergio Romo is back and was available to pitch, but he likely wasn’t going to enter until the eighth inning. By then, it was too late.
Bochy’s not inclined to mix things up too seriously, still leaning on matchups as the best way to maximize his bullpen. He had the duels he wanted throughout the late innings, and he said as much after the game. He’d take every matchup over again, it just didn’t work out.
Kontos came in and yielded consecutive singles, both coming off the bat more than 100 mph. Gearrin induced a weak grounder from D.J. LaMahieu, but Conor Gillaspie couldn’t make a targeted throw to Brandon Belt that would’ve ended the inning.
Gearrin’s been a rock for Bochy, with a 2.16 ERA as recently as 10 days ago. But the infield single opened the door for Arenado, and Gearrin’s ERA is now within arm’s length of 4.00 after allowing runs in three of his last five appearances.
Strickland couldn’t strand the two runners left on by Gearrin, and allowed four straight Rockies to reach and push across three more runs.
“It’s a matter of somebody stepping up and taking over a role,” Bochy said. “That’s what you’re looking for at this point.”
The search will continue, and as the August 1 trade deadline approaches, the scope will likely stretch outside the organization. The Giants are still 20 games over .500 and have a lot to celebrate from a remarkable first half. But if there’s not some correction — whether it be self-correction or correction via trade — that’s exactly what the conversation about the 2016 Giants could be. What a first half it was, but still not enough to catapult them into October.
“We’re gonna meet and see if we can get this thing right,” Bochy said. “It didn’t play out well tonight, but I had all the matchups … It’s hard to change too much when you’re trying to mix it up.”
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Bumgarner said he felt good over his six innings, in a start likely shortened by the fact he’s due for one final start before the All-Star break. He stopped short of saying he demanded to pitch the seventh inning, but said, “I’ll probably never tell you I can’t keep going.”
Where he is headed next week is San Diego. The left-hander was tabbed an All-Star for the fourth consecutive year, a feat last accomplished by Tim Lincecum from 2008-11.
“It’s obviously special to get to do that,” Bumgarner said, “and then you get thrown in the same category as Timmy. That means you’re doing something pretty good, because he was a pretty special player for awhile.”
Meanwhile, Lincecum was lit up for 10 hits and five runs in his fifth start with the Angels on Tuesday in Tampa Bay.