D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
If Tyler Beede helped tank the Giants’ season, he’s helping inflate expectations for their next season.
The 26-year-old starter, a former first-round pick, is, in a sense, the team’s season encapsulated. He has teased, disappointed at the Giants’ biggest moments, but is offering hope the darkest days are behind.
Beede was the best he’s been in nearly two months and the Giants squeezed out the only run they would need in a 1-0 victory over the Marlins on Friday in front of 33,418 at Oracle Park.
The fan turnout was much better for a two-hour, 20-minute weekend game after season-lows against the Pirates. And the Giants (71-77) were much better, albeit against a team that will lose triple-digit games.
Beede was sparkling, his mid-90s fastball, curveball, slider and changeup all working – he got strikeouts on each pitch, putting up a second outstanding start.
In all, Beede lasted 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball, didn’t walk a batter and struck out five. He got first-pitch strikes against 14 of the 21 hitters he faced. After his five scoreless innings in Los Angeles last week, he hasn’t allowed a run in 11 1/3 frames.
After Bruce Bochy lifted Beede in the seventh with a runner on second, Tyler Rogers entered and expertly escaped danger, submarining his way through 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Shaun Anderson recorded his second career save.
A September chain of pitchers, yes, but perhaps an April 2020 one, too.
Offensively, the Giants got nine hits but had troubled breaking through, leaving eight on base and going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. But that one loomed large.
The sixth began with a Stephen Vogt double, and he was moved to third by Kevin Pillar’s ground ball. Buster Posey, hitting in the six-hole for the first time since 2010, took advantage of an infield on the grass by bouncing one past third baseman Starlin Castro for a single to give the Giants the game’s only run. Posey scoring Vogt; it was truly a pitching and catching victory for the Giants.
Posey, who has admitted his confidence has wavered, will take any break he can get — as will Brandon Belt, who added a pair of doubles, one of which should have been an RBI triple if it hadn’t hopped over the wall. As will Beede, who endured a lot of suffering to perhaps come out the other side.
From July 24-Aug. 20, Beede was among the worst starters in baseball. In six starts – all Giants losses at a time when they plunged out of the wild-card hunt – he lasted just 27 1/3 innings while allowing 25 runs (8.23 ERA), his stuff still showing potential (30 strikeouts) but his control flagging (10 walks). His ERA mushroomed to 5.82, which is not an ERA for a major league starter, in particular a rookie with options.
But on a team whose mission statement is progress, the Giants never caved. Perhaps it cost them a chance at lasting longer in the battle of the playoffs. Perhaps they are seeing the gains from that decision now.