SAN FRANCISCO–Last October, Matt Moore shut down a fierce Chicago Cubs’ lineup over eight innings of work, allowing two hits in Game 4 of the NLDS in a dominant effort that was as close to perfect as any San Francisco pitcher could hope to throw against the eventual World Series champions.
What a difference a year makes.
On Monday evening at AT&T Park, Chicago is still atop the National League Central, but Moore and San Francisco are down and out, and not much changed in a 5-3 Giants’ loss.
On October 11, 2016, Moore showcased his tantalizing potential in a marvelous postseason outing that put the Cubs on their heels, and nearly ended Chicago’s fairytale season that culminated in the franchise’s first title since 1908. Though a Game 4 victory would have only tied up the best-of-five division series, Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon has indicated his club did not want to face Giants’ right-hander Johnny Cueto in a winner-take-all Game 5.
Instead, though, after Moore exited that mid-October ballgame, the Giants’ bullpen coughed up a 5-2 lead for its 31st and final blown save of a season that ended with misery, and provided a terrifying peak at what San Francisco could come to expect in 2017.
When Moore took the mound on Monday night against Chicago, it was a symbol of how close the Giants came to spoiling Chicago’s run in 2016, and how far away he and his club are from relevancy in 2017.
A 2016 trade deadline acquisition who helped the Giants’ playoff push at the end of last season, Moore entered Monday’s game with the second-highest earned run average among all qualifying starters in the Major Leagues. Moore is in the midst of a seemingly interminable battle for consistency, while the Giants have endured a shockingly challenging quest to earn wins.
“Just heading into this start, I typically watch myself throw against teams more than other pitchers so two starts in the last year against these guys so just trying to kind of get back into those moments and relieve some of the at-bats and pick up on some of the things that worked and didn’t work,” Moore said, when asked if his Game 4 start flashed through his mind. “I was able to not throw Rizzo anything that was too fat and over the plate for him to hit out of the park but those were some of the at-bats going into the game that I think about, but that was definitely something that I was watching.”
By the middle innings of Monday’s contest, the game was well-decided, in part due to Moore’s struggles, but in part due to the other side of the equation that’s failed the Giants this season. Simply put, San Francisco isn’t scoring enough runs.
The third-lowest scoring offense in the league mustered just one hit in its first nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, before a two-out, two-run home run off the bat of Ryder Jones cut Chicago’s sixth inning advantage from 5-0 to 5-2.
“Not picking up those early runs hurt us, we had second and third and one out, first and third and nobody out and couldn’t get a run out of that,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s a different ballgame and that’s part of the game and you’re facing a good pitcher out there and he made pitches when he had to.”
The smash into the arcade seats at AT&T Park marked the first home run of the 23-year-old rookie’s career, and helped provide a spark for a late-inning rally that eventually knocked Cubs’ righty Jake Arrieta out of the game in the bottom of the seventh.
“It feels good, I mean I tried to just quiet it down tonight and not too much pressure on myself,” Jones said. “Had a couple ABs with guys in scoring position so that was huge just trying to get the ball up and drive the ball. I got a cutter first pitch, and took a good swing at it and missed it and then he went down and then back to the cutter and I was lucky enough to catch it out front and get the barrel to it.”
Jones’ home run was the first that left the stadium on Monday night, but it wasn’t the first round-tripper, or the furthest-hit ball of the evening.
The first home run belonged to Cubs’ shortstop Javier Baez, who unloaded on a second inning offering from Moore and clobbered the pitch into the right center field gap. Upon hitting the base of the outfield wall to the left of the 421-foot marker, Baez’s blast caromed back toward right field and past the glove of Giants’ outfielder Carlos Moncrief.
By the time Moncrief corralled the ball, Baez was dashing around third base and heading for an inside-the-park home run. Despite a 300-plus-foot missile to the plate from Moncrief, Baez snuck around the tag of Giants’ catcher Buster Posey to record the 10th inside-the-park home run in AT&T Park history.
“There wasn’t much he (Moncrief) could do about it, I mean he’s tracking the ball to the wall there,” Bochy said. “You’re not positive it’s going to hit the wall where it did and it just took a nice hop for them. But I think he showed the arm that he has with that throw home. I mean that was a bang-bang play and from where he threw it, it wasn’t like he took a lot of time to load up on it. Later in the game he made a throw to third base, this guy just has a gun. He came into pitch at Sacramento and I think his first pitch they said was 97.”
That throw though … ? https://t.co/mhPOZWQsc5
— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 8, 2017
Baez’s two-run home run was the first of its variety since Kelby Tomlinson recorded an inside-the-park home run on October 3, 2015, and was the first by a Cubs’ player since Anthony Rizzo accomplished the feat on June 29, 2016 in Cincinnati.
Still, the furthest-hit ball of the night belonged to Giants’ left fielder Jarrett Parker, who smoked an Arrieta offering high off the brick wall in deep right center field in the bottom of the third inning for his second double of the evening and sixth extra base hit since returning from the disabled list on Thursday. Parker’s bat has provided San Francisco’s offense with a massive spark, as prior to Thursday, the 28-year-old outfielder had registered six extra base hits in his previous 58 games with the club.
Nevertheless, with Parker standing in scoring position, Posey and third baseman Pablo Sandoval were unable to drive him in, tapping measly groundouts to end the inning.
Eventually, the Giants’ offense would rebound, scratching three runs across in the latter half of the ballgame, but it was not enough for the team to avoid its 70th loss of a season that’s become as tragic as the ninth inning of Moore’s October start against the Cubs.