© John Hefti | USA Today
With Thursday night’s 10-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants have now lost three straight games. It took five innings for the team to get its first three hits, and then another four innings before they hit again. Manager Bruce Bochy said he is well aware of the problem.
“I wish I did (have a solution),” Bochy said. “We talked about it, how important it is to go out and try and get it going early. And that has been an issue, you’re right. You talk about it and the guys are well aware of it, but there’s not an easy solution. You’re trying to get the offense going, but we’re having a hard time early. We have been shut down too often the first four or five innings. We just can’t get anything going.”
Bochy said the team’s three-run ninth inning was small consolation for an otherwise stale hitting performance. The RBIs came from two doubles by Joe Panik and Steven Duggar.
“You look at the 9th, I know the game is kind out of line, but still it’s good to have some guys have a little success and put some runs on the board,” Bochy said. “But it has to happen early. We have to get this thing going early.”
The loss came after two errors from Gold Glove-winning infielders Joe Panik and Evan Longoria allowed a glut of runs to come in for the Pirates. Bochy said he’s “always surprised” by mistakes from his team, adding that the errors put Mark Melancon – who Bochy said suffered “tough luck” – in an unfortunate position.
“It was a good game going into the seventh,” Bochy said. “A couple miscues there killed us.”