LOS ANGELES — As Blake Snell’s market continued to decline this spring, the Los Angeles Dodgers began testing their luck in the market. They had seen Snell dominate them so many times that it made sense for them to try to sign him, but the Dodgers wanted a bigger commitment than the Giants ultimately got from Snell, who can opt out after this season.
On Monday, Snell looked exactly like the pitcher the Dodgers tried to add in their billion-dollar offseason. And the Giants continued to look exactly like the team that needed that boost last offseason.
The 3-2 loss at Dodger Stadium was the third in four games on this road trip, which included just 11 total runs despite the lineup playing three games at Coors Field and then facing a pitcher making his MLB debut. Snell did his part, allowing two runs in six innings, but there were too many errors elsewhere.
It all started in the first inning, when Jorge Soler walked leading off the frame and was then thrown out at third while trying to take advantage of an error on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s single to left field. The Giants didn’t score and the decision allowed River Ryan to settle in.
Seven innings later, Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos nearly collided while chasing a deep fly ball to left field. The ball landed between them and became a leadoff double, and when Teoscar Hernandez singled up the middle a few minutes later, the Dodgers took the lead for good.
“Heliot called it,” manager Bob Melvin said in a quiet locker room. “When he got close and it looked like they were going to collide, he backed off.”
Young players are going to make mistakes, but right now the older Giants are doing the same thing, and this is a lineup that right now seems incapable of digging itself out of trouble. The one exception on this road trip has been Tyler Fitzgerald, who homered for the fourth straight game. Melvin said Fitzgerald looks more confident and calm now that he has a day-to-day role, and perhaps in a strange way, he’s sending a message to management.
The Giants are walking parallel paths as the trade deadline approaches. They’ve kept this season’s core intact while trying to add young players who will shape the future, but it’s gotten awkward at times. Fitzgerald has only taken off because the Giants have finally given him the runway to do so.
Matos is perhaps the best example of the current awkward situation. The 22-year-old has made just four starts this month, even with Austin Slater now elsewhere. But since he’s on the roster, he’s still being counted on to perform in big moments. He came in as a pinch hitter for Michael Conforto with the go-ahead run on third and one out in the sixth inning and struck out. Two innings later, it was the defense that fell short.
Matos will be a big part of San Francisco’s future. Ramos will be, too. Fitzerald looks more and more like part of the solution, and the same can be said for Erik Miller, who struck out Shohei Ohtani for the fourth time in four games this year.
A core of players for the future is starting to emerge, but the Giants are still hoping this year’s starters can get them back into the race. Through the first few days of the first half, there have been no tangible signs of that happening, though they haven’t given up hope even as the days continue to tick down to the trade deadline.
“Yes, we’re going through a rough patch, but we’ve still got a lot of games left,” Fitzgerald said. “I know nobody’s happy with the way the second half started, not the fans and not us, but what are we going to do? We just have to come back and keep working hard and hopefully we can turn things around and all get on a roll at the same time.”
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