Beede Has Solid Night, But Lineup Gets Shut Down by Pitcher Making Debut

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's the big leagues, and Alex Young is a big leaguer. He deserved every bit of the beer shower he got Thursday night. 

But still, this wasn't great.

The Giants, in a 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks, managed just three hits and one run in five innings against Young, who was making his MLB debut. The 25-year-old lefty had a 6.09 ERA and 1.68 WHIP in Triple-A at the time of his promotion and had allowed opposing hitters to bat .292. When he came out of the bullpen to face the Giants' Triple-A team in Sacramento last month, Young allowed four earned in one-third of an inning. 

It is true that the new balls and high altitudes have turned every Pacific Coast League game into a Coors Field imitation, so those numbers are certainly inflated. 

But still. 

"We've got to swing the bats," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I mean, three hits, very little action. It's hard to win games like that. Their guy threw a lot of cutters and mixed it up. We just didn't do much with him."

That's been the story most of the season. The Giants will face Zack Greinke and Robbie Ray later this series. In the opener they had a chance to give a rookie a rude welcome, and they could not. 

The lineup has been consistent in its struggles this season. For Tyler Beede, Thursday's starter, the problem has been inconsistency. Check out his game logs since being reinserted into the rotation: 

May 30: 6 innings, 1 earned run, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts
April 5: 5 innings, 5 earned runs, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
April 11: 4 2/3 innings, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts
April 17: 6 innings, 1 earned run, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
April 22: 4 innings, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
April 27: 5 1/3 innings, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts

This was one of the good ones, one of the promising ones. Beede said he made an adjustment after his last start, when the team's analytics people showed him numbers on his fastball. Opponents were hitting about .200 when Beede located it in the upper third of the zone but .490 when it was in the lower third. 

"I wanted to ride the ball up in the zone,"

Beede was relatively effective, and he was happy with the way he attacked the zone. This was one of those nights that allows you to dream of him putting it together and sticking in a rotation, but on this night nothing he did mattered in the result. It's hard to win any game when you have just three hits. 

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