What we learned as ice-cold Giants shut down by Stroman, Cubs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO -- The streaming platform that broadcasted Friday's game kept running a graphic that would try and guess the odds that a run would come across each time a runner reached scoring position. It clearly had not been calibrated for the 2022 Giants.
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The Giants had 13 hits but scored on just one of them, losing 4-2 to the Chicago Cubs at Oracle Park to fall to 1-8 since the All-Star break. Their only big hit came when Wilmer Flores hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late. They hit the 100-game mark at 49-51.
This was a pitcher's duel for most of the night, but the Giants did have their chances to break it open against Marcus Stroman, one of their offseason targets.
They got three singles in the first but didn't score because Flores was thrown out at the plate. Jason Vosler doubled in the second but was stranded. He doubled again in the fourth to put two in scoring position with one out, but Joey Bart and Tommy La Stella flied out.
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Alex Cobb kept pace with Stroman, but Patrick Wisdom got the Cubs on the board in the fifth with a solo homer.
The Giants kept wasting chances and the Cubs really made them pay in the top of the ninth, tacking on three runs with a rally that included a dropped fly ball by Mike Yastrzemski.
Strikeout Machine
A night after Alex Wood took a no-hitter into the seventh, Cobb retired the first 10 hitters he faced. Cobb struck out five the first time through the order and twice struck out the side on one of his better nights as a Giant, finishing with a season-high 11. The double-digit strikeout game was Cobb's second of the year and 10th of his career.
Cobb's high in the big leagues is 13, done over just 4 2/3 innings for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013. Friday's performance was Cobb's first with at least 11 strikeouts since June 13, 2014.
Cobb was charged with just one run -- on Wisdom's homer -- in six-plus. He allowed three hits and walked one while lowering his ERA to 4.06.
Solid Return
Joc Pederson was concussed when he ran into the left field wall Thursday, bringing Vosler back to San Francisco. His first game back was a success, but that shouldn't really be a surprise.
Vosler entered the day with a 139 OPS+ in 19 previous games this season and he doubled in his first two at-bats back in the big leagues. He lined out his third time up, just missing a third double, but then struck out in the eighth with the tying run on second. Through 60 at-bats, Vosler has a .903 OPS.
It Doesn't Matter If You Win By An Inch Or A Mile
Dominic Leone ran into all sorts of trouble after taking over for Cobb in the seventh, walking Nico Hoerner and Wisdom to load the bases. He went 1-0 on Alfonso Rivas but then recovered and got a huge strikeout with a slider on the outside corner.
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With the infield in, Leone got Christopher Morel to hit a ball right at Thairo Estrada, starting an inning-ending double play. None of it was easy, but he snuck out of the jam unscathed and even stranded one of Cobb's runners.
Leone screamed multiple times as he came off the mound and then got stopped by home plate umpire John Tumpane for a hand check, which seems unnecessary when a guy is struggling that much with his command.
