What we learned as DeSclafani rocked in sloppy loss to Twins originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
MINNEAPOLIS — The Giants will depart Target Field with a sour taste in their mouths.
After three straight wins, the last two powered by Michael Conforto’s bat, San Francisco couldn’t find a timely hit Wednesday afternoon in a 7-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
The Giants put on one of their ugliest performances all season. They committed a season-high three errors and stranded 14 runners on base to wrap up what was otherwise an encouraging series in Minneapolis.
Entering the day with a 24-24 record through 48 games, the Giants missed out on an opportunity to climb over the .500 mark for the first time all season. They’ll head to Milwaukee for a four-game series against the Brewers still in search of being considered a winning team.
Here are three takeaways from San Francisco’s loss to Minnesota:
Troublesome third inning
The Giants’ defense has been much improved this season, but it didn’t show Wednesday afternoon in Minneapolis. San Francisco committed three errors in untimely fashion, miscues that culminated in a miserable third inning.
With two outs, shortstop Brandon Crawford flubbed a routine grounder hit by Twins infielder Kyle Farmer to extend the inning. Then, starting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani hit Willi Castro with a pitch. Second baseman Brett Wisely had a chance to end the threat with a routine play of his own, but it skipped between his legs into right field.
The very next batter, Wisely’s throw back home on an attempted double steal with runners on the corners trickled to the backstop. All of a sudden, the Twins had opened up a 5-1 lead.
The best defense seen all game long was in the Target Field stands.
Not so clutch
LaMonte Wade led off the game with a single, and Thairo Estrada advanced him to third base with a double to left field. They were stranded there as Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan retired the next three batters.
That ended up being the story of the game.
The Giants finished 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position and left 15 men on base.
The one silver lining was promising rookie Casey Schmitt, who came through with a base hit to bring Mike Yastrzemski in the second inning.
The rookie now is batting .533 (8 for 15) with runners in scoring position. He’s tied for fourth on the Giants with eight hits with runners in scoring position, trailing only JD Davis (13), Michael Conforto (9) and Thairo Estrada (9).
Matinee Disco
Coming off two consecutive quality starts, Anthony DeSclafani stumbled Wednesday in Minneapolis. His day was bookended by a couple of loud blasts.
Twins infielder Edouard Julien launched the second pitch of the game 407 feet into the left-field seats for a leadoff homer. Later in the sixth inning, DeSclafani headed to the showers after Minnesota catcher Ryan Jeffers pummeled a homer to left field.
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DeSclafani was greatly hurt by the Giants’ defensive woes in the sixth inning, as only four of the seven runs allowed were earned, but still didn’t have his best stuff.
Looking ahead, Giants manager Gabe Kapler said the plan for the upcoming four-game series in Milwaukee is to have Scott Alexander start a bullpen game Thursday in the series opener, followed by Alex Wood on Friday, Logan Webb on Saturday and Alex Cobb on Sunday .
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