MLB final: Stroman outduels DeSclafani in Giants 3-2 loss to Cubs

The San Francisco Giants’ descent from rocky mountain high Coors Field to sea-level was grounded abruptly by Marcus Stroman and the Chicago Cubs in a 3-2 loss on Friday.

The rally we all had grown accustomed to didn’t quite materialize, petering out after Joc Pederson’s 2-out infield dribbler somehow resulted in an RBI single that put San Francisco within 1-run in the 7th. A run is a run and a hit is a hit, I guess, but it’s hard to say if that kind of contact is worth 19 million dollars.

No late-inning power in more ways than one—the E-40 postgame salute to Bay Area Hip-Hop drone show got nixed for technical difficulties. What could possibly have gone wrong???

In the midst of a career year, Stroman was expected to be tough. In his previous two starts, he threw a 1-hit complete game shutout against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 29th, then held the Padres to 1 run (unearned) over 6 innings on June 6th.

Stroman graces the top-10 or 15 in MLB in nearly every valuable statistical category for pitchers: ERA (2.42, 8th), WHIP (1.04, 10th), opponents BA (.191, 3rd), IP (85.2, currently tied for 1st). It goes on. He leads the National League with a 2.20 groundout-to-airout ratio—both Logan Webb (1.91) and Alex Cobb (1.88) are 2nd and 3rd on that list.

Watching the Giants try to hit against Stroman builds one’s empathy for teams facing Webb and Cobb. You can feel your hands buzz after each ball struck weakly off the end of the bat. My palms went vicariously numb, knees ached watching hitters trying to get under Stroman’s sinker. Everything was down with heavy moment. Grounder after weak grounder, inning after inning.

His low K/9 (7.67) and heightened BB/9 (3.26) would be cause for alarm, but the high ground ball rate negates many of the problems that would arise from those areas of weakness.

San Francisco felt that sting immediately after a leadoff walk by LaMonte Wade Jr. and single in the 1st. A double-play turned a 2-on, no out situation into a breezy non-starter for Stroman. A lead-off single by Yaz in the 2nd—same deal. His 12 double-plays are tied with Logan Webb and Atlanta’s Bryce Elder for 3rd in MLB.

The Giants knew they had their work cut out for them with Marcus Stroman on the mound. The riddle was how Anthony DeSclafani was going to counter, especially after a pretty rough month of starts and bottoming out with a nightmarish, 6-run 3rd inning against Baltimore.

Disco would end up going tit-for-tat with Chicago, holding them scoreless for 6 innings with only 2-hits. It wasn’t dominant—there was some loud line-drive contact just directed at defenders, too many walks (a season high of 4), barely any punch-outs, and Seiya Suzuki (3 for 3 with a walk) who’s lead-off single in the 7th put Disco in hot-water and initiated the Cubs’ 3-run inning.

An odd first foreshadowed an odd start….