SF Giants drop fifth straight game as mistakes continue piling up

SAN FRANCISCO — Heliot Ramos, again, found himself in no man’s land.

In the bottom of the first, with Willy Adames on first and Ramos on second, Matt Chapman skied a popup that went about 40 feet. Chapman was automatically out as the infield fly rule was called. Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes let the ball fall to the grass.

Ramos, still a live runner, ended up about 25 feet from second base when the ball touched crass. Hayes picked up the ball, hesitated for a beat, then fired to second base. Nick Gonzales applied the tag. Two days after a baffling mistake on Sunday Night Baseball, Ramos was on the wrong end of a rare infield fly rule double play. The inning was over, and so was the rally.

The sequence wasn’t just emblematic of Ramos’ blunders specifically. It encapsulated this team’s subpar play generally.

Ramos’ gaffe was the defining lowlight on a night where the Giants mustered two lone hits as they lost 3-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Oracle Park. They haven’t just lost five straight. They haven’t just dropped 11 of their last 13 games. They don’t just have the worst record in baseball since acquiring Rafael Devers.

For the first time since March 29 — the second game of the season — the Giants have a .500 record: 54 wins, 54 losses. They were swept by the New York Mets this weekend. They could very well be swept by the Pirates on Wednesday. As Thursday’s trade deadline looms, they’re staring right at the possibility of possessing a sub-.500 record for the first time all season.

“We’ve had meetings,” said manager Bob Melvin. “We’ve had team meetings, we’ve had all kinds of meetings. It’s going out there and fighting a little harder and winning a game and having a little more resolve, which we’ve shown this year. We just have not done it here recently.”

The resolve that Melvin references has seldom been present over the last month-and-a-half.

Their offense, even with Devers, remains below average. The rotation is in such bad shape with Landen Roupp injured and Hayden Birdsong in Triple-A that they called on top pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt. Since acquiring Devers, their 13-23 record and 133 runs scored are both the worst marks in all of baseball.

Ramos is far from the sole reason that the Giants are sliding out of contention. His mistakes, fairly or not, are becoming the defining moments of this extended skid.

“It was just a mental error,” Ramos said. “Just trying to do too much, overthinking it. I messed up. There’s nothing I can say about it. It’s been happening a lot. I’m just trying to get better … Just trying to work on it, even on my defense. I know it hasn’t been the best. I don’t want to mess it up. I don’t know what to do. All I’m doing is working every day, trying to fix everything.”

Added Melvin: “Look, the guy plays hard. He comes to play every day. At times his defense hasn’t been its best, and I think it kind of snowballs on you a little bit and maybe start overthinking some stuff. There’s some clarity. But he comes up and he fights every at-bat. The other portions of the game he’s having a tough time.”

Ramos, who has been worth -7 defensive runs saved entering Tuesday, opened up about his struggles in the field.

He admitted that he’s thinking about not messing up, which he knows is the wrong thought to have.

He shared that he’s never struggled defensively to this degree and it’s getting in his head.

He understands that he has to let the mistakes go, but knows it’s easier said than done.

“It’s just a mental battle, you know,” Ramos said. “When I started the season, I felt like I’m the best out there. I’m doing great on defense, I’m trying to catch the ball, get to the ball, take the right route. Then, whenever you make a couple errors — because they happen, it’s not like they never happen — when they’re back-to-back, I just get in my head and I feel like it costs us the game. It just feels like, ‘Damn, I have to get better. I just have to get better.’ I put that pressure on myself.”

When Melvin was asked if Ramos needs a day off, the Giants’ manager pointed out the Catch-22: Ramos might be struggling, but he’s still one of their best hitters and this team needs all the offense it can get.

“It’s tough to give him a day. It’s tough to DH him too,” Melvin said. “We have a couple guys that DH right now. Just got to power through it.”

“It’s whatever Bob wants,” Ramos said. “Obviously, I’m not the manager. I don’t know what he wants to do. Whatever he wants, whatever is best for the team, it is what it is.”

San Francisco still had eight innings to produce offense following Ramos’ mistake, but Adames’ solo homer ended up being the team’s lone run of the night. Ramos drew one of his two walks in the bottom of the third to put runners on second with one out, but Devers followed up by hitting into an inning-ending double play.

The Giants’ inability to score runs left Justin Verlander with another no-decision despite a solid performance. Verlander allowed one lone run on a solo homer by Liover Peguero, striking out seven batters and generating 13 whiffs. Curiously enough, Verlander did not stick around to speak with reporters following the loss.

The Giants had another very odd sequence in the top of the eighth, one that led to the Pirates scoring two runs and taking a 3-1 lead.

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With runners on first and second, Hayes grounded a ball to second baseman Casey Schmitt. Reliever Tyler Rogers raced to the bag and looked towards second base, appearing to think that Schmitt threw the ball to second for the force out. Schmitt, instead, threw to first. Rogers wasn’t looking for Schmitt’s throw and the ball whizzed past him, deflecting off Hayes. It went down as a single that loaded the bases.

Pittsburgh didn’t waste the opportunity and took a 3-1 lead. Former Giant Joey Bart gave the Pirates the lead with an RBI single to left field, then Peguero drove in his second run of the night on a groundout.

As the Giants stare down the possibility of going winless this home stand, Melvin’s message to his team was simple.

“Win a game tomorrow,” Melvin said. “That’s all we can do. We can’t get it all back at once. Can’t win five games in one day. We have to win one. That’s the message.”