Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive regular email blasts, plus “The Dime,” our twice-weekly sports newsletter.
Much was made of the Giants’ new lineup Monday night. It served as a nice conversation piece and created some buzz on social media. Players were asked about it in the clubhouse, and manager Bob Melvin was peppered with questions in his pregame interview.
How soon we forget.
That the lineup shakeup was a storyline at all shows how much has changed in Giantsville under Buster Posey’s leadership, which emphasizes stability and patience with the roster, lineup, and pitching staff.
In the Farhan Zaidi administration, new lineups were almost a daily occurrence. In 2022, the Giants employed 152 lineups in 162 games. In 2023, 144 lineups were used. This year’s Giants have played 42 games, and Melvin wrote up just his 22nd lineup Monday. It would have been far fewer if Tyler Fitzgerald hadn’t gotten hurt.
Subscribe to The Dime
News, gossip, and inside-the-locker-room access for Bay Area sports fans, every Friday and Monday.
In the end, it didn’t really matter. The Giants lost their season-high fourth game in a row, and Justin Verlander once more was denied his first win as a Giant despite yielding two runs in six innings. The Diamondbacks won 2-1 in a game that provided the latest example of the inefficiency of the Giants’ wobbly offense, which has scored just one run in three of the past four games.
The best hope was for Heliot Ramos’ sizzling 110.8 mph liner to score Mike Yastrzemski with the tying run in the eighth inning, but Arizona left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made an impressive circus catch on the warning track, leaping while tumbling backward and landing on the dirt with the ball in his glove. A tough way to end an 11-pitch at-bat.
“A lot of stuff’s not falling our way,” said second baseman Christian Koss, who drove in the Giants’ only run with a fifth-inning single. “When Ramos hits a ball 111, and the guy does a backflip, it’s kind of hard. A couple of guys might be trying too hard, trying to get us out of this rut by themselves. It just goes back to us stringing together team at-bats that’ll help us get more runs.”
The lineup changes followed three straight losses in Minnesota. Struggling LaMonte Wade Jr. was sent to the bench, with Wilmer Flores replacing him at first base. Willy Adames was dropped from second to sixth. Matt Chapman replaced Adames as the No. 2 hitter, and Jung Hoo Lee slid from No. 3 to cleanup, with the hot-hitting Ramos batting third.
Management was hoping the reconfiguration would provide some kind of boost in an attempt to resurrect the offense, but it wasn’t the case against Merrill Kelly (eight strikeouts, no walks in 7.0 innings) and two relievers. Through four innings, the Giants’ lone hits were infield singles by Ramos, who had three of his team’s eight hits and is batting .650 (13-for-20) over six games.
Ramos could use some help.
“Sometimes when you’re a little stagnant, you change things up,” Melvin said. “We’ve been pretty structured in the lineup to this point. We’ve been a little down offensively. So we’ll change the scenery. Guys tend to like it sometimes.”
By no means are the Giants giving up on Wade, who’s expected back in the lineup Tuesday night and will sit again Wednesday when the Diamondbacks start a lefty, Eduardo Rodriguez. That means Wilmer Flores would return as the designated hitter. Yet it’s interesting that slugger Jerar Encarnacion, who’s due to return from the injured list May 26, is playing first base during his rehab assignment.
“I know how capable and talented LaMonte is,” Chapman said. “It’s a long season, and if we’re going to be one of the last teams playing at the end, we need him. He’s going to be a big part of this offense. I think in the very near future, you’ll see the LaMonte we’re all accustomed to.”
When Wade is at his best, he has an elite awareness of the strike zone and is reaching base regularly by drawing walks as well as collecting hits. His on-base percentage in 2023 and 2024 was .376, and now it’s .246. So his approach, patience, and production all need improvement.
“LaMonte’s going to be in the lineup,” Melvin said. “Look, we have what we have here. He’s our first baseman and has done it for a while now, and he’s done it well. He’s just going through a tough period. Not the only guy, though.”
Verlander’s only problem was Corbin Carroll, who homered to lead off both the third and fifth innings, smoking a 79.9 mile per hour breaking ball and 93.7 mile per hour fastball. In the seventh, with Carroll coming up again and a runner on first, Verlander was pulled.
He had thrown just 79 pitches, but Melvin took no chances with his 42-year-old starter and summoned lefty Erik Miller, who quickly finished the inning. Verlander is 0-3 with a 4.31 ERA and six no-decisions as a Giant after pushing his winless streak to a career-high nine games.
Twice in his career, Verlander had seven consecutive winless starts, in 2015 and 2024, but he didn’t pitch as well as he’s pitching now in either of those winless runs. In 2015, he had a 5.57 ERA and in 2024, he posted a 7.27 ERA during his drought. This year, he’s simply not receiving enough support from his teammates.