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Baseball players police themselves, and that’s exactly what happened in the Giants’ ugly 12-5 loss to the Marlins on Thursday that featured a benches-clearing incident in the seventh inning.
The Giants did what they virtually promised to do and threw a first-inning retaliation pitch at Miami’s No. 3 hitter Otto López, a gesture that signified their frustration over getting drilled by pitches three times Wednesday and nine times over nine games.
One of the plunkings shelved third baseman Casey Schmitt, who wasn’t able to play Thursday because he was getting a CT scan for his left wrist after Calvin Faucher popped him with a fastball Wednesday.
The Giants were fed up, and Hayden Birdsong’s 12th pitch of the game, a 97.5 mph blazer, was delivered directly to López’s left thigh/hip area, a clear message that the Giants will fight back if opposing teams continue to throw so far inside that their hitters become targets.
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The Giants were swept by the mediocre Marlins and have lost eight of 11, and their frustrations boiled over in the seventh inning after Cade Gibson struck out Wilmer Flores. He was furious about being called out on a check swing but apparently heard some disparaging words from the Marlins side and popped off himself.
The benches and bullpens emptied onto the field, and Willy Adames and Logan Webb sprinted to the scene. Jung Hoo Lee was among those pulling the usually mild-mannered Flores off the field, and order was restored.
Asked before the game how the Giants could counteract all the plunkings, manager Bob Melvin said, “It just depends. Depends on the situation.”
The situation came early. With two outs and the bases empty in the first inning, Birdsong wasted no time against López, who had five hits and four RBIs in the series’ first two games. The right-hander’s first pitch nailed López, who glared at Birdsong and walked slowly toward first base.
Why López, who was a Giant in spring training last year and designated for assignment when the season began? Because he was the No. 3 hitter, just like the Giants’ Heliot Ramos, who has been hit four times in recent days and 10 on the season. When messages like this are sent, it’s often a tit-for-tat situation.
In the baseball world of retaliation, the Giants did it right. Before the game, Birdsong got called into Melvin’s office for a brief chat and was met at his locker by Webb, a team leader who spoke with him for several minutes — it’s likely they weren’t discussing dinner plans.
After Wednesday night’s game, Webb suggested, “The game finds a way to even itself out. It will,” and added, “I guess pitchers have to do a better job of protecting those guys.” Ramos had mentioned baseball’s unwritten rules, including those covering retaliation, and said, “Those rules are what keeps the feel of the game.”
So it was no surprise how the Giants responded. Birdsong hit López in the lower body. Anything up high, and the 23-year-old right-hander likely would have been ejected. As it was, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough was the one who was ejected — the umpires gathered after the drilling and chose to give warnings to both benches, prompting McCullough to storm out of the dugout and earn a quick ejection.
On Birdsong’s next pitch, Agustín Ramírez doubled, and Kyle Stowers followed with a three-run homer. In the Marlins’ minds, it was payback for the payback. Two innings later, Ramírez crushed a two-run homer, and suddenly the Giants trailed 5-0.
The Giants tied the game with two runs in the third on Rafael Devers’ home run and three in the fourth on Adames’ RBI single and Brett Wisely’s two-run double. Devers was buzzed in the fourth by lefty reliever Josh Simpson, who threw a high, hard one, coming in on a 3-1 count and giving Devers a free base.
Birdsong got the loss — he walked his first two batters in the fifth, both of whom scored during a decisive three-run rally. The Marlins made it a blowout with four more runs in the eighth.
For the record, third-base coach Matt Williams made all the right calls after serving as a subplot the previous two games for his decisions to wave home baserunners. With an offense that has struggled mightily — their hitters went 8-for-59 with runners in scoring position in the first eight games of the homestand — Williams was particularly aggressive with his sends, only to watch players get thrown out at the plate.
Melvin went deep defending Williams, saying, “Look, when you’re not scoring runs, you want to err on the aggressiveness. … It’s a very thankless job. Even if you’re sitting there watching and going ‘send him, send him, send him,’ and he’s out, now your opinion changes. That’s not fair for the third-base coach.
“He has a lot he has to think about. How the team’s doing at the time. What part of the game is it? Who’s coming up? There are a lot of things that go into that. How do balls play off the wall? Every ballpark we go to, Matt Williams spends time hitting fungoes off the walls, down the lines, to see what the caroms are like. There’s a lot that goes into it.”
A former All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman and big-league manager, Williams is coaching for his fourth team, having worked on Melvin’s staffs in both Oakland and San Diego before joining him in San Francisco.
On Wednesday, Williams waved home Lee from second on Patrick Bailey’s single, but left fielder Kyle Stowers’ throw easily beat Lee, and the game required a 10th inning with the Marlins winning 8-5.
Tuesday, Devers was at first base in the fifth inning and sent home on Ramos’ double, another easy out.
“It seems there’s always one point in the season when it kind of comes in bunches, and they seem dramatic,” Melvin said, “and that’s the way it’s been here the last couple of days.”
The Giants ended their homestand 3-6 and their first half 44-37.