The plummeting Giants are failing at the plate and willing to try anything for a change

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PHOENIX — See ball, hit ball.

It would make sense for the slumping Giants to revert to that age-old strategy, and it seems they’ll be taking steps to do so.

With an information overload, with too much to think about, with heavy self-inflicted pressure, the simple grip-it-and-rip-it approach can turn into a complex, pressurized chore that can wear on hitters and lead to prolonged slumps.

The art of hitting can turn into the agony of hitting.

Somehow, the Giants lost track of the basic elements of smacking a baseball. Mounting a rally and scoring a run have become monumental tasks, not routine practices. In Monday night’s latest example in Arizona, the Giants collected all of seven hits, Rafael Devers struck out four times, manager Bob Melvin was ejected for arguing bad calls on Heliot Ramos, another Logan Webb quality start was wasted, and another third baseman was shelved when Christian Koss pulled a hamstring.

The result was a 4-2 defeat to the Diamondbacks, the 11th loss in 15 games for the plummeting Giants.

“‘Frustrating’ is a good word,” Koss said when asked about his injury, which he sustained running out a grounder in the sixth inning, “especially with the way we’ve been playing and trying to get out of the rut. It seems everything is kind of piling on. Us as a group, we’re resilient, and we’ll find a way to get through it.”

Naturally, the front office and coaching staff are trying to figure it out and are open to anything short of picking names out of a hat to determine a lineup — an old Billy Martin tactic when his team fell into a horrid slump.

The Giants tried the next best thing Monday and inserted Koss at leadoff. Also, batting practices before Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games have been called off, an effort to clear hitters’ minds of the pressure, the grind, and the monotony of the daily workload.

“There’s so much information to give,” Melvin told The Standard before Monday’s game. “Some players like a lot of information; some don’t like a lot of information. So you have to know each and every guy. But there are times that you can overdo it, just because when things aren’t going well, it means that for us as a staff, it’s ‘all right, we have to try harder, we’ve got to get more information.’

“Sometimes less is more. I think we’re backing off a little bit as far as the batting practice goes and just trying to give a little different look and maybe a breath.”

We keep hearing the same cliché regarding the Giants’ hitters: They’re trying too hard. But it clearly seems the case when they overswing without making contact, try to hit pitches outside the strike zone, and compile too many unproductive at-bats.

Melvin offered an alternative.

“Sometimes it’s ‘try easier,’” he explained in the pregame interview, drawing from a conversation he once had with old Orioles teammate Mike Flanagan. “I was going through a slump. We were sitting in the bullpen one day, and he said to me, ‘Trying pretty hard out there?’ Then he goes, ‘Try a little easier.’ ‘What?’ He said, ‘Try a little easier.’”

Similarly, when Melvin was scuffling as a player on the Giants, he heard some unusual (but apparently effective) advice from Dusty Baker, then a coach.

“Dusty goes, ‘Here’s what I want you to do: Put a little cologne right here [on the neck] before you go up there, and get a song in your head,’” Melvin said. “So I go up there with a song in my head, kind of smelling pretty good, and the next thing I know, I got two hits. I went back and asked Dusty, ‘What did you just do?’

“It completely unclogged my brain. I wasn’t thinking about, ‘OK, my foot has to be here, my shoulder has to be there, this pitcher has this or that.’”

The point is, a slumping hitter can put excessive pressure on himself to succeed, and sometimes diversions — such as those offered to Melvin long ago from Flanagan and Baker — can be a perfect antidote.

“That’s a lot of what we try to do,” Melvin said. “There’s just a ton more information now, and you have to balance that.”

So, no BP Tuesday or Thursday, perhaps a wise idea with the Giants playing seven consecutive night games this week, four in Arizona and three in Sacramento. As is, hitters aren’t applying what the coaches or analysts are telling them. They’ve scored four runs in their last 29 innings. Hitting with runners in scoring position remains a major struggle. They’re 4-9 since the Devers trade.

Melvin addressed the team before the game, a pep talk if you will, putting perspective on the Giants’ position with two weeks before the All-Star break. A strong push in these final games would do wonders for morale, momentum, and playoff hopes.

Moving Koss to leadoff seemed a bizarre decision considering he’s no leadoff hitter. Then again, he was the team’s hottest hitter coming in, with eight hits in four days — we might see more experimentation until Matt Chapman returns and the lineup becomes more set.

Koss made outs his first three at-bats, pulling his left hammy when busting up the line on a groundout in the sixth inning, but he stayed in the game and crushed a ball in the eighth. At first, it appeared to be a game-tying home run, then umpires ruled fan interference (and an out) because some giddy guy reached over the wall and caught the ball. When umpires reviewed the play, Koss was awarded a double.

Then he exited for a pinch-runner, yet another injured Giants third baseman. He was playing third because Chapman is on the injured list, and Casey Schmitt joined him Monday, prompting the return of Tyler Fitzgerald from Triple-A Sacramento.

Of course, the pinch-runner, Brett Wisely, was stranded. As for Fitzgerald, he played second and hit two doubles, the second driving in the Giants’ only runs. It was 2-2 in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks scored the decisive run off Webb and another off Tyler Rogers.

Melvin was ejected for vehemently objecting to umpire Quinn Wolcott’s rotten strike-three call of Heliot Ramos, on a pitch way outside, the third time Wolcott has tossed Melvin.

“Heliot gets the ball taken out of his hands,” Melvin said. “Look, we’re in this position because we’re not scoring enough runs and doing much offensively, so it gets frustrating.”