San Francisco Giants' Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson’s stellar outing vanished in an instant after a disastrous Arizona Diamondbacks seventh-inning grand slam.
Despite a terrific performance from Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, the San Francisco Giants dropped the first game of a doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It seemed like San Francisco was putting an eighth-inning rally together, but that was quickly stopped, and then Arizona added even more run support in the top of the ninth, coming out with a 7-1 victory.
Wilkinson’s day came to an end when he walked back-to-back batters to start the seventh inning. Instead of getting help from his bullpen, Ryan Walker allowed a grand slam to Lars Nootbaar, which was the first of his career.
Offensively, Rafael Devers’ eighth-inning double turned into a run as Jung Hoo Lee drove him in, but other than that, it was another lifeless effort from a Giants team that seemed to be turning a corner.
Remember, this team is plagued with injuries, and they’re now just 55-81, so it’s not like this was a make-or-break doubleheader like it is for the 73-64 D-backs who are still in Wild Card contention.
Giants spoil Wilkinson’s best start yet
Wilkinson, 23, was called up as the Giants’ extra man for this doubleheader. The lefty was cruising through the D-backs lineup until he began to run out of steam late.
Obviously, the Giants wanted to get every possible out out of him, knowing they have to play a minimum of 18 innings today, but in hindsight, it would’ve been smart to have him stay in the dugout after his sixth inning.
Regardless, Wilkinson’s six innings of work were more than he had in his first two starts combined. The Canadian native’s final line saw him allow two earned runs on three hits while he struck out four and walked two on 90 pitches, which is one fewer than he had in his first two starts combined.
Only a four-hit day for the Giants
This Giants offense seems to either be on cloud nine or nonexistent, and today, it was the latter. San Francisco has another chance to prove themselves in game two, but this is a severely depleted lineup, one that still awaits the return of Willy Adames.
For now, though, Devers continues to hold things down. He had two of the team’s four hits, and it’s important to note that the only other player with a hit in this game was Lee, who had two himself and drove in Devers in the eighth.
It was far from a great performance from the other seven batters in this lineup, so it’ll be interesting to see how they turn things around in just a few hours time.
