Despite a quality outing from Landen Roupp, the San Francisco Giants' bullpen unraveled in the seventh inning as the Giants dropped their fifth straight game.
Entering Wednesday's series finale against the Kansas City Royals, the San Francisco Giants were on the verge of being swept after struggling on the pitching side throughout the series.
With Landen Roupp coming off one of his better starts of the season against the Seattle Mariners, this appeared to be the Giants' best opportunity to salvage the finale.
Instead, the Giants dropped their fifth straight game, falling 5-4 to the Royals to complete the three-game sweep. Since the start of the second half, San Francisco has gone 1-6.
Roupp delivers another quality start
Roupp picked up right where he left off following his dominant outing against Seattle, where he threw seven scoreless innings.
He once again gave the Giants exactly what they needed, tossing six scoreless frames before running into trouble in the seventh inning. Salvador Perez finally broke through with a two-run home run, ending another impressive performance from the right-hander.
Roupp was pulled immediately after the home run, a decision that raises fair questions about Tony Vitello's management of the starting rotation throughout the series. Time and again, the Giants' starters were pushed deeper into games, even as their effectiveness appeared to fade in the later innings.
These are never easy decisions for a manager, and Roupp had certainly earned the opportunity to continue pitching.
However, considering how several Giants starters had begun to wear down late in games during the series, many will wonder whether turning to the bullpen sooner would have been the better option.
Although the Giants still held a one-run lead at the time, Vitello's handling of both his rotation and bullpen deserves scrutiny.
Despite the seventh-inning setback, Roupp turned in another outstanding performance. He pitched six innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs while striking out seven over 91 pitches, including 63 strikes.
Bullpen unable to hold the lead
Sam Hentges entered to finish the inning but quickly ran into trouble, surrendering an RBI single to Nick Loftin. Keaton Winn followed, but the struggles continued as Kansas City added two more runs.
The Royals scored five runs in the seventh inning, turning a Giants lead into a two-run deficit heading into the late innings.
While the loss cannot be pinned on one decision alone, the bullpen's inability to protect the lead proved to be the turning point. San Francisco suddenly found itself needing a comeback that never materialized.
Offense comes up short
Offensively, the Giants struggled for much of the afternoon against Royals starter Seth Lugo, who worked seven innings while allowing three hits and three earned runs. He walked two and struck out five, consistently keeping San Francisco's lineup in check.
The Giants finally broke through in the sixth inning when Luis Arraez lifted a sacrifice fly to score Willy Adames for their first run of the game. They added two more runs in the seventh, first on Jung Hoo Lee's RBI triple and then on Adames' ground-rule double that scored Lee to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.
In the ninth, Casey Schmitt hit a solo homer, his 20th of the season, unfortunately for San Francisco. The Royals' bullpen shut the door the rest of the way, completing the 5-4 victory and finishing off the series sweep.
The Giants will now head into an off day before opening a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday. After a difficult start to the second half, the break comes at an important time as San Francisco looks to regroup following its five-game losing streak.
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