All of a sudden it has become make-or-break time for the 2015 San Francisco Giants. After losing seven straight, they made a positive stride in the right direction by finishing their series in Colorado with a pair of wins. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Dodgers simultaneously won so they couldn't manage to gain any ground on them in the chase for first place. Now the gap between the two teams is 7.5 games, a lead that may prove insurmountable. If the Giants want to have any chance at chasing down their rivals, they will need to get hot quickly. A great time to start this floury of much needed wins would be in the final series of a tough road trip, ending with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
To kickoff the series, the Giants hoped to receive a solid outing from Mike Leake that could propel them over opposing starter Patrick Corbin. Although Leake has pitched decently well, his acquisition hasn't come into fruition yet as he has yet to record a win. With that being said, he has dealt with very little run support behind him. Immediately with the start of Monday's game, this trend continued.
After a quiet first inning and top of the second, the Diamondbacks threw the first punch with a three-run home run off the bat of Phil Gosselin. Two singles by David Peralta and Jake Lamb gave the DBacks' second baseman a shot to make an impact and he didn't disappoint. On a 1-1 count, Gosselin capitalized on a Mike Leake mistake and drove a ball to deep center for only his second round tripper on the year.
Both Leake and Corbin put together quick third innings, but the Diamondbacks again got to Leake in the fourth. With the bases loaded and one out via a pair of singles and a walk, Leake's opposition Patrick Corbin approached the plate. Everything was set up for the Giants to get a double play and escape the inning, but Corbin helped himself out by slicing a single to left. This only ended up scoring one run, but a sacrifice fly by A.J. Pollock drove in another to extend their early lead to five runs.
While the Diamondbacks poured on the runs, the Giants couldn't pick away at the lead. Though they got some hits against Corbin, the opposing pitcher lived up to his reputation as a Giant killer by halting any progression. It took the Diamondbacks only 5 2/3 innings to force Leake out of the game. In the sixth, Leake seemed to be finding his groove by striking out the first two hitters he faced, but Pollock added another RBI to his stat line with a home run pulled to left. If someone were searching for positives in the game for the Giants they would be wise to mention the bullpen. Despite the six earned runs allowed by Leake, the Giant bullpen (George Kontos and Ryan Vogelsong) held the D-Backs at bay for the rest of the game.
The Giant offense continued to falter as they couldn't capitalize on any of the hits they gathered against Corbin. Although Buster Posey ended up recording three hits while Marlon Byrd added another two, they only managed to score a single run in the ball game which came in the eighth off a Posey single. This run, in fact, didn't even go against Corbin's ERA as Daniel Hudson was the man who surrendered the run and erased the shutout. Scoring the run was recently activated Joe Panik ,who tallied a pinch-hit double in his first at-bat back to set up the top of the lineup. Though Posey finally cashed in with a runner in scoring position, the 6-1 lead was too large at this point.
The top of the ninth featured an unenthusiastic Giant offense that lacked a sense of urgency the entire game. Brad Ziegler induced three groundouts and the Giants short two-game win streak was broken. Again, Mike Leake picked up the loss and his first win with Giants continues to elude him. In this particular start it wasn't the run support that doomed him, it was the fact that he allowed six runs on 11 hits and couldn't keep the ball in the yard. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Patrick Corbin threw extremely well although only lasting six innings.
In game two, the Giants will like to get Tim Hudson (6-8, 4.69 ERA) back on track and involved in their slowly crumbling race for the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks will look to fend off their division rivals at home by sending out Chase Anderson (6-5, 4.26 ERA).
Though the previous two games provided hope, this game was a difficult return to the Giants' lack luster attitude. They didn't look like a team vying for a playoff spot and it didn't help that the Dodgers beat the Angels as well on Monday. The NL West lead for the Dodgers is now an incredible 8.5 games. This will probably prove to be too much for the Giants to return to the playoffs in 2015, but then again it is an odd year. The Giants will truly need some magic (and a bit of luck) to break the curse of the odd year playoff drought trend.