Offense is MIA; G-Men drop fourth straight

We know it's early, just 16 games into a 162-game campaign, the Giants look totally lost. The long, painful losing skid continued Wednesday with a frustrating 2-1 loss to Arizona.

With the setback, San Francisco assured itself of a third straight series loss. Dropping four in a row and seven of their last eight, the Giants fall two games under .500 at 7-9. They also slip to fourth place in the five-team National League West, 2 1/2 games behind Los Angeles with Colorado and Arizona sandwiched in between. 

It's hard to fathom that this is the same team that opened the season 6-2. They haven't won a series since and are in danger of being swept in a four-gamer at home if they can't salvage Thursday afternoon's series finale.

You know  it's going bad when the top game highlight is a play made by the ball dude.

Save one errant pitch, the problem wasn't on the mound this night. The offense continued to flounder, extending its scoreless streak to the equivalent of two full games before mounting token protest. Maylasia Air #370 may be easier to find than a consistent offense right now.

It's one of Baseball's truisms that the strike zone is determined, not by the rule book but by that night's plate umpire. And so it was. After seeing two nights where the zone seemed to fluctuate between the equivalent of a postage stamp and, well, two postage stamps, on this night hitters in the on deck circles were in play. 

When your starting pitchers are Madison Bumgarner and Zack Greinke, two guys who don't need the help, it's gonna be a long night for hitters.

Greinke did surrender an early walk but the Giants were held relatively quiet; one-out doubles by Joe Panik in the third inning and Matt Duffy in the fifth being the loudest objections. Bumgarner faced the minimum until Paul Goldschmidt singled with two gone in the fourth.

Arizona put together the first serious threat in the sixth, annoyingly set up by Greinke's one-out single. A fielder's choice and single would put runners at the corners, with the ever-dangerous Goldschmidt at bat. No problem for Bumgarner, who got Goldschmidt swinging to squelch the attack. 

And then it came apart. It was a squirt more than a flood, but the damage was severe. Arizona opened the seventh with a single and Wellington Castillo's two-run bomb. Arizona got nothing further off Bumgarner, but that was enough.

The Giants tried to answer in the bottom half. Gregor Blanco found triples alley and Angel Pagan picked him up, dumping an RBI single into right to cut the deficit in half. It also broke a stretch of 18 scoreless innings and chased Greinke from the contest.

Then the Giants went quiet again until Duffy doubled with one out in the home ninth.With the tying run in scoring position the Giants failed to cash in. Blanco grounded out and pinch hitter Trevor Brown went down looking.

The Giants are left wondering where all the offense went. In this Bataan Death March of a skid they've scored three runs or less four times -- all losses.. To add to the frustration, they've scored six runs or more four times but lost three of those as the pitchers have exhibited a similar, maddening inconsistency.

They had chances. Seven hits and a walk provided the kindling but there was no spark. Giants hitters were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

San Francisco gets one more crack at Arizona on Thursday afternoon. Johnny Cueto (3-0), the last Giants pitcher to earn a win, goes to the mound against Shelby Miller (0-1).

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