Road trip ends just as it began; badly

There's a craft faire at the end of Market Street across from the Ferry Building where we once bought a really cool sweater. Loved the look, loved the feel; and it came apart after about four months. Sound familiar?

San Francisco's road trip from Hell concluded in pergatory Sunday as Jeff Samardzija, the team, and the season continued unraveling before our eyes. The 5-2 loss in New York wrapped a three-city road trip that saw the Giants go 1-7. 

How did they ever win one? Lollygaggers.

The Giants are still 58-40 but have won just three times in their last 10 while watching their NL West lead over Los Angeles dwindle to three games after the Dodgers' Sunday night win over the Cardinals.

The Yankees grabbed an early lead on Carlos Beltran's two-out homer in the first. Of the God-awful 19 home runs allowed by "The Shark", 14 have come in the last handful of starts as he has fully participated in the staff-wide long ball binge.

Beltran's shot was no shot at all; more a cracked-bat pop fly that found Yankee  Stadium's short porch in right. That's how it's been. If ever there was a case for being snake bitten, it's Samardzija. Bad pitches get ripped, good pitches find the jet stream, pop flies get out. We're waiting for a nine-iron to hitchhike over the wall in the back of a passing pidgeon.

Shark gets bitten by the long ball, again. (AP Photo)

Now the ball Mark Texiera hit in the second? Meatball; 2-0 Yankees. It deserved to get hit, and it did. That's the kind of shot that has Samardzija's previous employers in Chicago laughing about that five-year/$90 mil deal. If they start in with the Barry Zito comparisons, no one can blame them.

The Giants made noise in the fourth, going walk, single, walk off Nathan Eovaldi to fill the bases with one out. Mac Williamson and Ramiro Pena failed to get a ball out of the infield, wasting a threat for the 147,000th time in the last eight games. 

Hunter Pence and Joe Panik can't get back fast enough.

After four innings the hits were even at 3-3, but the Giants were 0-for-5 with RISP, leaving five men on base. In the other dugout, well, everyone is in scoring position on a home run.

Samardzija had settled down but made his own mess in the sixth. A walk to Aaron Hicks and a Brett Gardner single opened the inning and put runners at the corners. Samardzija got Jacoby Ellsbury to hit into a 4-6-3 double play but Hicks scored on the play. You'd expect that would quell the rally but singles by Beltran and Brian McCann reset the whole corners thing and Starlin Castro delivered a dagger with an RBI single. 

Samardzija got a mound visit and a reprieve, and he rewarded the team's patience by soiling the sheets. Didi Gregorious's RBI ground-rule double made it 5-0 and mercifully sent "The Guppy" packing. 

Through five Samardjia had allowed three hits. He gave up five in the inning, four with two out; all after the damnable lead-off walk. That sweater we talked about earlier? There ya go.

Eovaldi finally ran out of gas in the seventh; a Pena single and Angel Pagan's double marking the end after seven hits and 118 pitches. Chasen Shreve walked Brandon Belt to load the bases with two out, setting up Buster Posey against New York's Chad Green. 

Nice effort from Williamson but this one is gone. (AP Photo)

Posey poked a single inside first to plate a pair. Imagine how exciting that would have been an inning earlier. Instead, New York still held a 5-2 lead. The Giants would get no closer.

They did put on a baserunning exhibition worthy of Ruben Rivera in the eighth. Williamson's sinking liner was bobbled by Hicks in right. A hustling runner would have been at second, but Williamson trotted and held at first. That was important when Pena grounded to second. 

Texiera had vacated the bag but Green covered first and beat the Pena's dive. Williamson tried to go first to third on the play and Green's throw beat him by the length of a cable car to end the inning. We hope his parents missed that one.

Little things done poorly accumulate into big mistakes; a theory embodied by the current Orange and Black.

Here's the thing: this team isn't great and it isn't awful. It lives in the margins. It survived an astounding number of injuries (and a horrific bullpen) for 90 games because self-induced foul-ups were rare. The last eight games have seen one miscue, physical and mental, after another. That's not something this group has the talent to overcome.

Giants baseball is smart, well-played and  fundamentally sound. Right now it's also in witness protection and, apparently, convinced The Mob is waiting for it on the front porch.

For the fourth time on the trip, the Giants outhit their foe (10-8) but found a way to lose. Ten runners were left on base and Posey's two-run single was San Francisco's only hit in eight tries with runners in scoring position. Pagan had three hits while Posey and Williamson contributed two each.

Since the break, the Giants are 9-for-72 with second and/or third occupied.

Looking for a bright spot? George Kontos threw 2 1/3 innings, striking out a pair in relief of Samardzija (5ER, 8H, 3K, 1BB over 5 2/3IP).

Despite the short turnaround maybe a return to AT&T Park, where they've won five of their last six, will be thei G-Men's  trip to Lourdes. 

Cincinnati comes calling on Monday with Jake Peavy (5-8, 5.15 ERA) taking on Anthony DeSclafani (5-0, 2.50 ERA). The Reds (38-60) are dead last in the NL Central but have played better of late (of course they have), winning six of their last 10.

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Note: Taking a few days away. Don't worry, there will still be baseball when we return. The Giants might even still be in first. You never know.