Giants waste piching gem (again); trail NLDS 1-0

Here's the sad truth: It doesn't matter how well you pitch, if you don't score runs you don't win.

Johnny Cueto pitched brilliantly save one offering. That one pitch barely left the yard, nestling into the basket in left field. And that was the ball game as San Francisco dropped game one of the NLDS 1–0 on Friday night at Chicago's Wrigley Field.

Tuesday's hero is Friday's bum. Gillaspie gets picked off. (SF Gate / The Chronicle)

Yes, we are pissed about it. This one just didn't have to be. It was the same problem the Giants had seen throughout the second half. Starting pitching gave the team everything one could hope for. The offense was nonexistent. The result was predictable.

Tuesday at New York, the Giants got a late home run and needed to log just three outs to protect it. On Friday they lost the exact same way.

Javier Baez launched a one-out solo homer in the bottom half of the eighth inning, accounting for the only run of the game. And for the 63rd time in 2016, San Francisco failed to rally in the ninth-inning. That's right, not once this season or postseason have the G-Men managed to pull one out when entering the ninth in arrears. 

Call a Elias for confirmation but that has to be some kind of record. You'd think somewhere along the line they'd just luck into one. A ball hits the bag. A grounder gets booted or thrown away. A fly ball gets lost in the sun, the cloud, the wind, etc. Someone steps on a frog. Anything. Not this team; they don't have that kind of luck.

They did give it an effort. Buster Posey's double off-the-wall against Aroldis Chapman with two out in the top half of the ninth did put the tying run on base. The potential go-ahead run was represented at the plate by Hunter Pence but his slow grounder to second instead end of the game.

Cueto pitches better than his run support. (SF Gate / The Chronicle)

If you want to twist the knife a little bit more, just remember: this was the first postseason shutout victory by the Cubs at Wrigley since 1984.

This is a game the Giants usually win. When you get that kind of pitching and out hit the opposition by a count of 6 to 3, you have to work at it to come up short. 

The Giants seemed to do exactly that. San Francisco got a base hit to open each of the first three innings and failed do anything with any of them.

In the first, Gorkys Hernandez opened up the game with a bunt single but was thrown out trying to steal second. Hernandez got a horrible jump against Cubs starter Jon Lester, one of the easiest men in baseball to run on.

In the third, Connor Gillaspie opened with a base hit but was picked off the bag moments later when Chicago catcher David Ross threw behind him on a gadget play and caught both Gillaspie and first base coach Billy Hayes napping.

Damn baskets. (SF Gate / The Chronicle)

San Francisco had another chance in the fourth. Posey singled with one out and ambled to third when Angel Pagan's sinking line drive was misplayed in left for a two-out double. 

Is Posey a gazelle? No. But in that situation he has to try to score. With two out you expect him to be running on the pitch. Third base coach Roberto Kelly held him, putting runners at second and third, then Brandon Crawford followed with a ground ball for out number three. 

It wasn't exactly a sequence for the time capsule as far as the base coaches were concerned. It also wasn't the first time the coaches opened themselves up to second-guessing in 2016. We never knew we we could miss Tim Flannery this much.

At that point the Giants bats went silent as Lester went around the line up a time and a half without allowing so much as a base runner; getting the Giants to swing early and often. Of course the earlier base running missteps didn't help the cause.

A side note: baskets suck. Wrigley is the only place that has baskets on the outfield wall, and the ball Baez hit is off the ivy without one. Pass the bolt cutters.

It's a disappointing loss, and a frustrating one at that. It also leaves the Giants looking at a must-win situation on Saturday. The possibility they might go back to San Francisco trailing two games to none in a best-of-five series is a harbinger of doom.

The Giants will look to Jeff Samardzija (3.81 ERA), making his post season debut, in an effort to even the score. The Cubs go with National League ERA leader Kyle Hendricks (2.15 ERA). 

Again it looks like runs will be at a premium. The Giants need to find a way to get some or else "Even Year Magic" and "#BeliEVEN" will be remembered as nothing more that clever marketing.

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