SAN FRANCISCO -- After a weekend of beautiful weather and a much-needed off day at home, the Giants returned to Oracle Park on Tuesday and immediately got reminded that June in San Francisco is a different animal. The first night against the Miami Marlins was one of the coldest of the season, and the bats went cold in a 4-2 loss.
It was an extremely quiet offensive night, but Jung Hoo Lee drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth to bring the crowd back to life. After a Willy Adames strikeout, red-hot third baseman Casey Schmitt hit into a game-ending double play.
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SIGN UP HERE Justin Verlander left with a 3-0 deficit, but the lower-leverage relievers did a nice job of keeping the game close. Spencer Bivens ran into trouble in the eighth inning of a two-run game when the Marlins got back-to-back no-out singles, but he struck out Kyle Stowers and Eric Wagamn before getting Liam Hicks to fly out to deep center.
Joey Lucchesi put two on in the ninth, but got out of it. The lineup, however, never could catch up.
The game was the first in a two-week stretch against some of MLB's worst teams, one the Giants must take advantage of. Following this series, they visit the Chicago White Sox, who are 25-55. After a four-game series at Arizona, they'll visit the Athletics for the first time in Sacramento.
First Time Back
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Verlander is just the third Giants pitcher -- joining Ross Stripling and Slick Castleman (yes, Slick Castleman) -- to go his first 11 starts without getting a win, and that continued Tuesday. The Marlins scored two in the second and one in the third, and while Verlander retired eight of the final nine he faced, the high early pitch count led to him departing after the top of the fifth.
Verlander was charged with three earned in his return from the paternity list. He struck out five, but when the Marlins were rallying, he had some trouble putting them away with two strikes. Through a dozen starts, Verlander has a 4.52 ERA. If you take out his rookie season and the season he had Tommy John, Verlander has never won fewer than five games as a big leaguer, but he'll head into the final days of June still looking for his first in orange and black.
Second Chance
The Giants entered the night with just three homers in 250 at-bats from their second basemen, but Christian Koss smoked a breaking ball into the first row in the fifth, cutting the deficit to one. The homer was Koss' second in the big leagues, joining the grand slam he hit on May 13.
Koss and Brett Wisely will split time at second base for now, with Tyler Fitzgerald getting a mental reset in Triple-A and Schmitt needed at third base for at least a couple more weeks. Manager Bob Melvin went with the righty against righty Cal Quantrill because he has allowed an OPS over 1.000 to right-handed hitters this season, and it paid off.
The Giants nearly tied the game later in the inning, but Matt Williams sent Rafael Devers home on an Heliot Ramos double and he was thrown out by 15 feet -- with team RBI leader Wilmer Flores on deck. Devers has been dealing with some groin tightness and didn't look all that comfortable after reaching the plate.
Still Searching
Lee had a 15 at-bat hitless streak going after a flyball to center in the second inning, but he caught a break the next time up. Teams have started to shift their shortstops over as far as they can because Lee hits so many grounders up the middle, and his hard grounder was headed for shortstop Otto Lopez's glove when it hit Quantrill's leg. Lee ended up with a single, his first hit since last Tuesday's game against the Cleveland Guardians.
Lee has been dropped in the order on this homestand, a reaction to what has become a lengthy slump, but he did reach base twice, something he had done just once in his previous eight starts.