What we learned as Giants shut out for third consecutive game

What we learned as Giants shut out for third consecutive game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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SAN FRANCISCO — The 1992 MLB season was an odd one in San Francisco. The team was headed for Tampa Bay, with a sale seeming so likely that players started flipping through Florida real estate brochures late in the season and fans — including a young Brandon Crawford — showed up to Candlestick Park in September just to say goodbye.

Peter Magowan’s new ownership group saved the day, and eight years later the Giants moved into a spectacular new ballpark, one they now have called home for 25 seasons.

This is all to say that 1992 was a really, really long time ago.

It also was the last time the Giants got shut out in three consecutive games before this week.

An 8-0 loss to the Padres on Saturday night gave them 27 consecutive scoreless innings. This is just the third time in their San Francisco era that they have suffered three straight shutouts.

It was a sloppy defensive night, something that has become a theme of late, but that didn’t really matter to the final outcome. The Giants managed just three hits off Padres starter Joe Musgrove and hit double-digit strikeouts for a third straight game and eighth time in 12 September games.

The lone highlight came in the top of the ninth when infielder Donnie Walton took the mound and worked around some poor defense to strand a pair. It was the 11th relief appearance of the season for Walton, who had a 2.25 ERA in mop-up duty for the Sacramento River Cats.

Back in Black

With Kyle Harrison shut down, Robbie Ray still rehabbing and Hayden Birdsong seemingly going start-to-start as he approaches an innings limit, Mason Black should finish the year in the big league rotation. He continues to show that he has made adjustments from an early cameo that was pretty rough at times.

Black gave up two runs — just one earned — over four innings against a lineup that saw him just last weekend. He again had to deal with some poor defense. Tyler Fitzgerald’s throwing error cost him two runs last Friday, and on Saturday an overthrown relay from Heliot Ramos allowed a run to score.

Black’s go-to pitch in his first call-up this year was his slider, but he has been fastball-heavy since returning. He threw heaters about 66 percent of the time in his previous two starts, and on Saturday it was 62 percent.

Donnie Barrels

It was a #RevengeGame for Donovan Solano, who had three strong seasons with San Francisco and won a Silver Slugger in 2020. Solano started at first base for the Padres and went 4-for-5 with three doubles.

Solano is 36 now and had an unexpectedly difficult time finding a job last offseason in a sport that has gone away from contact skills. He hit .282 with a .760 OPS with the Minnesota Twins last season but didn’t have a 2024 home run until the middle of April, when he signed a minor league deal with the Padres.

Solano is hitting .298 with a .774 OPS, six homers and 12 doubles in 84 appearances. In theory, he’s exactly the type of hitter the Padres will want in tight October games.

Welcome Back

After missing 18 games with right shoulder inflammation, Jordan Hicks came off the IL and immediately saw action. Hicks took over in the seventh and had a scoreless frame, but the eighth started with a ground rule double by Luis Arraez and an RBI single by Fernando Tatis Jr. After a walk, Hicks struck out Manny Machado, but Jackson Merrill brought two runs home with a double to the gap.

Hicks’ arm certainly looked healthy, at least. He topped out at 98.5 mph after the long layoff and averaged 96.1 in his 1 1/3 innings. The last number is worth watching; Hicks is one out away from reaching the second incentive level of his contract and making an extra $83,333 this season.

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