Swept, sure. Six times now. But to sweep? Nah, it just ain’t to be.
The San Francisco Giants are now 0-5 with the chance to sweep a 3+ game series after their 4-3 loss to the Angels. It’s not just their opponents or their own self-sabotage keeping the broom in the cupboard — the umpires are doing their part as well.
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With the tying run at second in the 9th, home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt decided an inside fastball was close enough and called Heliot Ramos out on strikes to end the game.
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Now, of course, in this brave new world of ABS and challenges, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. A light tap on the head and any pitch-calling injustice can be swiftly adjusted within seconds — if one of the team’s challenges remained. If one doesn’t, then you’re living in baseball’s stone ages, which these 2026 Giants might be.
Willy Adames had burned the team’s last challenge earlier in the 9th on a 3-0 sinker from reliever Sam Bachman. The pitch’s natural movement appeared to take the ball out of the zone. It entered the catcher’s glove wide of the corner. Bachman had heaved some big misses earlier in the AB and when he walked Jesus Rodriguez. Given the scenario — 9th inning, no outs, down by three, and another baserunner would bring the tying run to the plate — it wasn’t a bad challenge in terms of strategy. It was a bad challenge, a terrible one, in the sense that he was wrong. Upon review, a fiber of a seam scraped the inside corner. Wendelstedt reported — with the biggest sh*t-eating grin on his face, I’m sure — that the call was confirmed, San Francisco has no more challenges remaining, hehe. That first strike got Bachman back into the at-bat and he’d eventually get Adames to ground into a fielder’s choice forceout.
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The no more challenges thing immediately became an issue in the next at-bat. Bachman got lost on his way to the plate again, and Wendelstedt went out of his way to reorient him. In a 3-0 count, a change-up that fell well below the zone was called a strike, and Cavanaugh, powerless to protest, could only tap his helmet quizzically.
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Given a second life in the AB, Bachman worked the count full but ended up walking the rookie catcher anyway (Cavanaugh, 2-for-2 with 2 BB) bringing the Giants tying run to the plate.
Manager Kirk Suzuki swapped the errant Bachman with the inexperienced lefty, Mitch Farris, who, despite his surname, had never pitched in a save situation before (my thinking: Farris → Ferris → Save Ferris). Farris got pinch hitter Daniel Susac to lineout on his first pitch and then had his heart jump into his throat on his second pitch to Luis Arraez when his 352 drive teased a game-tying 3-run home run for 95% of its time in the air. Missing a friendly push from the wind, the ball kicked high off the brick wall in right for a 2-run double.
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The Angels were on the ropes. They had lost a MLB-leading 8 games so far when leading after the 8th inning with an inexperienced arm on the hill without a split advantage. Ramos, who had been scuffling as of late, put up a fight too. He fouled off three pitches, then in a 1-2 count and fully in swing-mode, spat on a change-up in the dirt. He didn’t get baited by the subsequent fastball either. He read it out of the hands well — maybe low, definitely inside, and he kept his bat on his shoulder. Who knows what he would’ve done with it, but Ramos had earned another pitch.
He didn’t get one.
While Adames’s failed challenge drew the quickest criticism because it was the most recent, the reason that challenge was San Francisco’s last was thanks to a bad challenge by Grant McCray way back in the 5th inning.
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Down 4-0, Angels’ starter José Soriano with runners on first and second and nobody out, McCray saw a 1-0 fastball as off the plate and away. When Wendelstedt called it as strike one, McCray challenged it immediately.
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Besides the fact that he was wrong, there’s some problems with McCray’s thinking here.
First off, the difference between a 1-1 count and a 2-0 count doesn’t do much in terms of swinging the outcome of the at-bat. Reversing the call here doesn’t save McCray from being called out, nor does it directly guarantee he reaches first.
Secondly, McCray is hitting out of the 9-spot. Sunday was just his second start of the year, his eighth game, his seventh plate appearance, and he’s yet to record a hit. No offense, but the likelihood of his bat providing no offense is high. While I get why a manager might not want to restrict any player from challenging specific balls and strikes, an unproven, bench piece should probably be discouraged from making split-second decisions in the heat of the moment. Save those challenges for the powerhouse guys!
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McCray got it wrong in the 5th, and the full consequences of that failed challenge wasn’t known until four innings later.
While Ramos got the bat, and challenge, taken out of his hands, that final strike-3 didn’t sink the Giants. They were swinging from behind, hanging on by their fingernails, living in the fairy land of conditional ifs because while they had no trouble creating opportunities (like in the 9th), they struggled to capitalize on them (like in the 9th).
Their lead-off batter reached base in 8 of the game’s 9 innings, but only once did the batter after him reach base. Their first hit with a runner in scoring position was Arraez’s 9th inning double.
Credit is due to Angels starter José Soriano and his bowling ball arsenal of sinker, splitter, knuckle curve, who allowed one run (unearned) over 5 innings pitched. He surrendered just three hits, one of those being a sun-double by Adames. While he walked three, he buckled down when it mattered with well-located offerings eliciting weak batted balls and unproductive outs.
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A perfectly placed splitter in the 3rd got Bryce Eldridge swinging to end the inning and strand two runners. In the 5th, after the first two Giants reached base, he struck out McCray (again, thanks to a well-located sinker) then got Arraez to roll weakly to second for what should’ve been a double play if not for a throwing error by shortstop Zach Neto. Looking back on the quality of contact, it’s not surprising that the only run they managed against Soriano was thrown in rather than batted in.
Even though he got hung with the loss and gave up four runs, the recently called-up Carson Whisenhunt held his own for the most part. He struck out 7 over 5 innings, including five in a row at one point. He had already bagged 15 whiffs by the end of the 3rd, the majority of those flails came on his signature change-up. By the end of his outing, 65% of the swings on the offspeed came up empty.
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As dominant as he was at times, Whisenhunt’s youth showed through at crucial points. In the 1st, after Mike Trout doubled, the veteran advanced to third when Whisenhunt sailed a fastball. The wild pitch allowed Trout to cross the plate on a groundout to short.
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Then in the 4th, Jorge Soler socked the first pitch of the frame over the wall in center field. The knock rattled Whisenhunt. The old adage that solo homers won’t beat you remains true — but what will beat a pitcher is walking the next batter after a solo homer, then giving up another bomb. Whisenhunt struggled locating his slider and fastball against Nolan Schanuel. Uncomfortable with his secondary offerings, he predictably went back to his change-up after the walk, and Jo Adell launched one 446 feet.
Adrian Houser took over in 6th and did an excellent job working around some errors to keep the Angels’ lead at three, but three runs was all they needed.
Milwaukee, with the second best record in the National League, comes to town tomorrow.
Sweep probably isn’t likely. Swept though?
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