SAN FRANCISCO — At the very bottom of baseball in stolen bases and plenty of other offensive categories, the Giants haven’t done much hitting or running, let alone in conjunction.
Manager Tony Vitello put Jesus Rodriguez in motion Friday night, and Jung Hoo Lee slapped a splitter below the strike zone into the outfield grass. Rodriguez advanced first to third with ease.
It was the kind of aggression the first-year manager has sought to snap his club out of its season-long struggle to get on the scoreboard. And, in appropriate fashion for the group so far, the effort produced exactly zero runs in the Giants’ 5-2 win over the Pirates.
“Everyone’s kind of working their butt off to try to find any kind of edge,” Vitello said. “But ultimately you have to have a guy get on base.”
Therein lies the truth: For the Giants to run, they have to walk.
And one particular tried and true method — laying off four pitches outside the strike zone, removing your protective gear and moseying up the first-base line — has largely eluded them.
Win or loss, day or night, it’s been the same result for the Giants their past three games: An egg in the walks column. Friday’s win was their third consecutive game without drawing a walk, a specific type of drought that’s occurred only 13 times in franchise history — twice now since 1976.
“I think that’s one of the biggest points of this year,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “Me personally, I haven’t been walking a lot. I think that kind of goes to trying to make stuff happen, and then kind of get in a black hole and it’s hard to get out of that.”
In Adames’ case, not a lot equates to six bases on balls in 155 plate appearances, tied with Casey Schmitt (4.0%) for the lowest walk rate on a team on pace to draw historically few.
San Francisco has walked 72 times in 38 games, or roughly an equivalent to 307 over a full season. In the franchise’s history, no team has ended a 162-game schedule with fewer than 392 (2009). Another 16 teams that played fewer than 162 games drew more than 307.
“I think things are going to come, especially when we start winning more games,” Adames said. “Things are going to be changing.”
One problem: It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario.
The Giants aren’t exactly striking fear in pitchers’ eyes. Their home run pace isn’t quite as abysmal (102, which would be 19th-fewest in franchise history post-deadball era), but they’ve given little reason for opposing catchers to set their targets on the corners.
As a result, no team has gotten more pitches in the strike zone — and it’s not particularly close. The Giants have seen 52.1% of their pitches over the plate; the second-highest team is 50.6%.
“Pitchers have been attacking us,” Adames said. “When you’re struggling, you go to the plate and you blink and it’s 0-2. It’s hard to draw a walk when you’re 0-2 [after] the first two pitches.”
It doesn’t help that the Giants are also offering at pitches outside the strike zone at the sixth-highest rate in the league (32.0%). Part of that has to do with roster construction.
No need to complain about Schmitt’s swing decisions when he has been carrying the offense. Luis Arraez, Lee and Rodriguez are all contact-happy, too, often while being the only cogs that seem to be working in Vitello’s lineups.
Still, the chasm between their batting average (.238, 17th) and on-base percentage (.284, 30th) hasn’t gotten any smaller. While they wait for the middle of their lineup to thaw, the Giants are going to scrounge for ways to score in every nook and cranny in their clubhouse.
Including, when the situation calls for it, the hit and run.
“It’s something we did in spring training. It’s something we’d like to [do],” Vitello said. “Ultimately you’ve gotta have a guy on base. One of those main characters. And then a strike-pumper on the mound. There’s been a lot of conversation about being more aggressive. That’s why I’m a fan of on-base percentage, and then part of it is just us pulling the trigger on some things.”
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