Giants’ baserunning errors prove costly on crucial day in playoff race. Originally published on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Two pickles left a bitter taste for the Giants after their 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at Oracle Park.

Matt Chapman couldn’t do much more to put San Francisco in a position to beat Detroit and extend the Giants’ winning streak to five in a row. The four-time Gold Glove winner third baseman played his usual sensational defense and was almost a one-man show at the plate.

When the Tigers gained an immediate advantage with a home run that bounced off the left outfield wall and into the stands, Chapman responded by giving the lead back to the Giants and rookie starter Hayden Birdsong by hitting a line drive to center field with the bases loaded, scoring two runs. Chapman’s single to right field, which he hit at 109.7 mph off his bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, cut the Giants’ deficit to runs, and he continued his stormy day in the batter’s box in the eighth inning.

With the Giants trailing by one, Chapman hit a ball to the center field wall and ran around the bases for a triple to score a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. On the next pitch, Chapman got into trouble on the base paths and still couldn’t believe his mistake after the Giants lost.

Mark Canha hit a grounder straight to shortstop Javier Baez, and Chapman uncharacteristically misjudged the ball’s trajectory and sprinted toward home plate. He quickly got into a rundown that ended with him sliding headfirst well short of home plate, giving the Giants the first out of the inning.

“Chappy tries to make something happen, and he usually does it well,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “He probably got a little too excited about a ball that looked like a chopper at first and probably thought it was a little over the top.”

A disappointed Chapman immediately admitted that he thought the ground ball would require more movement from Baez, resulting in a difficult throw that meant an easy out for the shortstop. Chapman lay with dirty knees, palms up, and eyes closed, and took a while to get up after being taken out of the game by pitcher Brenan Hanifee.

Also, his words were much harsher than Melvin’s.

“I was disgusted with myself for doing that,” Chapman said. “I was fine. I just laid there for a minute because I was a little out of breath. And then I was just disappointed that it turned out that way.”

Canha got to second base on Chapman’s decision to baserun, but then made a similar mistake right after. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey hit a grounder back to Hanifee, who turned and immediately saw Canha running to third base. Hanifee threw the ball to Baez at second base, who chased Canha before handing it off to third baseman Gio Urshela, who struck out Canha for the second out of the inning. A groundout by Jerar Encarnacion ended what seemed like a promising inning and turned it into pure frustration.

After the defeat, Canha sat at his locker, looking distraught and shaking his head at himself.

Mental errors on the basepaths were one reason the Giants missed opportunities to catch up to the Tigers and provide their home fans with even more drama in the late innings. Although the Giants have been one of the best teams in baseball recently, their lack of productivity with runners in scoring position is appalling.

Giants hitters hit 3 of 14 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base against the Tigers. They hit 0 of 5 with three groundouts and hit fielders’ choice twice between the seventh and eighth innings. Since July 25, the Giants are batting .193 (31 of 161) with runners in scoring position and have an OPS of .576, which is the lowest in the entire National League.

Over that time period, only one team in the entire Major League was worse than the Giants when it came to runners in scoring position.

“I don’t think you can say we should have won the game just because we had one or two outs on the bases,” Melvin said.

Every play and every decision at bat, on the bases and in the field is extremely crucial for the Giants right now. A win on Sunday could have given them the lead in the battle for the third NL wild-card spot, as both the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves suffered losses earlier in the day.

The pressure has only increased ahead of Monday night as the Giants welcome the Braves to town for a key four-game series that begins with a duel of two outstanding left-handers, Blake Snell against All-Star veteran Chris Sale.

“Atlanta is ahead of us in the standings, but this game is no less important than tomorrow’s,” Melvin said. “Now everyone is important.”

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