Adames, Chapman commit two errors apiece as SF Giants fall to Cubs
“CHICAGO — The Giants haven’t had many ugly losses this season. Monday’s loss qualifies as such.
Willy Adames and Matt Chapman committed two errors apiece resulting in six unearned runs and the offense was stifled by another left-handed starter as the Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 9-2, on a chilly night at Wrigley Field.
“It’s frustrating when you don’t make those plays, but all I can do is continue to work, continue to prepare and be ready for the next one,” said Chapman, who had two multi-error games last season. “Tomorrow’s a new day. It’s frustrating. We’re going to think about those tonight. It really makes me mad because I want to set the tone. It’s contagious. Just like hitting is contagious, when you’re not taking care of the baseball, guys put pressure on themselves.
“We just gave them another out and now we need to make another play. I don’t want to be the guy that does that. But, it’s baseball. It’s a long season, and sometimes, things come in bunches. I’m not going to dwell on it too much, but come back tomorrow ready to go and continue to be aggressive and try to make good plays.”
Those four errors resulted in atypical line scores. Landen Roupp, who said tonight was the best he’s felt all season, allowed four runs over five innings, only two of which were earned. Hayden Birdsong, who grew up as a Cubs fan, had odder numbers: 1/3 of an inning, five runs, one earned, two walks, no strikeouts, one home run.
The Cubs’ Matthew Boyd, in contrast to Roupp and Birdsong, had a fine line, allowing two earned runs over six innings with seven strikeouts to continue the Giants’ woes against lefties. Luis Matos was responsible for both of Boyd’s runs, hitting a two-run homer in the fourth for his second homer in his last three games.
“It’s probably one of those things that will even out over the course of the year,” Chapman said of the team’s struggles versus lefties. “We have a lot of righties in the lineup. We have a lot of guys that can hit lefties well. Could just be they are good pitchers. We have faced some really good pitchers, some really good teams. Boyd’s having a great start to this season. Some of it is that, and I think over the course of the season, we’ll make some adjustments and be able to capitalize on some of those lefties.”
Adames has now made seven errors this season. Entering play, only three defenders — Lenyn Sosa, Elly De La Cruz, Eugenio Suárez — had totaled that many errors. Adames has also graded out as one of baseball’s worst defenders by both defensive runs saved (-6) and outs above average (-5).
“Just had a tough night,” Melvin said. “He’s made some good plays here recently. He’s a solid defender.”
The calculus of Monday night’s ballgame looks far different if San Francisco played clean defense. Adames’ error in the first inning didn’t ultimately hurt the Giants, but the same can’t be said of Chapman’s fourth-inning error and Adames and Chapman’s respective errors in the sixth inning.
With two outs in the fourth, Chapman misplayed Pete Crow-Armstrong’s weakly-hit grounder, one that had a lot of abnormal spin, to extend the inning. Nico Hoerner followed Crow-Armstrong with a single, then Dansby Swanson drove them both home with another.
In total, Landen Roupp threw 12 additional pitches following Chapman’s error. Chapman said that in retrospect, he would’ve rather tried to continue charging the ball and fielding it with one hand opposed to stopping his momentum and fielding it with two.
“Chappy’s going to make that play nine out of 10 times,” Roupp said. “Definitely not worried about that. It caused the bigger inning, but just gotta move on from those things and continue to pitch and help those guys out when stuff like that happens and get out of the inning.”
More defensive miscues would be in store for San Francisco’s highly touted left side — miscues that contributed to a five-run sixth inning for Chicago.
Birdsong, who grew up three hours south of Chicago, began his first career outing at Wrigley Field by allowing a solo home run to Carson Kelly. Following a single by Crow-Armstrong, Adames and Chapman committed errors on back-to-back plays to keep the rally going.
Following those blunders, Nicky Lopez drew a bases-loaded walk, Happ hit a sacrifice fly and Kyle Tucker drew a walk to re-load the bases. Following Tucker’s walk, manager Bob Melvin called on reliever Spencer Bivens, who allowed a two-run single to Seiya Suzuki. By inning’s end, Chicago had a commanding 9-2 lead.
“Unfortunately, that’s just baseball,” said Chapman, a five-time Gold Glove Award winner. “Obviously, I do take a lot of pride in my defense. It’s something I think is the best thing that I can do to help the team. It’s just frustrating. It’s been a few games in a row here where we haven’t been able to make some plays. Luckily, those last few games, it didn’t affect the outcome. Today, it killed our momentum a little bit.”