Giants Continue to Struggle, Drop Series Finale in the Bronx

Every year, like clockwork, the San Francisco Giants always seem to run into the most grueling of rough patches in which all goes wrong, usually in what is known as the "June Swoon."

The Giants thought they had ducked the summertime slump, posting a respectable record in June, but now in the month of July, the orange and black have fallen full-throttle into one of the worst stretches of the season, dropping the series finale against the New York Yankees in a 5-2 loss.

San Francisco is now 1-7 coming out of the All-Star Break, with series sweeps at the hands of the San Diego Padres and the Boston Red Sox to boot.

The type of day the Giants were going to have was foreshadowed in the bottom of the first when Carlos Beltran homered off of Jeff Samardzija in the first, just clearing the short porch in right field.

From the ear test, the ball did not have the same crack off the bat typically associated with a home run, sounding more like a weak grounder or a lay popup.

If one listens to the audio of the swing a second time, it wouldn't be out of the question to say the Yankee outfielder may have broken his bat, not unlikely considering Samardzija touched 96 MPH on the gun.

Whether it was the controversial short-porch in right, Beltran's strength, or both, the home run, which would have been a pop out in most ballparks, was a home run, and the Giants found themselves trailing 1-0 early.

While Beltran's homer was a cheap shot, teammate Mark Texiera's was of the opposite variety, launching his 200th career home run in his tenure with the Yankees over the right-center field fence and into the New York bullpen.

Samardzija settled down following the two early home runs to the Yankee veterans, facing the minimum in the next three innings to calm the waters, but ran out of juice in the sixth inning as the Yankees put up a three-spot to end The Shark's day.

Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner kicked off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and a single, putting runners on the corners with no outs.

Hicks scored as Jacoby Ellsbury grounded into a double play, and although the run scored, it looked like Samardzija minimized the damage for the entire inning, but the beef of the New York lineup had other plans for the San Francisco starter.

Beltran, Brain McCann, and Starling Castro hit consecutive back-to-back-to-back singles, Castro's plating Beltran, giving the Yankees a 4-0 lead and prompting Dave Righetti to come out to the mound.

Not even the wise words of Rags could help his starter, as the rising New York shortstop Didi Gregorius doubled to center, driving in McCann and knocking Samardzija out of the game with the Giants now trailing 5-0.

George Kontos came to the rescue in relief of Samardzija, registering the final out of the sixth inning, then following it up by pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth inning.

Kontos's effort earned him some brownie points amongst a bullpen which has had to eat up its fair share of innings during the past week and a half's worth of ballgames.

The reliever's solid day on the mound was one of the few morsels manager Bruce Bochy got to enjoy, as Nathan Eovaldi stifled the offense by allowing San Francisco's two and only runs over the 6.2 innings while striking out six.

Deep down inside, Bochy knew that he could only ride his bench for so long until the wheels started to fall off, and with the offense hitting brick wall after brick wall every game, the lack of Hunter Pence, Joe Panik, and Matt Duffy starting to show.

San Francisco's only offense of the day came by way of their the man himself, Buster Posey, who poked a single into right on a defensive swing on a 2-2 count to plate Ramiro Peña and Ángel Pagán.

Posey, who had the day off at catcher following yesterday's 12 inning marathon behind the plate, looked the part of an All-Star at the plate, totaling two hits in four at-bats.

Outside of the former MVP, the story remained the same that the Giants couldn't knock home runners in scoring position, batting 1 for 8 on the day.

On the trip as a whole, with runners in scoring position, San Francisco bat .125 in 72 at-bats.

Wasted opportunities did not come solely at the plate, as Mac Williamson, for all his superb hitting on this road trip, didn't make the smart baseball play in the eighth inning, getting thrown out trying to go from first-to-third on a ground out while down three.

Although Williamson had a two-hit day at the plate, the mistake on the basepaths will leave a bit of a black mark on a great day at the plate.

While the young right-fielder has enjoyed success at the plate, both of the Brandons have gotten off to a slow start following a pair of All-Star worth first halves.

Belt has been abysmal in on the road trip, only totaling two hits in 37 plate appearances with 17 strikeouts and only four walks.

The first baseman's batting average on the season has dropped 24 points since the final game of the first half of the season, going from .302 to .278.

Crawford didn't fare any better, only totaling six hits in 34 plate appearances while failing to drive in a single run.

A small silver lining was Ángel Pagán, who continued his excellent comeback season with a three-hit bid while scoring one of San Francisco's two runs.

Despite stumbling out the gate and no longer having the title as the team with the best record in baseball, the Giants still lead the Dodgers in the West despite Los Angeles cutting the games they trail San Francisco.

Following rough go around in southern California and the East Coast, the Giants will have the opportunity to regroup at home, where the weather will be cool and breezy compared to the hot and humid cities of Boston and New York.

San Francisco won't be able to escape the beating East Coast weather for long, as the team will fly out to Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami following a brief seven-game homestand.

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