Throughout a 10-game road trip that presented the Giants with relentless challenges and a slim margin for error, Gabe Kapler's club consistently gave too much away.
The Giants blew late leads on getaway days in Colorado and Los Angeles, squandering chances to split a series with the first-place Rockies and steal a series from the favorites in the National League West, the Dodgers.
So when the Giants roared back from a four-run deficit to even their three-game set in Houston with a 7-6, 10-inning win on Tuesday against the Astros, it set the stage for an inexperienced team to prove it could take a step forward and grow from prior mistakes.
In a 5-1 loss to the Astros on Wednesday, the Giants managed to go backward.
Bullpen blowups have been all-too-common for a Giants team with an endless list of inexperienced relievers and it was rookie left-hander Caleb Baragar, who allowed the Astros to take control of the series finale.
With the game tied 1-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, Baragar surrendered three consecutive singles, allowed the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch and then watched a three-run home run hit by catcher Martin Maldonado sail into the Crawford Boxes in left field at Minute Maid Park.
Maldonado's home run marked the 16th consecutive game in which a Giants pitcher has allowed a home run, the longest streak in franchise history.
Outside of sloppy defense and struggles against opposing starting pitchers, soul-crushing homers were a theme of the Giants' longest road trip of the season. Rockies sluggers Daniel Murphy and Charlie Blackmon combined to put Thursday's game out of reach with home runs out to right field at Coors Field before Dodgers outfielders A.J. Pollock and Mookie Betts each clubbed three-run shots in a demoralizing defeat at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.
Even when Baragar entered a tie game, Kapler likely figured outlasting the Astros would be a tough task because starting pitcher Trevor Cahill only recorded 1 2/3 innings in his Giants debut.
The Giants added Cahill to the roster a few hours before first pitch Wednesday so he could start in place of injured right-hander Jeff Samardzija. To clear space for the former Oakland A's All-Star, the Giants designated another former A's righty, Andrew Triggs, for assignment.
Kapler said pregame the Giants could realistically expect Cahill to throw around 45 to 50 pitches Wednesday and the right-hander ultimately finished the afternoon with 55 against a patient Astros lineup that averaged nearly six pitches per plate appearance against the veteran starter.
Cahill wasn't particularly sharp over 1 2/3 innings against Houston as he walked four hitters, but he didn't allow a run in his 2020 debut and received immediate an assist from reliever Shaun Anderson. After Cahill walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Anderson entered an induced an inning-ending popout from Astros leadoff hitter George Springer to preserve the Giants' 1-0 lead.
An inconsistent Giants lineup hammered the Astros bullpen in the first two games of the series, but was without two of its top performers against Houston on Wednesday. Infielder Donovan Solano, who leads the club with a .458 batting average, missed his second straight game due to abdominal soreness. Austin Slater, who was originally slotted into the third spot in the lineup against Zack Greinke, was a late scratch for undisclosed reasons.
The Giants did have the services of center fielder Mike Yastrzemski who went 3 for 4 with a triple and a run, but the team's lineup against right-handed starting pitchers lacks a punch. Each of the bottom six hitters in Wednesday's starting lineup began the day with an OPS under .600, including three veterans in Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence who now have an OPS below .500 through one-third of the season.
Crawford, Belt and Pence likely won't be on the roster the next time the Giants expect to contend for a division title, but their performances in 2020 haven't done much to help the club stay competitive in a condensed 60-game season.
While Crawford and Pence played pivotal roles in Wednesday's comeback win, their contributions were atypical for a team that returns to Oracle Park for a three-game set against the Oakland A's in last place in the National League West.
