SAN FRANCISCO _ Fewer than 24 hours after making their fans' hearts skip beats and their manager's hair fall out in a too-close-for-comfort, one-run win, the Giants looked ready to "torture" the home crowd in a different way.
For the first seven innings of Wednesday's matinee against the Oakland A's, the Giants were sleepwalking. Their pitches found barrels, their bats whiffed in the strike zone and they appeared destined to suffer a big, embarrassing blowout loss.
Then came a furious, five-run rally that induced the type of nail-biting, pressure-packed moments that "Giants torture" is all about.
Those moments, while compelling, were all-too fleeting. The Giants had dug a hole so deep that even one of the team's biggest rallies of the season couldn't help them escape it in a 9-5 defeat.
Rookie Mike Yastrzemski launched a three-run home run, veterans Evan Longoria and Stephen Vogt tacked on hits and outfielders Alex Dickerson and Kevin Pillar stepped to the plate with chances to tie the game in the eighth inning.
In his first at-bat back from the injured list, Dickerson recorded a RBI groundout. After delivering the Giants' only two hits in the first seven innings, Pillar struck out.
"That's a good bullpen over there so for us to climb back in and give ourselves a chance, that's all you can ask for in a game like that," Vogt said. "They did a great job of getting us on our heels early but we were able to string some at-bats together late and make it a game."
The Giants of 2010, 2012, 2014 and even 2016 grew accustomed to winning one-run games, thriving under pressure and ensuring the outcome would remain in jeopardy until the final pitch. This year's club has won a significant amount of games using a similar formula, but it has also tortured fans in different ways, most notably in defeats such as Wednesday's, where the Giants looked lifeless against a pitcher barely skating by.
It's been more than six years since right-hander Homer Bailey tossed a no-hitter against the Giants and in his past five seasons, Bailey has posted an ERA of 6.09. Against the Giants' lineup, throw out the numbers. There's no rhyme or reason to who they hit and who they don't.
The A's scored a run in the first, another in the second and two more in the third against rookie Tyler Beede to break Wednesday's game open early while the Giants managed just two hits in seven innings against Bailey. The journeyman matched the Giants' hit total against him, drilling a single to center and reaching on an infield single that brought home a run from third base in the second inning.
Twenty-eight of the 60 victories the Giants have earned this season have come in one-run games, but 17 of their 61 losses have come by a margin of at least five runs. The combination of close wins and maddening defeats has frustrated the team's front office, players and fans who still believe in the club's ability to make a run for a National League Wild Card berth, even if the odds have declined over the last two weeks.
The offensive troubles against pitchers such as Bailey are a concern for manager Bruce Bochy, but so too are the extensive struggles of his inexperienced starters.
"We're just trying to get (Beede) over the hump as far as him executing his pitches," Bochy said. "It's really good at times and then it gets away from him at times."
Ten different Giants pitchers have earned victories since the last time Beede, Shaun Anderson or left-hander Conner Menez received credit for a win. Starters Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija have carried the staff and kept the team within striking distance in the Wild Card race for the last month, but the trio of rookies attempting to fill out the back half of the rotation haven't helped the Giants gain any ground in the standings.
"There's no shortage of learning experiences and I've had a lot lately," Beede said. "I'm no stranger to adversity and certainly being able to learn at this level will teach me a lot down the road."
With Anderson eligible to return from the injured list on Sunday and Bumgarner already listed as the Giants' probable starter, the organization may elect to option Beede or move him to the bullpen following his fifth consecutive rough outing.
"We'll get together and talk about if we have to tweak anything," Bochy said.
If the Giants wait until Tuesday to activate Anderson, who is dealing with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, he could replace Beede in the rotation when the Giants open a three-game series in Chicago against the Cubs.
Swapping out Anderson for Beede may not make a significant difference for the Giants, who haven't received any consistency from the rookie right-handers in the last month. With veteran Johnny Cueto expected to return in the first week of September and Dereck Rodriguez set to rejoin the Giants rotation on Thursday in Arizona, the club may be able to shield some of the innings Anderson and Beede are expected to work anyway.
