Melvin calls team meeting to address 'unacceptable' play

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants erupted for 13 runs in a rare blowout win over the Brewers on Wednesday. They haven’t managed to push across a single run since then.

San Francisco saw its scoreless streak extend to 27 innings following an 8-0 loss to the Padres at Oracle Park on Saturday night, marking the first time the club has been shut out in three consecutive games since June 23-25, 1992.

The Giants recorded only five hits against Joe Musgrove and two Padres relievers and have tallied a mere 14 over their last three games combined, tied for their fewest over any three-game span this season. The continued offensive futility -- coupled with poor pitching and defense -- prompted manager Bob Melvin to hold a team meeting to try to halt a spiral that has resulted in 14 losses in the Giants’ last 21 games.

Is Melvin still seeing the same effort and energy levels from his club, which is now five games under .500 (72-77) and appears to be careening toward a third straight losing season?

“It never looks like it when you don’t hit and you get shut out three times in a row,” Melvin said. “It doesn’t look that way. It feels like it’s more focus. Guys are running hard down the line. They’re preparing for the game. It just looks awful when you’re not hitting and you’re playing awful defense. No excuses. It’s unacceptable.

“It’s the big leagues. It looks like instructional league at times.”

While the Giants’ offensive issues continue to loom large, Melvin said he was most disappointed by the sloppy defense, which was evident from the beginning of Saturday night’s game. After Jurickson Profar reached on a two-out single off rookie Mason Black in the top of the first inning, Manny Machado crushed a double that went over the head of Heliot Ramos, who started in center field to give a banged-up Grant McCray a breather.

Ramos quickly recovered the ball, but the Giants weren’t properly aligned to receive his cutoff throw. Ramos attempted to throw to second base, but Marco Luciano -- who is learning the position on the fly -- ended up drifting into center field on the play, leaving shortstop Brett Wisely to try to step in as the cutoff man.

Wisely -- who started in place of an ailing Tyler Fitzgerald -- ran over and attempted to backhand Ramos’ throw, but the ball got past him before first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. recovered it at second. The botched cutoff allowed Profar to score from first and give the Padres an early lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“When you’re not in position on relays like we were in the first inning, it looks really bad at the big league level,” Melvin said. “I know we’ve got some guys playing out of position. Wisely’s not a shortstop, even though he’s played a good shortstop this year. Luci’s learning the position at second base. But still, that’s not Major League quality what we did tonight.”

“We’ve just got to be better,” said Ramos, who also made a poor throw from center on Machado’s bases-loaded single in the sixth. “That’s it. [Melvin’s] right. There’s nothing else you can do. We’ve been playing good baseball all year. It’s been a tough year, too. We want to be better. We want to do better. There’s no excuses. We’ve just got to be better.”

The Giants have faced two tough Padres pitchers in Dylan Cease and Musgrove over their last two games, but Ramos said the lineup still has to find ways to produce and snap out of its collective funk.

“We’ve just got to do better,” Ramos said. “We just got to try to score some runs. If something is not working, we’ve got to go the other way and try something different. I feel like every team struggles, but not this bad. We’ve got to be better as a team and individually as well. Because at the end of the day, for us to be great, we all have to be on the same page.”

Melvin said he plans to be more proactive about having the Giants work on relay throws prior to games to try to tighten up the defense and get them back on track over the final half of September.

“It almost feels like it’s cratering here,” Melvin said. “[There’s] only a couple of weeks left in the season, and we’ve got too much at stake. We’ve accomplished too much, even though it’s been disappointing as a whole. But we’ve accomplished too much to just start playing baseball like this. As a staff, we have to try to do something about that.”