Samardzija, 'pen can't hold back Rangers

SAN FRANCISCO -- The first homestand of the season was a show of resiliency for the Giants, who erased three deficits of at least four runs over their first six games at Oracle Park. They couldn’t overcome a fourth against the Rangers on Sunday afternoon, as their comeback bid fell short in a 9-5 loss following a shaky seventh inning from their bullpen.

Down 5-1, the Giants battled back to tie the game on Evan Longoria and Chadwick Tromp’s first home runs of the season in the sixth. But relievers Andrew Triggs and Tyler Anderson couldn’t keep Texas at bay, surrendering four runs -- including a three-run shot by Joey Gallo -- to sink the Giants at Oracle Park.

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Triggs, who was recalled from the Giants’ alternate training site prior to the game to replace the injured Drew Smyly on the roster, opened the seventh with three consecutive walks to load the bases for the Rangers. The 31-year-old right-hander was making his first Major League appearance since May 17, 2018, after missing all of last season while recovering from thoracic outlet surgery.

“Triggs has a history of throwing strikes,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think the one thing that we generally depend on when he’s on the mound is for him to induce contact, get ground balls and throw strikes. So it was a bit of an uncharacteristic outing for him.”

Kapler summoned Anderson to face Willie Calhoun, who drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. Gallo followed with the knockout punch, crushing an 0-2 fastball over the right-center-field wall for a three-run homer.

Following a 3-3 homestand, the Giants (5-5) will now hit the road for their longest road trip of the season, a 10-game swing to Colorado, Los Angeles and Houston. It will be a big test for the Giants as they attempt to keep themselves competitive throughout this 60-game regular season.

“I think we’ve had some games that we’ve played particularly well,” Kapler said. “I think we’ve shown the ability to come back from being down in a game; that’s very encouraging. We’ve shown some resilience. We’ve made some adjustments; that’s part of being a good baseball team and I think we have plenty of things to work on.”

Jeff Samardzija delivered the longest start by a Giants pitcher this year, but it wasn’t the most effective. The veteran right-hander gave up five runs over 5 2/3 innings, becoming the first member of the rotation to make it through the fifth.

Samardzija yielded three runs in the second, but he went on to retire seven consecutive batters before giving up a leadoff single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the fifth. Facing leadoff hitter Shin-Soo Choo a third time through the order, Samardzija misplaced a cutter that the Rangers outfielder hammered out to McCovey Cove for a two-run shot that put the Giants in a 5-1 hole.

“Just a bad pitch selection, my [bad] there to Choo,” Samardzija said. “We’ve seen him going the other way, but that was more so earlier in the count. In a hitter’s count, we have to think he’s looking to get ahead of one there. Maybe something away would have been easier, maybe would have gotten a cheap out.”

Samardzija has now allowed 10 runs over 9 2/3 innings in his first two starts of 2020, though he revealed that he’s been dealing with a blister on his pitching hand that prevented him from throwing his splitter on Sunday. He brought back his changeup against the Rangers, but he admitted that he’s missed his splitter, which generated a 41.7 percent whiff rate last season, the highest of any pitch in his repertoire.

The absence of his splitter helps explain why Samardzija has been struggling to miss bats. He’s struck out only two of the 42 batters he’s faced this season.

“No excuses, that’s the way it goes over the season,” Samardzija said. “You have to learn to adjust and make adjustments. It was good to throw that changeup. We got some good action on it.

“But I love that split, so it’ll be good to get it back.”

Hunter Pence put the Giants on the board in the second inning after tripling and scoring on Longoria’s sacrifice fly. The hit snapped an 0-for-23 start to the season for the 37-year-old veteran, who batted cleanup against Rangers left-hander Kolby Allard on Sunday.

The other offensive highlight came courtesy of Tromp, who tied the game, 5-5, with his first career Major League home run, a two-run shot off Texas reliever Jesse Chavez in the sixth.

Tromp has drawn plenty of attention in his native Aruba since debuting with the Giants last week, but he said his phone wasn’t exactly blowing up following his milestone home run.

“My family knows how much I hate losing,” Tromp said. “So they tried to be reasonable.”