Giants seek answers against left-handed pitching

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants have excelled at maximizing platoon advantages in recent years, but injuries to two key right-handed bats -- Mitch Haniger and Austin Slater -- has left their lineup vulnerable to left-handed pitching early this season.

That glaring weakness was exposed yet again in a 7-0 blowout loss to the Mets on Friday night at Oracle Park, which dropped the struggling Giants to 6-13 on the season.

San Francisco, which has now lost seven of its last eight games, had no answers for Mets lefty Joey Lucchesi, who fired seven innings in his first Major League start since June 18, 2021. Lucchesi, a Newark, Calif., native, missed nearly two seasons while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, but he overmatched the Giants on Friday, striking out nine and allowing four hits, only one of which went for extra bases.

“We haven’t had success against left-handed pitchers thus far this season,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “In contrast, over the last couple of years, it’s one of our biggest strengths. It’s a problem that we have to solve.”

The Giants also continued to strike out at an alarming rate, whiffing 12 times to bring their season total to an MLB-high 205 through 19 games this season.

Right-hander Anthony DeSclafani was charged with the loss after giving up four runs on seven hits over five innings, including a towering two-run blast to Mets first baseman Pete Alonso in the fifth. Rookie center fielder Brett Wisely supplied one of the lone highlights of the evening, lining an opposite-field single in the third inning for his first career Major League hit.

Without Haniger and Slater, the Giants have looked helpless against lefties early this year. Their .575 team OPS against southpaws ranks 29th in the Majors, a steep drop-off from their .809 OPS against righties. Haniger and Slater have both begun rehab assignments with Triple-A Sacramento and are getting closer to making their season debuts, but there is still no concrete timeline for their returns, even with another opposing left-hander -- David Peterson -- looming on Saturday.

“I certainly understand why it creates urgency for us,” Kapler said. “It’s a reasonable question. We can try to accelerate as much as we can, but we can’t put our players at risk long-term. That’s always going to be the balance that we’re going to strike.”

Haniger, who signed a three-year, $43.5 million deal over the offseason, logged seven innings in left field on Friday and is 3-for-9 with one home run over his first three rehab games. Haniger appeared in only four Spring Training games before suffering a left oblique strain, so the Giants want to make sure he’s fully built up before activating him off the injured list.

Slater saw even more limited action this spring, appearing in only three Cactus League games due to injuries to his right elbow and left hamstring. He’s 5-for-15 with a home run and six RBIs through his first six rehab games, but he’s made only one start in the outfield thus far and received a day off on Friday.

While the Giants want to avoid rushing Haniger and Slater back, it’s clear they can’t get their bats back in the lineup soon enough.

“I think it’s a pretty big shift in the depth and the explosiveness of our lineup against left-handed pitching,” Kapler said. “It’s a pretty significant change. Austin is one of the better hitters in baseball against lefties. Haniger is arguably our biggest free-agent acquisition and a guy with a history of sticking right in the middle of a lineup and being a major force there. Once those guys are back for us, it’s a pretty deep and powerful lineup.”

The more pressing matter for the Giants is finding a way to snap out of their early season skid and avoid falling further below .500. Kapler has stressed the importance of staying even-keeled through challenging stretches of the season, but the Giants will have to turn it around quickly or risk being buried by their rivals in the competitive National League West.

“I definitely expect us to play better baseball going forward,” Kapler said. “That’s not negotiable. We have to do that to be competitive in our division. But I’m not concerned about where we are today in the [21st] day of April.”