'There’s games you should win': Giants slip ahead of daunting road trip

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants took two of three games from the MLB-worst White Sox this week, but falling short of a sweep still qualified as a missed opportunity for a team that needed to bank as many wins as possible heading into a daunting stretch in the schedule.

San Francisco was unable to secure a happy flight to Seattle after dropping a 6-2 decision in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale at Oracle Park, which snapped a three-game winning streak and left the Giants four games behind the Braves (pending their evening result against the Phillies) for the third and final National League Wild Card spot.

“Obviously, we’re at the point in the season where you can’t let games slip away,” right-hander Logan Webb said. “It was a much-needed win today to get the sweep. We came out flat, plain and simple.”

The path to a potential playoff berth gets much more difficult from here. The Giants (65-64) have the toughest remaining schedule in the NL (.529 combined winning percentage) the rest of the way, with 27 of their final 33 games coming against teams with a winning record. It’ll be a major test for San Francisco, which has gone only 27-38 against teams over .500 this season.

The Giants have fared better against losing teams (38-26), but they couldn’t add to their ledger against the White Sox after wasting a strong start from Webb, who permitted only two runs on five hits over eight innings.

Webb threw 93 pitches and departed with the game tied, 2-2, but San Francisco’s bullpen couldn’t hold it from there, with rookie relievers Erik Miller and Spencer Bivens combining to give up four runs to the White Sox in the top of the ninth.

Webb leads the Majors with 172 2/3 innings this year and normally would have lobbied to stay in the game, but he’s been feeling sick this week, so the Giants didn’t feel comfortable overextending him.

“After the seventh, we were considering taking him out, and he said one more,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He knew that was it.”

“Obviously, I want to go out there as many innings as I can, but I think it was kind of predetermined before the game that there was going to be some kind of pitch count,” Webb said.

The Giants’ top two high-leverage relievers -- Tyler Rogers and closer Ryan Walker, who lead the Majors in appearances this season, respectively -- were also unavailable, prompting Melvin to summon Miller to face the top of Chicago’s lineup in the ninth. Miller retired Nicky Lopez on a flyout, but he issued back-to-back walks and then gave up a single to Andrew Vaughn to load the bases.

San Francisco got within an out of escaping the jam after Miller struck out Gavin Sheets, but Bivens couldn’t preserve the tie after being brought in to face the right-handed-hitting Korey Lee. Bivens got ahead, 0-2, before misplacing a sinker that Lee bounced up the middle to put the White Sox in front, 4-2. Lenyn Sosa followed with another two-run single to left field to help Chicago win for only the fourth time in 30 games in the second half.

Melvin could have brought in Jordan Hicks to face Lee instead of Bivens, but Hicks hasn’t pitched with inherited runners since moving back to the bullpen, so Melvin preferred to save him for the possibility of extra innings.

“We felt like we were in a good spot today to get through it,” Melvin said. “I felt good about Bivens. He’s come in and done a nice job for us. He gets 0-2, and just couldn’t get the final strike on [Lee]. I guess the last pitch was probably more middle than he wanted it.”

San Francisco’s listless offense, meanwhile, couldn’t take some pressure off Webb and the bullpen, recording only six hits while going only 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The Giants’ lineup entered Wednesday averaging only 3.09 runs per game since Aug. 9, the second-lowest mark in the Majors ahead of only the Rays (2.91).

The Giants will have their work cut out for them on their upcoming six-game road trip to Seattle and Milwaukee, where they’ll face two contending clubs that rank 1-2, respectively, in the Majors in ERA.

“We’re just going to try to bring it every day,” Webb said. “That’s all we can really do. I think the effort that we had today was not great. That’s me, too. I gave up a leadoff triple. We all just have to put our heads down and try to win every game. I know that’s kind of hard to say. You can’t win 30-something straight. No teams have done that. But you have to think that way.

“There’s games you should win, and today was one of them.”