Tatis tattoos Giants

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

The Giants' effort and focus, which had been a constant throughout this season of plucky play, came into question during their three-day meltdown at Shea Stadium.

Aaron Rowand, who has emerged as a clubhouse leader, was steaming after the Giants were shut out for the second straight night Wednesday and acknowledged he did not like what he saw on the field, "stuff that will be taken care of in-house," he promised.

Before the Giants fell 7-3 Thursday in their farewell to Shea, manager Bruce Bochy reminded the team in a meeting that nobody should begin a mental All-Star break before the real one starts after Sunday's game in Chicago. That he had to say it aloud signified a problem.

Randy Winn, no doubt echoing Bochy's message, said, "This isn't a time when you can start thinking ahead to days off. This is not a time to lose focus mentally."

Strange as it might sound after finishing with three hits for the third straight game, Thursday's sweep-completer marked a slight improvement for the Giants. For one thing, they scored. They also competed at the plate in ways they did not in the first two games. They came from behind to tie what had been a 3-0 game before the Mets won it with a four-run seventh against the Giants' bullpen.

The result was a fourth straight loss that dropped them a season-worst 14 games below .500.

"We just got outplayed," Bochy said. "We got outpitched, we got outhit and we didn't play good defense. This was probably our worst series of the year."

Rowand was angry after the Giants' second shutout Wednesday. He sneered his way through the clubhouse (at one point looking disdainfully at one group of players who seemed to be having a good time) and ultimately wound up in Bochy's office for a late-night meeting that included batting coach Carney Lansford.

Although he declined to be specific before Thursday's game about what angered him, he implied Giants hitters had not approached their assignments against starters Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana in the first two games of the series with the right frame of mind.

"When you're facing pitchers like we faced the last couple of nights, you really have to go up there and grind out your at-bats," said Rowand, who had two of the team's six hits over the first two games but was 0-for-3 with a walk Thursday.

"I had the privilege to face Pelfrey the last two years, and I spent a lot of time facing Santana in the American League. You can't go up without an approach or an idea of what you want to accomplish. You're not going to get any gimme at-bats against guys like that. Their stuff is way too good. You have to literally go up with the idea that 'I'm going to grind this at-bat, and I'm going to get a base hit no matter what it takes.'

"You have to come out with your 'A' game against this team or they're going to make you look bad. We have to go out today (Thursday) and put that type of effort forth. ... We all talk about the guys that we're facing. Like I told them, we're not facing an easy one today. John Maine, he's got good" stuff.

The Giants did pester Maine. After making a lot of early-count outs against Santana, the first four Giants and five of the first seven, forced the right-hander into 3-2 counts. They did not score in the first two innings but made Maine throw 45 pitches.

Down 3-0 in the fourth, John Bowker scored the Giants' first run in 22 innings - on a wild pitch. Bowker had doubled for the first Giants hit. They tied it an inning later with their only clutch hit of the series, a two-run double by Winn on a 3-2 pitch with two outs. The rally started when Barry Zito fell behind 0-2 but worked a walk.

But the Mets went ahead in the seventh when Fernando Tatis, who had a two-run double against Zito, hit a two-run homer off losing pitcher Sergio Romo. They added two unearned runs with Jack Taschner on the mound after Jose Castillo's second error extended the inning.

The road gets no easier for the Giants, who finish the first half by facing Jason Marquis, Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster in Chicago.

"Perfect. Roll with it," Rowand said. "This is probably the toughest stretch of games we'll play all season. It's going to be a good test of character, I think, for this team, how we're going to be able to battle through facing some of the best pitchers in the National League."