SAN FRANCISCO -- The starting pitcher sets the tone for every game, and as Giants manager Bruce Bochy said after Wednesday's 9-2 loss to the Pirates, left-hander Jonathan Sanchez didn't set a particularly good one.
Sanchez exited after only 4 1/3 innings, having displayed questionable stamina and inconsistent stuff, and the Giants couldn't build on Tuesday's six-run outburst to support their struggling fifth starter in AT&T Park.
The tone seemed fitting, however, given the way the Giants struggled and stumbled through a 3-7 homestand, one that Bochy admitted had "shaken" the confidence of the players in the home clubhouse. With the loss and the series defeat, the Giants dropped three straight home series for the first time since 2008, when the club lost six straight sets from May 12 to June 12. And with a win over Houston on Wednesday night, Arizona could take the National League West lead away from the Giants for the first time since June 25.
"When you're in something like this, you think, 'Are we going to come out of this?'" Bochy said. "We will. I really believe we will. I believe this offense will come out of it, too, but it's got to start with the pitching. That's our strength."
But it was the Giants' weakness Wednesday afternoon, as Sanchez walked four batters and saw all of them score. He was wildly erratic from inning to inning, twice sitting down the side in order on 15 pitches or fewer and allowing the Pirates to score in the other three innings in which he appeared.
Sanchez allowed five runs (four earned), including a two-run home run, while striking out six. As is often the case with Sanchez, his walks came back to haunt him.
Sanchez issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Andrew McCutchen. The Pirates center fielder promptly stole second and scored on Ryan Ludwick's line-drive single to left, giving Pittsburgh an early lead. McCutchen drew three walks and scored four runs, slamming a two-run homer off Sanchez in the third. The left-hander also gave up an unearned run on Matt Diaz's single to center in the third and a fifth-inning RBI single by Garrett Jones.
"We knew the statistics on him about walking guys, so we wanted to just be patient. Wait on a pitch to hit," McCutchen said. "That was the plan we kept throughout the whole game. We got him out of there pretty early."
Sanchez has not made it out of the fifth inning in his last four Major League starts, a troubling statistic that stirred concerns about his stamina and his future in the starting rotation. Bochy didn't want to speculate about Sanchez's next start but admitted he was concerned about Sanchez's physical condition given his short outings since returning from the disabled list.
"We have to be a little concerned because we need [the fifth starter] guy to help us win a ballgame, too," Bochy said. "We haven't had a good start there in I don't know how many now."
Sanchez, meanwhile, believes he can be the same pitcher who posted a 1.17 ERA last September, when the Giants needed him the most. But he also knows one thing has changed since then.
"Last year I didn't get hurt. This year, I'm just struggling a little bit," Sanchez said. "But I know I can be that pitcher I was in August and September last year."
It would also behoove the Giants to start hitting in key situations like they did toward the end of last year. They managed only two runs Wednesday off Pirates right-hander Jeff Karstens: Pablo Sandoval's first-inning solo homer to right -- the Giants' 19th straight home run without a runner on base, tied for the all-time Major League record with the 1914 Phillies -- and Orlando Cabrera's RBI single that scored Aubrey Huff in the fourth.
The Giants went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, putting them at just 7-for-58 (.121) over their last seven games and a paltry 23-for-143 (.161) over their last 20 contests.
"It's tough to go through a stretch like this. It's tough not to hang your head," outfielder Cody Ross said. "We've got to play like champions, and we're not doing that. We've kind of fallen into a rut, and it seems like we can't dig our way out. We've got to do something."
One thing they won't be doing, Bochy said, is making any dramatic changes. They will hope Carlos Beltran (strained right wrist) and Nate Schierholtz (right hip flexor) are ready to go when they begin a 10-game road trip Friday in Florida, but Bochy isn't going to press the panic button with his lineup.
Nor will the players give up on themselves, even as their frustration with their performance and their recent record continues to build. Ross admitted Thursday's off-day couldn't be coming at a better time, and it will give the Giants a chance to start over Friday -- and set a different tone for the remainder of their season.
"We'll bounce back. We've got a lot of heart and a lot of fight on our team. Nobody in here has forgotten that," Ross said. "Other people might have, but we don't. We're going to continue to go out there and play hard and work to get back to where we need to be."
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