Giants offense, Keaton Winn struggle in 6-0 loss to Mariners

The SF Giants dropped their third consecutive series on Tuesday, losing 6-0 to the Seattle Mariners. Rookie Keaton Winn struggled early in his second career big-league start, while Mariners righty Logan Gilbert had his best outing of the season. With the loss, the Giants continued to slide in the National League West standings. They are now two games back of the Dodgers and five games back of the Diamondbacks.

The Mariners scored a run against Winn in each of his first three innings. J.P. Crawford led off the game with a double off the right-field wall followed by a Julio Rodríguez single. Crawford scored on a fielder's choice.

In the second, two hits, a walk, and a catcher's interference loaded the bases with nobody out for Seattle. A run scored on a fastball that bounced off catcher Patrick Bailey's glove and was ruled a wild pitch, although it could have easily been called a passed ball. However, Winn did not allow another ball out of the infield in the inning to limit the damage.

Then, in the third inning, Mike Ford, a left-handed hitting designated hitter who the Giants traded to the Mariners, blasted a solo home run over the right-field wall. Ford had himself quite the day against one of his former teams, going 4-4 with two doubles and a homer.

Throughout his time in the minors, Winn was a rare pitcher who was more consistently able to throw his splitter for strikes than his fastball. His splitter is nasty enough to induce plenty of soft contact and even some swings and misses, but without great command, Winn often lets his splitter float up into the middle of the zone. The next step in Winn's development will likely require him to begin locating his fastball more consistently, thus lessening his reliance on the split or be more precise locating his splitter.

Winn finished his outing with a perfect fourth inning. There was a time when the Giants would have given Winn a chance to try and right the ship. The ability to bounce back from a rough start and still work through the middle innings is a key component of sticking in a starting rotation. But the Giants stayed true to Winn's usage throughout the season, removing him after 67 pitches.

The Giants have not allowed Winn to throw more than 70 pitches in a game this season. Perhaps there are some health benefits to limiting pitch counts, but the Giants built Winn up to 90 pitches last season in his first year back from Tommy John surgery.

This seems more in line with a shift in the organization's player development plan. One that likely makes it easier for players like Winn to be effective in the majors sooner but also gives them fewer opportunities to develop the ability to be effective on pitches 80-110 and last three times through a lineup.

Sean Manaea replaced Winn and continued looking like a solid option out of the bullpen. He allowed one run on four hits with a strikeout across two innings of work.

Manaea has made 12 appearances since his last start. During that time, the veteran lefty has posted a 3.45 ERA (1.95 FIP) with 41 strikeouts and just seven walks in 31.1 innings pitched. The Giants have been resistant to let any pitcher other than Webb, Cobb, or DeSclafani. With a pair of lefties in the bullpen (Scott Alexander and Taylor Rogers) and another starter hitting the injured list this week (Anthony DeSclafani), it's worth wondering if Manaea will get another opportunity to start.

Jakob Junis allowed the Mariners to add two more runs on a two-run bomb by A.J. Pollock in the top of the eighth inning, but the Mariners offense had already given Gilbert more than enough run support.

The Giants' lineup looked overmatched against the former first-round pick and connected on just two hard-hit balls that traveled more than 100 feet. Gilbert primarily relied on his 95-98 mph fastball and his signature slider. The Giants missed more than half of their swings against Gilbert's slider on Tuesday afternoon and whiffed 21 times over the course of his outing.

A Mike Yastrzemski double in the bottom of the fourth was the only Giants extra-base hit on the day. Overall, Gilbert surrendered just five hits and zero walks during his complete game shutout while striking out seven.

Now 46-40 on the season, the SF Giants will look to avoid a sweep against the Mariners on Wednesday night. Alex Cobb will start for the Giants. The Mariners have not yet announced their starting pitcher. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM Pacific.