Giants Baseball Insider

Michael Conforto, Heliot Ramos provide SF Giants highlights in 9-3 loss to Rangers

The SF Giants scored early, but missed several opportunities to score more in a loss to the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.

Marc Delucchi

Michael Conforto, Heliot Ramos provide SF Giants highlights in 9-3 loss to Rangers
Michael Conforto, Heliot Ramos provide SF Giants highlights in 9-3 loss to Rangers /
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The SF Giants lost to the Texas Rangers 9-3 on Saturday evening, dropping to 62-55 on the season. The Giants offense showed some signs of life, with veteran Michael Conforto delivering his best performance in over a month. But the team's woes in clutch situations wasted several prime run-scoring opportunities. The Giants are now only a game ahead of the Cubs for control of the second Wild-Card spot and are 8.5 games back of the Dodgers in the National League West.

SF Giants starting pitcher Alex Cobb throws a pitch against the Texas Rangers at Oracle Park on August 12, 2023.
SF Giants SP Alex Cobb throws a pitch against the Rangers on August 12, 2023 / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Unlike Friday night's pitcher's duel, both offenses managed to score a run in the first inning. In the top of the first inning, Giants starter Alex Cobb took a couple of hitters to settle in. While Rangers leadoff hitter Marcus Semien flew out, just missing a mistake, Corey Seager lined a solo home run to center field.

The Giants quickly evened the score in the bottom of the first inning. Wilmer Flores, who has spent the last month looking like the Giants' greatest right-handed hitter since Jeff Kent, lined a two-out double off Rangers starter Andrew Heaney. With a runner in scoring position, rookie catcher Patrick Bailey singled into left field. Third-base coach Mark Hallberg sent Flores home. The relay throw beat Flores to the plate by several seconds, but catcher Mitch Garver was unable to field a short hop, which allowed Flores to score safely.

Cobb should have had a 1-2-3 second inning, but center fielder Austin Slater seemed to lose a line drive in the sun. The ball bounced off Slater's glove and, for some reason, was ruled a double. Still, Cobb retired the next hitter to retire the side.

Heaney lost feel for the strike zone in the second inning, allowing a single to Conforto in between walks to Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos. Heaney struck out Mark Mathias but with the top of the order coming to the plate and only one out, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy went to his bullpen, calling upon right-handed sidearmer Grant Anderson. 

Giants manager Gabe Kapler has been aggressive deploying pinch-hitters throughout his tenure to maximize platoon advantages. With Joc Pederson and Blake Sabol available off the bench, it seemed like an opportunity to send one of them to the plate for Austin Slater, who is much more productive against southpaws. Instead, Kapler stuck with Slater and Anderson induced an inning-ending double play to end the inning.

After shutout innings from Cobb and Anderson in the third, the Rangers began squaring up Cobb once again. A mix of hard contact and good batted-ball luck allowed the Rangers to score three runs in the top of the fourth on five singles and a walk.

Conforto managed to close the gap a bit in the bottom of the fourth, golfing a slider from Anderson to right field for a towering home run. It was Conforto's 14th blast of the season and his first since July 8th.  The Giants need more from veteran hitters, like Conforto if they want to reach the postseason. He finished the day 2-for-3 with a walk.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler replaced Cobb with Alex Wood after another walk and two hits to start the fifth inning. Entering with the bases loaded and one out, Wood allowed two inherited runners to score. However, Wood righted the ship for 3.2 shutout innings before the wheels fell off in the top of the ninth. Wood allowed three runs before he was replaced by Jakob Junis to finish things out.

The Giants got two runners aboard with nobody out in the fifth and sixth innings but continued to miss opportunities with runners in scoring position. They did not score again. They finished the day 1-for-11 with at least one runner in scoring position.

While the game was out of reach, Ramos was responsible for a ninth-inning run for the second consecutive day. Ramos blasted his first career MLB home run off Brock Burke. With an exit velocity north of 110 mph, Ramos' blast travelled more than 420 feet.

The SF Giants will try to avoid getting swept on Sunday. The Giants will be sending ace Logan Webb to the mound against young Rangers righty Dane Dunning. First pitch at Oracle Park is scheduled for 1:05 PM Pacific.

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Marc Delucchi
MARC DELUCCHI

Marc Delucchi (he/they/she) serves as the Managing Editor at Giants Baseball Insider, leading their SF Giants coverage. As a freelance journalist, he has previously covered the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and McCovey Chronicles. He also currently contributes to Niners Nation, Golden State of Mind, and Baseball Prospectus. He has previously been featured in several other publications, including SFGate, ProFootballRumors, Niners Wire, GrandStand Central, Call to the Pen, and Just Baseball. Over his journalistic career, Marc has conducted investigations into how one prep baseball player lost a college opportunity during the pandemic (Baseball Prospectus) and the rampant mistreatment of players at the University of Hawaii football program under former head coach Todd Graham (SFGate). He has also broken dozens of news stories around professional baseball, primarily around the SF Giants organization, including the draft signing of Kyle Harrison, injuries and promotions to top prospects like Heliot Ramos, and trade details in the Kris Bryant deal. Marc received a Bachelor's degree from Kenyon College with a major in economics and a minor in Spanish. During his time in college, he conducted a summer research project attempting to predict the future minor-league performance of NCAA hitters, worked as a data analyst for the school's Women's basketball team, and worked as a play-by-play announcer/color commentator for the basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer teams. He also worked as an amateur baseball scout with the Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network (later renamed Evolution Metrix), scouting high school and college players for three draft cycles. For tips and inquiries, feel free to reach out to Marc directly on Twitter or via email (delucchimarc@gmail.com).

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