SAN FRANCISCO — As an encore to one of their most complete offensive performances of the season, the Giants laid a dud Sunday.
A day after breaking out for a season-high 16 hits and a win, it took the Giants until the fifth inning to record their first against Diamondbacks starter Slade Cecconi, who helped hand them a 5-3 loss to split the four-game series between the National League West foes.
Manager Bob Melvin and third base coach Matt Williams were forced to watch the final two innings from the clubhouse after being ejected arguing with home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater.
Plagued by inconsistency through the first three weeks of the season, the Giants are undefeated when scoring at least five runs, as they did in Saturday’s 7-3 win, but they have reached that total only six times in 23 games, fewer than all but three teams (A’s, White Sox, Twins).
A two-run home run from Mike Yastrzemski, his first of the season, amounted to the Giants’ lone offense until Matt Chapman and Thairo Estrada manufactured a run with a pair of doubles against Diamondbacks closer Kevin Ginkel in the ninth. San Francisco fell to 3-8 when scoring three or fewer.
Only learning the opposing starter shortly before first pitch, the Giants should have caught a break when they learned it would be the rookie right-hander starting the series finale and not Merrill Kelly. Their longtime nemesis was scratched with shoulder soreness, so Cecconi was called up from Triple-A.
With hardly any experience against the spot starter — eight plate appearances among four players — the Giants took an aggressive plan of attack. Retiring them in order his first time through the lineup, Cecconi needed only 23 pitches to complete his first three innings and didn’t require more than 11 in an inning until the Giants broke through in the fifth.
It provided quite the contrast to the Giants’ starter, Jordan Hicks, who also didn’t allow a hit for three innings but still allowed a run on two walks and used almost triple the pitches (68). He settled in to complete five innings and was in line for the win until Erik Miller allowed the first two batters of the sixth to reach and score.
An astute 35,922 on hand recognized the significance of Thairo Estrada’s dribbler toward third base after Cecconi retired the first two hitters of the fifth. The volume rising as he raced down the first base line, Estrada beat the throw from Eugenio Suarez by half a step to give the Giants their first hit of the game.
Five pitches later, the Giants had broken through in the run column, too.
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Working a 3-1 count, Yastrzemski whacked a changeup over the outer half of the plate and pulled it into the air above right field. Leaving the bat at 95.5 mph, the pop fly caught just enough of the jetstream blowing out to McCovey Cove to carry an estimated 335 feet, just beyond the Levi’s Landing sign, to give the Giants a brief 2-1 lead.
Coming up with runners on second and third and two outs in the seventh after Arizona pulled ahead again, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo opted to intentionally walk Yastrzemski, loading the bases. Melvin countered with Jorge Soler, pinch-hitting for shortstop Nick Ahmed, but he bounced out to third, ending the threat.
The Diamondbacks extended their lead in the ninth against Nick Avila, after Scheurwater, the home plate umpire, ruled that Kevin Newman had fouled off a would-be strike three, prolonging the at-bat. Newman eventually poked a single into left field, scoring an insurance run.
Melvin was ejected protesting the call, the second time he has been given an early exit this season.
