PHOENIX — As soon as the Giants’ season seemed to have turned around, they hit their worst skid yet. With one swing off Randy Rodriguez, Pavin Smith sent the Giants to their fifth straight loss, 4-2, in walkoff fashion to begin their series against the Diamondbacks. After stranding the go-ahead run 90 feet away when a replay review went the other way, the Giants handed the bottom half of the inning over to their young flamethrowing reliever, who struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
to begin the inning but served up two straight hits to send the Giants back to their hotel in disappointment. The loss was the Giants’ fifth in a row, sending them to 29-32, their worst streak of the season, negating strong offensive efforts from Heliot Ramos and Brett Wisely and 42⁄3 innings of relief from Spencer Howard. Auditioning for the opening in the rotation created by Blake Snell’s latest ailment, Howard wasn’t quite as effective as his first appearance of the season, when he blanked the Phillies for four innings last week, but still limited the Diamondbacks to only two runs over 42⁄3 innings.
Six of the Diamondbacks’ first nine balls in play against Howard were struck at 100-plus mph, including Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s solo shot that put Arizona ahead 1-0 one batter into his outing. But after Eugenio Suarez tripled and scored a second run in the inning, Howard settled in to retire 11 of the final 13 batters he faced.
Moved into the leadoff spot for the first time in his major-lea.
