SEATTLE — So much for that second-half reset.

A strong end to the first half gave the Giants a rare dose of good vibes to enjoy over the All-Star break, and a convincing win when play resumed gave them something to dream on.

The Giants’ Casey Schmitt celebrates after scoring a run Sunday against the host Mariners. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Reality returned over the weekend, which ended in a second straight defeat and a series loss to the Mariners, a team that looked totally overmatched in their first meeting just 72 hours earlier.

“It’s not ideal, obviously,” said Robbie Ray, who was out of the game by the fifth inning in his shortest start since May. “All we can do is come out tomorrow and put our best game forward.”

Ray didn’t record an out in the fifth inning, Casey Schmitt committed a pair of errors and Tony Vitello’s questionable managerial decision set up Luke Raley for a pinch-hit home run that ultimately proved decisive in Sunday’s 6-3 loss.

The Mariners are one of the majors’ worst teams against left-handed pitching (85 wRC+), and besides a two-run rally started by one of Schmitt’s errors, things had mostly gone smoothly using the combination of Ray and fellow southpaw Sam Hentges.

Everyone enjoying an immaculate summer afternoon at T-Mobile Park could have predicted that Seattle would sub in Raley or Dominic Canzone, two righty mashers with huge platoon splits, once the Giants went in the other direction with their pitching assignments.

Presumably that includes Vitello, who called on Adrian Houser to begin the sixth inning nonetheless. All 14 of Raley’s home runs entering the game had come against right-handed pitchers, and it took only two pitches for that number to increase to 15.

“We thought it’d be Canzone,” Vitello said.

Houser, one of the majors’ most homer-prone pitchers (1.63 per nine innings), took over a tied ballgame and served up a pair of home runs over two innings, putting the game out of reach for the Giants.

The Mariners’ Josh Naylor went 2-for-4 against the Giants on Sunday. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

He recorded one hard out, then left a changeup over the middle of the plate that Raley smashed over the 380-foot sign in right-center field. Cole Young, who hit the go-ahead homer the previous evening, blew the game open with a two-run shot to right the following inning.

Bryce Eldridge opened the scoring in the first inning with his second home run of the series — his 10th of the season — to straightaway center, and Heliot Ramos drove in Schmitt to give Ray a 2-0 lead when he toed the rubber for the first time.

Seattle tied the score at 2 in the fourth when Schmitt airmailed a throw to first base. The ball careened off the padding in foul territory and back onto the infield dirt, but nobody was at second base to contest the runner from advancing. Earlier, Schmitt let a slow, spinning grounder roll under his glove.

“If you look at today, I know he’s frustrated with it,” Vitello said of the typically surehanded Schmitt, who is filling in at third for the injured Matt Chapman. “But if you look at it in totality, he’s been really good.”

The Giants immediately responded to retake a 3-2 advantage in the top half of the fifth when Luis Arraez doubled home Willy Adames, who drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed into scoring position.

But just as it did less than 24 hours earlier, the lead evaporated, and so did any positive momentum the Giants had built before boarding their charter flight to Kansas City.

“Right now, it’s a bad day,” Vitello said. “Get on the flight and pouting on the flight isn’t going to change anything, so you do what you do on the flight — play cards, take a nap, whatever — and then when we land, it’s go time against the Royals.”

Giants pitcher Robbie Ray had his shortest outing since May. He struck out six in four innings before leaving in the fifth. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

What it means

Ray’s first time failing to complete five innings since May 31 came at a poor time, with only two more turns through the rotation to go until the Aug. 3 trade deadline, when he should be one of the top arms available.

He was at only 86 pitches when Vitello lifted him for Hentges, but he had surrendered his sixth and seventh hits of the game to begin the fifth, prompting the change.

“I thought he was good,” Vitello said. “… At the time it looked like a fresh arm would be better.”

Who’s hot

Eldridge spent his All-Star break at Disneyland, but he might think Seattle is the happiest place on earth after hitting at the typically unfriendly T-Mobile Park for the first time.

The rookie slugger gave the Giants their first runs of the second half with a homer in Friday’s 7-0 win, reached base three times with a pair of hits in Saturday’s 4-3 loss and bested the marine layer again in his first at-bat Sunday afternoon against Logan Gilbert.

“It was impressive what he did in the first inning, just where he hit it [dead center], the location of the pitch [down and in], how hard he hit it [107 mph] how loud it sounded [very],” Vitello said. “Just kind of picking up where he left off.”

Eldridge is riding a modest five-game hitting streak and has hit safely in six of his past seven games, with three homers and a 1.172 OPS over that stretch.

Who’s not

Two things you haven’t seen much of from Arraez: errors and strikeouts.

That is to say, it’s been an uncharacteristic start to the second half for the Giants second baseman. Arraez kept on hitting, with one apiece in all three games of the series, but flubbed a grounder for only his fifth error Saturday and, a day later, did something even more uncommon.

Arraez was 1-for-9 in his career against Gilbert, who got him to go down swinging in both of his first two trips to the plate. The contact artist had only struck out 16 times this season; it had been more than two years since he last struck out multiple times in one game — July 3, 2024.

Of course, Arraez wasn’t going to be held quiet for long, and he got his revenge in his third at-bat, lining a double down the left field line that gave the Giants a brief 3-2 lead in the fifth.

It was a good reminder that one or two at-bats won’t have any impact on how teams view him going into the trade deadline, when he is widely expected to be on the move.

Up next

The Giants jet to Kansas City, where they begin a series against what should be an angry Royals team Monday night. The home team ought to be out for vengeance after it was handed a 19-2 loss by the Padres while the Giants were closing out their series in Seattle.

Trevor McDonald and Tyler Mahle will make their first starts of the second half in the first two games of the series before the rotation flips back to Landen Roupp for the final game of the road trip. They’ll face All-Star Michael Wacha in the opening game of the series.