Giants' Adames reaches milestone but sloppiness proves costly in loss to Guardians

Curtis Pashelka, Bay Area News Group on Aug 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Willy Adames hit a special career milestone on Thursday as he hit the 200th home run of his major league career in the fourth inning of the Giants’ game against the Cleveland Guardians.

Unfortunately for Adames, he also committed the 137th error of his career, and his 18th of the season, in the first inning when he couldn’t field a sharp ground ball that might have resulted in an inning-ending double play.

The miscue would later allow the Guardians to tack on a third run, something the Giants were unable to overcome in a 5-2 loss at Progressive Field.

The Giants also gave away a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, as they were unable to complete a rundown with Petey Halpin stranded between first and second base.

Infielder Osleivis Basabe could not hold onto the ball as he chased Halpin toward second base, and Halpin, after advancing to third base on a wild pitch by JT Brubaker, scored on a base hit by Brayan Rocchio.

Giants starting pitcher Landon Roupp recovered from the rocky start and was charged with three earned runs allowed over 5 1/3 innings. But the Giants still lost their sixth straight series as they were held to two runs or less for the 45th time in 127 games this season.

The Giants have now lost each of Roupp’s last six starts and 17 of the last 19 games he’s been on the mound.

After Jose Ramirez and Nathaniel Lowe each collected an RBI, Angel Genao hit a sharp grounder up the middle. But Adames could not cleanly field the ball, and one batter later, ex-Giants catcher Patrick Bailey singled to score Ramirez for a 3-0 Cleveland lead.

It was hardly the start Roupp wanted. Over his last four outings before Thursday, Roupp was 0-4 with a 6.52 ERA, allowing 14 earned runs and 15 walks in 19 1/3 innings. On Thursday, he threw 39 pitches in the first two innings.

Meanwhile in the early going, the Giants barely made contact against Cleveland starter Gavin Williams, who struck out six of the first nine batters he faced, including four on his sweeper and two with a four-seam fastball that touched 100 mph.

Rafael Devers, though, singled to center to lead off the fourth for the Giants’ first hit, then Adames hammered a 97-mph Williams fastball over the right-center field wall for his 20th home run of the season and 200th of his career.

Adames is the first Giant to reach the 20-homer mark as a shortstop in multiple seasons since Brandon Crawford had 24 in 2021 and 21 in 2015, and is the first to do it in two straight seasons since Rich Aurilia had 20 homers in 2000 and 37 the following year.

For the game, the Giants managed just five hits, struck out 13 times and left nine runners on base, including two in both the top of the eighth and ninth innings. The Giants struck out 40 times during the three-game series, which Cleveland won two games to one. San Francisco, which earned a 1-0 win on Wednesday, has now lost seven straight rubber games on the road.

The Giants now begin a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The games will be Devers’ first in Boston since June 2025, when he was traded by the Red Sox to the Giants for Jose Bello, James Tibbs III, Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks.