SAN FRANCISCO — For the vitriol that they prompted from some portions of the fan base, and then the positive vibes that quickly became associated with them, the Giants’ controversial City Connect uniforms went out with a whimper on an appropriately foggy Tuesday night.
A tad more than 25,000 paying fans watched the Giants fall to the Brewers, 3-2, in the opening game of their series and their final time wearing the bright white and orange uniforms. Officially announced as 25,096, it was the fifth-lowest paid attendance of the season.
The Giants brought the potential winning run to the plate against Brewers closer Devin Williams in the ninth, with Heliot Ramos representing the tying run on second base, but Tyler Fitzgerald struck out swinging, unable to tap into the powers of the uniforms that once acted as good-luck charms.
Introduced before the 2021 season, the special set of uniforms are being phased out in favor of a new design for 2025. With the loss coming in the final Tuesday home game of the year, the team confirmed that it was also the official farewell to the current iteration of their City Connects.
“Most of the City Connects I’ve found to be a little unique,” manager Bob Melvin, who wore the Padres’ pink-and-green version the past two years, said politely before the game. “I think the winning percentage has been pretty good in them, so there’s always that risk, right?”
The Giants were part of the initial roll out of the Nike-designed concept that made its way to each of the 30 teams. The designs take inspiration from the defining characteristics of a team’s hometown, and designers focused on San Francisco’s famous fog, incorporating gradients meant to represent the marine layer on their numbers and the logo on their chest.
Indeed, the uniforms initially received mixed reactions but developed a fond spot within the fan base as the team kept winning while wearing them. In 46 contests since they were introduced, the Giants piled up a record of 30-16 with a run differential of plus-46, going 8-1 in them during their 107-win 2021 season.
Their fortune has faded this year, however, as the loss dropped the Giants to 4-6 in them. Production delays prevented them from wearing them for the first two Tuesday home games, eventually debuting the new Fanatics-made version May 13 in a 6-4 loss to the Dodgers.
The Giants fell behind early and never found the old magic to mount a comeback.
Pulling a homer just to the left of the right-field foul pole to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Mike Yastrzemski cut the Giants’ deficit to 3-2, but it represented only their third of four eventual hits. Matt Chapman doubled home Ramos in the first, but only after Milwaukee had opened a 2-0 lead.
Pushing back Hayden Birdsong by two days, the Giants tapped right-hander Landen Roupp for the first start of his major-league career after 19 relief appearances.
Celebrating his 26th birthday, Roupp allowed the Brewers to build a 2-0 lead before the Giants came to bat but settled in to complete a career-high five innings without issuing a walk or surrendering another run. After allowing four of the first five Brewers to reach base in the first, Roupp retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced.
The lack of free passes was notable after Roupp issued at least one walk in 11 of his first 19 appearances, including two while tossing four shutout innings of relief Thursday against the Diamondbacks.
“I feel like I was pounding the zone, and that could have been the reason I gave up so many hits in the first inning,” Roupp said. “I’d rather give up hits than walk guys and let them score. … I came in yesterday on the off day and they told me I was starting today, so couldn’t have a better birthday present.”
Melvin called on Tristan Beck to relieve Roupp at the start of the sixth inning, and he served up a solo shot to the first batter he faced, Garrett Mitchell, who connected with a first-pitch curveball at 109.7 mph off the bat and sent it 411 feet to straightaway center field.
The home run proved decisive as the Giants finished the game 1-for-13 after Yastrzemski’s homer.
“He’s trying to drop a curveball in for a strike there, and he was ready for it,” Melvin said. “I don’t know if he was looking for it, but he put a really good swing on it. Typically guys aren’t sitting on 0-0 breaking balls. Other than that, he was pretty good, too. It’s just offensively we didn’t do enough. Four hits isn’t going to win you too many games even though we scratched a couple runs out of it.”
LHP Blake Snell (2-3, 3.62) faces RHP Colin Rea (12-4, 3.72) in the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.
