Right now the Dodgers, playing .733 ball, lead the division by four games over the San Diego Padres, who, despite winning six in a row like Giants, have gained no ground at all. In the East, Atlanta has a small lead over the surprising, .500-playing, Miami Marlins, and the Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals lead the Central. In the expanded playoff structure, this leaves the Giants and the Rockies, respectively, as the two at-large "wild" wild-cards. Who'd'a thunk it a week ago, when the Giants were 8-16 and seemingly on the road to oblivion?
Of course, with LA arriving in town tomorrow, all of this is in immediate jeopardy. But before the cardboard cutouts start wilting with disappointment, let's remind ourselves that this is the way it is in a 60-game season. In the whole 15-team National League, only the 7-17 Pirates look to be out of it, and that mostly because they've had half a dozen games postponed that may not get made up.
A week ago the Rockies were 13-8, in second place, and only two games behind LA. But since that 11-inning walk-off loss at Houston last Tuesday, Colorado has done little right, being outscored 43-21 over their last five. The only close game in that stretch was yet another walk-off loss, this time at LA. Need we repeat, for the third time, that another week could reverse their fortunes, as well? The Giants won't see them until the middle of next week.
Our observation that the Giants' lack of runs at Oracle Park a year ago was an aberration appears to have been on the money. Right now San Francisco is fourth in the entire MLB in runs scored, and third in runs scored at home! They're 12th in OPS, OBP, and SLG, and around the middle of the pack in all offensive categories. (We are using the whole MLB, instead of the NL, this year, for obvious reasons.) Unfortunately, opponents aren't exactly struggling at the "O", either; Giants pitchers are 24th in runs allowed at home. This past weekend's fine starts by Logan Webb, Trevor Cahill (two!), Tyler Anderson, and Johnny Cueto have helped, but the Giants are still next-to-last in overall runs allowed; only Boston is worse.
No question about it: Mike Yastrzemski is a serious MVP candidate. He leads all MLB in offensive WAR, and he's tops in several stats the sabermetric crowd loves: Runs Created, Adjusted Batting Runs and Wins, Win Probability Added, Situational Wins Added, Base/Out Runs and Wins. You look across the top of the traditional stats and he's all over them, too: the only NLer with three triples, second in runs, third in doubles and total bases, fourth in RBI, fifth in hits, eighth in homers. He's first in walks, too. And he's not in the top ten in average, and "only" sixth in OBP, because all the guys ahead of him in those categories have played fewer games.
Donovan "Donnie Barrels" Solano is also up there: second in average at .363, seventh in hits, fifth in doubles. Austin Slater, who just went on the IL with, we hope, a minor injury, would be among the leaders in average (.347). OBP (.458) and OPS (1.111) if he had more than 59 PA's (we believe the qualifying cutoff right now is 93).
Can we hope that those ubiquitous "Fire Kapler" ignoranti on the Giants' twitter and instagram accounts have all moved on to other pursuits? There are still serious questions about how well Kapler and his staff are evaluating pitchers' in-game fitness, and the Giants still have the least reliable bullpen in baseball, but these guys deserve a lot of credit for their lineup management. While 12th out of 30 in OPS is a good figure, fourth out of 30 in runs scored in that context indicates the Giants hitters are maximizing their opportunities. Give the manager some credit for that.
How about that Joey Bart, huh? His loud arrival reminds us of Will Clark's in 1986. Dare we hope... ? Of course we do. Hope is what it's all about when a player with this much talent appears on the scene and brings that unmistakable presence.
And speaking of presence, now the sad news. Though it was inevitable, we still mourn the release of Hunter Pence. A feel-good story in a feel-bad year, Pence's high-hopes return as DH and part-timer just didn't work. He had almost as many GIDP as he had hits, and there are too many players with a real future on this roster to justify keeping him.
"Forever a Giant!" texted a dear family member when the news came out. Indeed. Hunter Pence is one of those rare ones. He helped transform the 2012 Giants from contenders into champions, as he drove in 45 runs in 59 stretch-drive games. The Giants, 55-47 when he arrived, went 39-21 with him and blew away the competition. In 2014 he finished 11th in the MVP voting as the best player on the Giants' third championship team, and after a injury-riddled 2015 he was exceptional again down the stretch in 2016 and in the division series against Chicago. Reviewing our own accounts of those seven postseason series, the name of Hunter Pence comes up again and again.
Like Mike Krukow before him, Hunter Pence defines what it means to be a San Francisco Giant, off the field as well as on it. Regardless of what happens now, we hope he has a long and rewarding future with the team as a beloved alumnus and two-time World Champion. It's players like Hunter Pence who make following the San Francisco Giants a joy for a lifetime fan.
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