W-L GB
Philadelphia 26-25 The Big Sweep
St Louis 24-24 Pirates playoff tonic?
GIANTS 25-25 Tiebreakers leave us out
Milwaukee 24-26 1 3-team Central logjam
New York 23-28 2 1/2 Blown out by Braves
Colorado 22-28 3 Like Mets, gave up 15 runs
Giants lost at Oakland, 6-0, and lost the wild-card lead.
Philadelphia swept a doubleheader from Toronto and moved past the Giants by half a game.
St Louis swept a doubleheader from Pittsburgh and moved past the Giants on tiebreakers.
Milwaukee defeated Kansas City.
New York and Colorado were blown out by division leaders Atlanta and LA.
Today
Giants and A's at the Coliseum; 1:10 PM PDT afternoon start. Kevin Gausman, who pitched well against Oakland a month ago, takes the baton. Lefty Jesus Luzardo starts for the A's; the Giants roughed him up pretty good last month, in one of those games they blew in the ninth.
Philadelphia has Toronto again at home. St Louis is at PNC Park against the Doormats-- er, Pirates.
Milwaukee hosts the Royals again, the Mets have the Braves at home, and Colorado has LA at home.
Last Night's Game
Where have you gone, Mike Yastrzemski? Well, not to the IL, thank goodness, but to a day-to-day status. Perhaps like the similarly gimpy Austin Slater, he can return soon as DH-- but probably not today against the southpaw. In any case, the Giants sure missed Yaz in this one, as they were held to three hits by Chris Battin, whose seven strong innings clinched a playoff berth for the A's. Logan Webb again put up a lousy start; we credit the Giants for valuing his (and the team's) future and sticking with him even in the pressure cooker of a playoff race. Looking for positives, we see five shutout innings from the recently-recalled Andrew Suarez and Shaun Anderson, as well as Caleb "No Walks Tonight" Baragar.
Tightening Up
As we can see above, it's right crowded around the .500 mark in this race now. Cincinnati, winners of six straight, have finally reached .500 and have a tenuous hold on second place in the Central, ahead of the Cardinals, with the Brewers right behind. The Mets and Rockies, for now, appear to be fading back in the race... LA so far is the only NL team to clinch the postseason, but in the AL division leaders Oakland, Tampa Bay, and Chicago are all in. The A's have a 7-game lead over Houston and could clinch the division as soon as tomorrow, though we sure hope not. But thanks in part to the Giants beating up on Seattle, the Astros are likely to make the postseason as the AL West "2" team... The rotation has been jumbled up this past week. Webb has pitched twice since Cueto's last start while Gausman today is making his first start in 12 days. Cueto had a poor outing in San Diego last Sunday, you'll remember, and evidently there's concern about Gausman being overworked. If we had to predict down the stretch, we'd say: Cueto tomorrow, Smyly Monday, Anderson Tuesday, Webb Wednesday, Gausman Thursday, Cueto and Cahill in Friday's doubleheader, and the lefthanders Smyly and Anderson to close it out next weekend.
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