Sunday, September 20, 2020

                  W-L     GB

Philadelphia 27-25     Making their move

Cincinnati 26-27     Trail Cards by 1

GIANTS         25-26 …     6-18 against winning teams

Milwaukee 25-26 …     Trail Reds by .001

New York 24-28 1 1/2    Need a 6-2 finish

Colorado        22-29 3     Still can be spoilers

Yesterday

Giants lost again at Oakland by the same score, 6-0, though it was a much closer game. Yes, we know-- that doesn't count.

Philadelphia defeated Toronto, 3-1; the Phillies have hit their stride.

Cincinnati lost at home to the Chicago White Sox, snapping their six-game winning streak and dropping them into third, behind the St Louis Cardinals, who once again beat the Pirates.

Milwaukee shut out Kansas City, 5-0, for their third straight win.

New York defeated Atlanta and Colorado lost again to LA and Clayton Kershaw.

Today

Giants finish up at Oakland; 1:10 PDT at the Coliseum. Tyler Anderson is back after pitching two innings two days ago. He faces lefty Mike Minor, whom the Giants tore up when he was with Texas back on July 31.

They're all at home today: Philadelphia finishes up with Toronto, the Reds get the red-hot White Sox, Milwaukee has the Royals, and the Mets host Atlanta. Colorado finishes up with LA before coming to San Francisco.

Last Night's Game

Kevin Gausman sure did his part. Six one-hit one-run innings later, he was out of the game trailing 1-0, and ultimately was saddled with the loss.  While the Sams-- Selman and Coonrod-- gave up extra runs late in the game, that wasn't the story. The story is once again the Giants' suddenly-anemic lineup: six singles, no walks, one GIDP, and no runs, a scoreless streak that has now reached 20 innings. Unlike Giants playoff teams of recent past, they didn't "pounce" on the A's bullpem once starter Jesus Luzardo was out of the game. The reason behind all this may be simplicity itself: the "good" teams, such as San Diego and Oakland, tend to have good pitching, and the "bad" teams, such as Arizona and Seattle, don't. The Giants are 19-8 against those "bad" teams, and as we see above, 6-18 against the "good" ones. If form follows, we are looking at a 29-31 finish, and who knows whether that will be "good" enough?