The Crucible

This is it, right here; or maybe we can say, this is the beginning of it, right here: the beginning of a stretch of games likely to determine where the San Francisco Giants finish this season, and also to determine how the Giants stack up against the teams they're likely to face in the postseason. 

Yeah, the postseason. We'll say it: with 131 games in the bag and 31 left to play, the Giants, winner of 84 of those 131 games, are going to be in the postseason. They lead the Cincinnati Reds, the nearest wild-card rival, by 14 games. A .500 record the rest of the way would still put the Giants at 100 wins, and only one other team in the National League is going to win that many. 

Those would be the Los Angeles Dodgers, of course, the humming, buzzing, relentless machine of a team that has been pacing the Giants day after day and week after week, never falling too far behind and periodically surging close, very close, close like they are now-- one and a half games back.

With a three-game series at Oracle Park coming up this weekend.

Yeah. In the meantime, the Giants are dealing with another excellent team playing its best baseball of the season, the Milwaukee Brewers, runaway leaders of the NL Central. They have three more games against them before LA hits town. And the Giants just finished dealing with yet another excellent team playing its best baseball of the season, the Atlanta Braves, leaders of the NL East (though that one is not over by any means). The Braves took two of three in Atlanta over the weekend just concluded, and they'll be coming to the Big O in two weeks. These are playoff teams, folks, and the Giants have to play them nine more times. Yes, the Giants also have 12 games remaining against losing teams-- but then they have 7 against the San Diego Padres, everybody's preseason darlings, who have fallen so far so fast that even a .500 finish now looks like a gamble. It's even possible that two weeks from now the Pads will be completely out of it-- which would mean those seven games, including the last 3 in October, will serve as the one thing they have left to play for. Yeah. 

Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood are ill, Wood with a positive COVID-19 test. Anthony DeScalafani limped off the field the last two times he pitched. Kevin Gausman has reverted to ordinary status after his All-Star first half. Only Logan Webb, bless his heart, has pitched like a frontline starter these past six weeks. Things are so dicey in the Giants' starting rotation that five scoreless innings from rookie lefthander Sammy Long against the fading New York Mets were hailed as a triumph a week ago, and yesterday the Giants signed Jose Quintana, who couldn't even stay in the rotation of the pitching-starved Los Angeles Angels, off waivers-- and who knows, he may start tonight against Milwaukee.  

Perhaps even more ominous is the Giants' sudden outbreak of feebleness at the plate. Six straight opposing pitchers have posted quality starts against the Giants, including Brewers ace Corbin Burnes last night. The Giants won three of those games anyway, two with late-inning rallies and the third because Webb outpitched the Braves' Huascar Ynoa, but not since the Giants jumped on the Mets' Tyler Megill with four homers one week ago today have they taken over a game early. And while late-inning rallies are great and exciting and all, the truth is that pennant-winning teams, dominant teams, .641 teams-- they get the opponent down early and keep him down.

And that's part of what gives us the awful feeling that if the Giants surrender this division lead to LA even once, they'll never get it back. Not because the Giants would crumble at that point-- they won't-- but because the Dodgers won't give an inch. 

Be honest. If back in late March you'd been asked if you'd like to see the Giants seriously contending for the NL wild-card spot in September, you'd have gushed out an enthusiastic, if secretly dubious, "Sure!"

Well, how about now?

Our pennant-race daily update/countdown is only a few days away. Let's get through this Milwaukee series and see where we stand when the Dodgers come to town. For after all, good old "TBD" might just pitch him a fine game tonight and get plenty of run support. It's what the Giants having been doing all year, every time they hit a low point like this one, and why should they stop now? Go Giants! 

Deja Vu?

There was something awfully familiar about the Giants' two late-inning rallies last night against the Arizona bullpen after starter Merrill Kelly had held them nearly helpless through eight shutout innings.  And then we remembered: this is what the Bruce Bochy Giants championship teams did. Repeatedly.

How many times did those Giants teams sweat and grumble through six, seven, eight discouraging innings, making an opponent pitcher look like Cy Young, only to break through and take merciless advantage once that nemesis was out of the game? After a time, it almost became a game plan. You could look in the dugout and see the expectation: "yeah, yeah, we know, we know... but just wait until they take this guy out... we're gonna pounce." And they did, again and again.

There was Jordan Zimmermann in the 2014 division series against Washington, with a near no-hitter through eight and two-thirds innings, one out to go... and then Joe Panik draws a walk and former Giant Matt Williams pulls the trigger. Zimmermann out, Drew Storey in, and two batters later it's a tie game for nine more innings. But you knew, didn't you? We all knew. The Giants were going to win that game eventually, and were going to win that series, too, and we knew it from the moment Matty blinked.

Two years later Terry Collins lifted Noah Syndergaard for Jeurys Familia after "Thor" had pitched a shutout through eight. And it too was over. Quickly this time.  There are other examples we remember, without scouring for the details. It was a thing, you know?  

Whatever else happens when Anthony DeSclafani returns to the active roster, we can't afford to lose LaMonte Wade. That two-out two-run base hit in the ninth, tying the game, was huge. This young man has shown he belongs on a first-place team. It won't be an easy decision, no matter what. Alex Dickerson, whom we were marking down for a demotion a week ago, has hit two big homers in four days and helped push that ninth-inning rally along last night. 

And while we're no fans of a thirteen-man pitching staff, let's also not forget that after Alex Wood was kicked around for seven hits and four runs in four innings last night, no less than six relievers no-hit the Diamondbacks over the final six frames. No hit. Has this once-shaky bullpen turned a corner? Because a strong, lights-out bullpen was another hallmark of those Bruce Bochy Giants.... 

The crypto-mysto fog is rolling in again, folks, and we're not even in San Francisco. As Kris Bryant said, "We had no business winning that game. He shut us down." Indeed. But the Giants did win (with a lot of help from Mr Bryant) and now lead the Dodgers by four games.

Bryant the Giant

We're trying to remember the last time the Giants' front office pulled off a mid-season beauty like this recent trade. A former MVP, still only 29, playing extremely well, for two middling draft picks? Hunter Pence in 2012 cost the Giants a big-leaguer, Nate Schierholtz. It was a great trade, though Nate stayed in the league for years afterward. Marco Scutaro, another great trade that same year, cost Charlie Culberson, who's still around and contributing. Carlos Beltran, a true rental in 2011, cost Zack Wheeler, who is definitely still around. And sure, Canario (whom we remember from spring training) and Kilian might soon become regulars, or even stars. We certainly remember Bryan Reynolds-for-Andrew McCutchen, too. 

Of course, the obvious comp is Evan Longoria three years ago. Though not a former MVP, Longo was a three-time All-Star, played the same position Bryant has for most of his career, and was a similar type of hitter. But Longoria was 32 at the time, his numbers had been in slow decline, and he carried a huge contract. It wasn't a midseason deal, it was an open attempt to acquire a "foundational" player, a cornerstone. Now, this could be, too-- if the Giants sign Bryant in the offseason. Right now we hope they can. In his six games as a Giant, he's played third base four times, left field once, and he played center field last night. Folks, we just don't see a downside here.

Except the inevitable. Who gets sent down when Longoria returns?