29

 

LA                  85-49                        Give 'em credit-- they swept Braves

GIANTS        84-49       .5  GB      1993 all over again?  Noooo... 

San Diego      71-63      14  GB      Phils, Cards also in WC hunt.

Yesterday

Giants lost again to Milwaukee, 5-2, their fourth straight defeat.

LA won again with two in the eighth, 4-3, and swept Atlanta at home.

Today

Giants finish up with Milwaukee; 12:45 PDT. Logan Webb is tasked with stopping the skid, and who'd we rather have out there right now? Lefthander Eric Lauer opposes. 

Last Night's Game

Well, they got Anderson out of the game early, all right-- a line drive off his shoulder saw to that. But despite getting two on with one out in the first and again in the eighth, the Giants couldn't score in those innings and thus lost two chances to take charge of the ballgame. Milwaukee got two off Kevin Gausman in the top of the second-- his only bad inning in an otherwise solid performance; he struck out 7 over 5-- broke a tie with a key run in the seventh, and made it academic with two in the ninth ahead of Josh Hader's 29th save. The Giants had tied it in the fifth on doubles by Alex Dickerson (pinch-hitting for Gausman) and Kris Bryant, and a RBI single from Buster Posey, trying manfully to break out of his recent slump. That just made the seventh all the more excruciating, though. Two out, nobody on, and Dominic Leone walks Lorenzo Cain. Leone and Brandon Belt then had trouble covering first on Jackie Bradley's grounder; all hands safe. Gabe Kapler brought in Joe Alvarez to face lefty-hitting Jace Peterson. Alvarez has thrived in these pressure situations all year, but not this time. Peterson's clean single to left scored Cain with the run that decided the game.  

And so, after 94 consecutive days in first place going back to May 30, the Giants are looking up at LA. The countdown stands at 29.  And while memories of 1993 are all over the place this morning, let's remember that unlike then, the Giants have a clear shot into the postseason regardless, even if it means one extra game at home.  The weather's fine, but there's no reason to pack our bags and head out to Panic Beach.   

Out of the Gate

...  a little early, we'll admit. OK. This Milwaukee series is too critical for us to sit back and wait until Friday, so here we go with thirty games left on the schedule. 

GIANTS        84-48                        Maybe Quintana should have started?

LA                  84-49       .5  GB      Have handled Braves just fine so far. 

San Diego      71-62   13.5  GB      Tied with Reds for second wild-card.

Colorado        60-72     24   GB      Terrible road record. 

Arizona          44-90     41   GB      Even worse road record.

Yesterday

Giants lost to Milwaukee, 6-2; Johnny Cueto's worst start of the season. 

LA defeated Atlanta, 3-2. scoring the winning run in the 8th.

Today

Giants host Milwaukee again, 6:45 PDT. Kevin Gausman saddles up for his most important start of the season so far. Lefty Brett Anderson opposes.

Atlanta's at LA. Two guys named Max--  Fried and Scherzer-- get the start.   

Last Night's Game

Cueto's Game Score of 16 is the second-lowest of any Giant starter this year (Anthony DeSclafani infamously put up a goose-egg against LA last month). He allowed twelve baserunners, ten on hits, and six runs, all earned, though a couple were aided by some uncertain Giants fielding. Quintana, the new guy, went about the same distance in relief (3 1/3) and allowed only one hit.  Maybe he really should have started.  This team could use a jolt from a fresh face right about now. Brandon Belt joined Yaz in the Giants' 20-homer club before the night was over, but the team went 0-for-8 with RISP and, let's face it, this lineup hasn't been right for a week. 

Brandon Woodruff, who got the win, along with Corbin Burnes from Monday and tonight's starter Anderson, are the same three who faced the Giants at Miller Park three weeks ago. Each put up a quality start then, too (69, 63, 56) but none of them got a decision because all three games were decided late, two in extra innings, and two by thrilling Giants comebacks. On August 7, Woodruff exited a 1-1 pitchers' duel in the eighth; the Giants went ahead 2-1 in the ninth but Milwaukee tied it. The Giants scored three in the tenth-- and Milwaukee tied it. Then they scored four in the eleventh and Milwaukee-- well, they scored one run but finally and at last the Giants prevailed, 9-6. Game of the year, so far. 

The point being, Burnes and Woodruff have gone (69, 63) again in this series, and it would behoove the Giants to not let Brother Anderson stick around too long tonight.  Seven-run extra-inning rallies remain rare even in this age of three-true-outcome baseball. 

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? 

In the Moment

It was a baseball moment unlike any we've seen this year, though God willing there will be many more in our near future.

35,136 at Oracle Park were vibrating with an almost palpable tension as Jarlin Garcia faced Cody Bellinger yesterday in the top of the sixth, with the bases loaded and two men out,  and the Giants holding a 4-0 lead over the Dodgers like Luke Skywalker bravely holding Darth Vader at bay in a lightsaber duel. The Giants' main nemesis, Max Muncy, had singled to extend the inning, and the Giants' other main nemesis, Justin Turner, had just worked Johnny Cueto for a walk, assisted by umpire Nestor Ceja's traveling strike zone.  That brought Gabe Kapler to the mound, Garcia into the game, and a visibly frustrated Cueto off to the dugout after five-plus shutout innings, a strong and timely performance yielding to lefty-lefty percentages and, maybe, a changed demeanor on the mound. So here's Bellinger, whose wild throw cost his team the game Tuesday night. Bellinger, hampered by injuries, suffering through a miserable season with the bat, aching to set things right with the big hit that would put his team back in the game with a chance to take two of three in the Giants' home park, and to pull within one game of the lead in a division the defending champions must believe, have to believe, is rightly theirs. 

Garcia has knocked around the league for a few years; he joined the Giants last season as one of a stable of left-handed relievers-- Kap just loves 'em-- and this year he has turned a corner, with a 0.84 WHIP and, for the first time in his career, more strikeouts than innings pitched. And he's also become that rare commodity: a reliever who thrives on coming in cold with men on base and getting out of it unscathed. Jeremy Affeldt was like that, so is the injury-plagued Reyes Moronta, and now, maybe, so is Jarlin Garcia. Three runners on base, Cueto's shutout, the inconsistent umpire, the crowd-- none of it mattered. Only Bellinger mattered. Two pitches-- two strikes, called. One pitch-- strike three, swinging, and sure, it was only the sixth, but everyone in the park and listening on the radio knew a corner had been turned. "Yuuuuuuuuuuuge!" was the immediate message that blasted out into the text universe.  

You think Dave Roberts wasn't handling this like a playoff game? Despite losing their top two starters, and despite injuries to several key players, LA has hung in there stubbornly, winning 60% of their games in a madly competitive race, holding the preseason-favorite Padres at bay, and constantly threatening the upstart Giants. Wednesday's 8-0 win looked almost insultingly routine, coming on the heels of the desperate one-run Giants win the night before, and games like that can infer a frightening disparity between the Dodgers' capabilities and the Giants'.  But then the Giants keep turning the tables as they did yesterday, and the two teams had played each other 15 times already, LA losing seven, and two-thirds of the season was gone, and there are only so many opportunities. Trailing 4-0 in the fifth, Roberts sensed one coming, and pushed in all his chips. 

Darin Ruf had ripped a laser shot all the way out to Triples Alley, and with one out he stood on third. Former Giant Phil Bickford, in relief of starter David Price, recovered to struck out Donovan Solano. But with two out and two left-handed bats coming up, Roberts gambled big-time. He had Bickford walk them both-- first Brandon Crawford, whose 2 RBI had set the tone early, and then LaMonte Wade. In the fifth inning, mind you. Bickford, who throws hard but can be wild, now had to come in to Curt Casali. Roberts knows very well how many times Casali has delivered in similar situations this year, and he knew he needed a ball hit right at somebody. Bickford, who seems to be resurrecting his career nicely in LA, did better than that. He struck out the veteran catcher on a nasty 1-2 pitch and the big inning was averted.   

But Kapler and Garcia countered quite nicely an inning later, and after that it was nine up, nine down, against Dominic Leone, Tyler Rogers, and Jake McGee. The 5-0 lead in the ninth ensured McGee wouldn't earn a save, but he got Muncy, Turner, and Bellinger 1-2-3 just the same, to end it quietly and emphatically. These two teams won't see each other until Labor Day Weekend at the O, and who knows what things will look like then?

Speaking of cashing in chips, the Dodgers blew up the table limit last night as they picked up Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals. Scherzer, of course, is as good as any starting pitcher in baseball, and as a "rental" he is there specifically to put LA over the top this year. Meanwhile Turner is one of the game's rising stars, and so in loading up for the short term, LA also has bolstered their long-term strength. They are tough to beat, all right, and they're gonna be tough to beat, and there's still 60 games left.

And tonight the Houston Astros, who can lay claim to being the best team in baseball if anyone can, arrive in San Francisco to face the Giants. No, it sure doesn't get any easier-- but right now it doesn't get any better than this.     

Just a few quick notes after a most satisfying and entertaining blowout win against a bad team. Don't discount it; blowing out bad teams is what good teams do.

The Giants hit five home runs last night, the first time they've done that at Oracle Park. The last time they did it at home was 2018 when it was still AT&T Park. Anyway, five homers in one game shouldn't be too surprising, after all, for a team that leads the league in home runs.  Who saw that coming back in April?

Along with the five longballs the Giants drew nine walks, and five of those walkers came around to score. Mike Yastrzemski was the poster boy for the wait-it-out set: no hits, but three walks and three runs scored. Steven Duggar (.305, with two homers in two games) walked twice and scored on one of 'em. Gabe Kapler: “We have the ability to grind out at-bats and wear pitchers down... We could have scored several more runs tonight..." 

Indeed. The Giants left nine men on base. Heaven knows how many runs they might have scored had they managed to hit the ball a little more efficiently! 

Was it just a year ago that the Giants' facebook site was overflowing like a jammed commode with "Fire Kapler" comments from the ignoranti? Oh, we might not be able to discuss politics without coming to blows, but the man has shown he can manage a baseball team made up of widely diverse characters and keep them moving in one direction, and that, sports fans, is what it's all about.

Believe it or not, the San Diego Padres would miss the playoffs if the season ended today. They've lost 7 of 10 and trail the Giants by six games. Both the Cubs and Brewers have moved ahead of the Pads in their battle for the Central division lead.  

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks.... Invidious comparisons to the 1960s Mets and 1940s A's are bubbling to the surface as the snakebit Snakes (waitaminute, can snakes be "snakebit?" Maybe they're "man-bit?" City Editor: "Man bites snake? Boys, that's a story!") have now lost 22 straight road games, own the worst record in all of baseball, with a winning percentage south of .300. This leads to inevitable talk about manager Torey Lovullo's future; he just received a vote of confidence from Arizona ownership, immediately following the firing of the team's hitting coaches. 

How does Madison Bumgarner feel about all this? "Bum" is back on the IL now, so the Giants won't see him in today's series finale. Y'all may or may not recall the Giants have faced him once since his departure: they beat him last September 5 at the O.  Given Arizona's putrid state of affairs with the season approaching its midway point, will Bumgarner, if back to full health, be trade bait come July? He is set to earn 79 million dollars through 2024.  

Would the Giants entertain a trade for "Bum" if it were a true salary dump and not a demand for top prospects? Recall how the Giants cut Mark Portugal loose under similar circumstances in 1995. With things getting serious now, how badly do the Giants need another solid veteran starter (assuming Bumgarner still fits that bill)?  Kevin Gausman is great, and  Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood are generally good. After that-- well, we're not convinced Johnny Cueto is 100% healthy, and the fifth starter spot is a black hole; with Logan Webb and Aaron Sanchez sidelined, Kapler's been using the "opener" scheme, which is a total crapshoot.

Would they spend the money? And who even entertained such an unlikely thought three weeks ago?

What's doin' elsewhere? The Mets, who simply can't score runs, persist in not allowing them either, and thus have moved five games ahead of Philadelphia, who once again look unable to step across the threshold of mediocrity. (Kapler's fault, hah?) And Atlanta in no way resembles the team that almost made the World Series a year ago. Now, the Central is where the excitement's at, with four teams over .500 and within three games of the lead.

A website whose name we forget posted that Yankees manager Aaron Boone was the bettors' favorite to be fired midseason, ahead of Lovullo (people bet on when managers are going to be fired?) and the usual suspects in Baltimore, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. The Yanks are keeping their nose above .500 right now, but trail Tampa and Boston by 7. Each of the AL divisions has a two-team race going: Chicago, led by septuagenarian Tony LaRussa, battling Cleveland in the Central, and Houston and Oakland atop the West. The Angels, our preseason favorite, still can't pitch, though Shohei Ohtani is having a season for the ages in Mike Trout's unhappy absence.  

It only gets worse for Arizona, as they host the Dodgers this coming weekend. Meanwhile, the Giants get no rest as Philadelphia comes to town, and Gabe Kapler finally gets a shot against the team he used to manage. 

Play 60

Well, after 60 games this year the Giants are 9 wins ahead of where they finished last year. That makes as good as any a demarcation point for reviewing this most unexpected season so far. So, with the Giants clinging to a 2-1 lead in Texas today after last night's thrilling win, we'll proceed, in no particular order...

Brandon Crawford not only deserves congratulations for starting more games at shortstop than any man in Giants history, San Francisco or New York, and for belting 2 home runs and driving in 4 runs last night, he also deserves some serious MVP consideration, and we ain't kiddin'. Crawford, 34, is 7th in the league in OPS, fourth in slugging, fifth in homers, and is playing shortstop as he did several years ago when he was defining that position. He's also drawn 23 walks in 170 AB, which boosts his .265 average to a .357 OBP. It's not that he should win it, it's that he's going to be in the discussion, and that's a wonderful thing.

We won't be watching the All-Star Game, but Crawford, along with Kevin Gausman and Buster Posey, will certainly be there.  Had Posey enough ABs to qualify, he'd be third in average and OBP, and fourth in slugging and OPS. Of course, we can argue that his frequent off-days (19 out of 60) are what's helping keep his numbers up. But 10 homers in 41 games is pretty good no matter how you look at it.

Crawford, by the way, is the only Giant with enough PAs to qualify for the batting title. If anyone gets more out of a full lineup than does Gabe Kapler, we'd like to meet him. And given the cascading toll of injuries that have befallen this club, it's a testimony to the "Resilient" banner that adorns the Giants' website. There'll need to be a lot more of it in the coming weeks.

Are we ever glad to see Steve Duggar measuring up! .307 with a .899 OPS in 35 games and superb defense in center field. He's one of eight Giants slugging over .500 on the season-- though two of those guys are currently on the IL. And we wish we could see some better numbers from another of our perennial favorites, Austin Slater. He's done remarkably well as a pinch-hitter but overall he's not doing enough to keep Duggar, LaMonte Wade, and last night's grand-slam hero, Mike Tauchman, out of the lineup. 

As a  team, the Giants lead all of major-league baseball in home runs (!) as well as in wins. They're sixth in OBP, seventh in OPS, and sixth in runs. On the pitching side they're sixth in ERA, tops in saves with 23, and second in fewest walks allowed. It warms the heart, it does. And, in a season with historically low WHIP totals, the Giants are fourth at 1.11, which is generally Cy Young territory for individual pitchers. For teams... !

The Giants are 18-9 at home, 20-13 on the road (with a chance to make it 21-13 if they hold on here), and they've got a four-game set at Washington coming up, which means an excess of home games down the road, when things are likely to get much tighter and tougher.  

How many of you would have figured with Evan Longoria and Mike Yastrzemski both on the injured list, the Giants would still have the best record in major-league baseball, holding a two-and-a-half game lead over San Diego and three full over LA?

What about Connor Menez, another of our favorites, recently called up, with two scoreless innings today on the road, in the late innings of a one-run game?  We're glad to see the Giants bringing up the younger guys to work out of the bullpen, which has been by far the shakiest part of this team all season long. It's another way Kapler and his coaches have managed to "find out who can do it and who can't" while still keeping the team in contention. Contention? First place, sports fans!

And today we have the local boy, Sammy Long, whose major-league debut over 4 innings showed 7 strikeouts, one hit, and one run.  He's a 18th-round pick out of Sacramento State, and, you know, you never can tell.