The San Francisco Giants are not going to compete this season. But don’t take their word for it; they’ll show you.
Just two innings into their Wednesday matinee against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants made their first of, presumably, multiple deadline deals, shipping Tyler Rogers to the New York Mets in exchange for two exciting prospects and a proven reliever. That was them telling you that they’re selling, and you only sell for one reason.
And then they lost 2-1 to the lowly Pirates, dropping
their sixth of six games on this homestand, losing for the 10th time in 12 attempts post-break, and dropping below .500 for the first time all year. That was them showing you that one reason for selling.
There’s no need to dwell on this loss for too long; no need to pen a paean to the cherry atop an all-time meltdown sundae. All you need to know is that it perfectly achieved the trifecta of 2025 Giants losses.
It wasted a strong performance by a starting pitcher. It featured a staggeringly poor showing with runners in scoring position. And it was punctuated by an inexcusable mental error.
So let’s at least unpack those three while the players are still employed by the Giants. We might be running out of time!
We’ll start with the fun part, even if the fun was later sapped. Logan Webb took the mound after the worst three-start stretch of his career, and brought a level of intensity that me haven’t seen from the Giants in a while. He struck out Spencer Horitz to open the first inning and Oneil Cruz to close it. He struck out the side in the second inning while working around some traffic. He struck out the side in the third inning, with no traffic. He opened the fourth by striking out Cruz, giving him five straight punchouts and nine of his first 10 outs by way of strikes.
It was an effectively wild game for Webb, which is the opposite of how we’re used to seeing him succeed, and emblematic of the moment. He struck out a whopping 11 batters, but walked four and hit another. He held the Pirates to a lone run, but needed 109 pitches to get through 5.2 innings. It was a very uncharacteristic performance, but in a much better way than his recent uncharacteristic performances. Low-efficiency, high-strikeout Webb is a direction he’s been slowly trending towards, and he dove all in today. It was fun. He deserved a win. He usually does. The Giants didn’t give him one. They usually don’t.
And that’s because of the second point in the trifecta: an inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position. We would like to formally recognize Dom Smith here. We would like to thank him for his services. The committee of one notes that in the fifth inning, after Heliot Ramos hit a leadoff single and Willy Adames a one-out single and Matt Chapman struck out, Smith delivered with a two-out RBI knock, scoring the lone run of the game for the Giants.
That was cool.
But aside from that play, the Giants hit a measly 1-7 with runners in scoring position, and even that is being wildly generous. The “one” in that equation came on the first pitch of the 10th inning, when Casey Schmitt hit a popup that Pittsburgh forgot to catch. It technically counted as a hit with a runner in scoring position, even though Jung Hoo Lee never moved more than three feet off of second base.
Otherwise, it was a big ball of nothing when opportunity arose, which was mostly late. There was the aforementioned Chapman K, with runners at first and second and one out. That inning ended when Lee lined out with runners at the corners.
There was the eighth inning, when Mike Yastrzemski led off with a bunt single and took second on a Patrick Bailey bunt, before Ramos grounded out and Rafael Devers flew out.
And there was the 10th inning when, after said Schmitt single, Yastrzemski laid down a gorgeous sacrifice bunt, only to watch Bailey strike out with the tying run at third and one out, and Ramos strike out to end the game.
It’s almost impressive at this point.
And of course, rounding up the trifecta was the mental mistake, this time from a pitcher.
Ryan Walker took the mound in the 10th (after a sensational, three-strikeout ninth from Camilo Doval, in perhaps his final game as a Giant). The first batter, Nick Gonzales, hit a productive groundout, moving Oneil Cruz — the Manfred Man — to third. He worked around Jack Suwinski, ultimately walking him, and setting up a force play.
And then he got Henry Davis to hit a comebacker, which Walker easily stabbed. Except, in his excitement, Walker failed to notice the situation.
Suwinski had been attempting a steal, making a double play nearly impossible. And more importantly, Cruz, anticipating that the ball would get past Walker, had broke for home. Walker could have taken his glove off, put it on his other hand, warmed up his left arm, and tried a southpaw throw home, and still would have easily retired Cruz. Instead, he turned to second and fired a fastball at the force runner, way too late. The go-ahead run scored, and when the Giants could muster nothing in the bottom half of the inning, the go-ahead run became the winning run.
The Giants got swept at home by the Mets and then at home by the Pirates and now they go on the road to face ... the Mets and the Pirates. What could possibly go wrong?
But hey, Yaz did this, and it was cool. So, like ... enjoy it, or something. I’m going to the movies.
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