I listened to most of the Giants 6-nuthin’ loss to the Texas Ranger while driving on the freeway. The context was fitting. The stretch of I-95 from Portland, Maine to Boston, like much of east coast road travel, is tree-lined. While for a Californian, the dense summer growth of the woods and the thick green of its foliage is unique, its novelty, on a long-ish car ride, wears off quickly. There’s just nothing to look at or break-up the monotony — no expansive valleys with mountains in the distance,
no ocean cliffs, no passes to climb or grades to descend. Occasionally there’s a bridge over a river, or a rest stop, or a pond, and I find myself trying to gulp down those small changes in environment as I rush past at 75 MPH before the white pine or maple or birch or whatever the trees are quickly close in, creating a tunneling effect that numbs, and makes one aware of the sound of your tires rolling against the concrete.
The rest of the 2026 season is going to be exactly that: one painfully long and dull east coast car ride. Something to get through with little to look at or distract.
Wednesday’s loss in Dallas was just another mile on this road to nowhere. Tony Vitello had few righty counter-punches to the Rangers lefty starter Cody Bradford. The line-up went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Those numbers suggest a level of threat that wasn’t really palpable though. Only two San Francisco runners reached third base in the entire game — one in the 1st and the other in the 9th.
Carson Whisenhunt, once again, looked perplexed on how to find his way out of the 4th inning. He had limited tools — or just did not know how to use them — when dealing with Texas’s line-up the second time through. Facing Rangers batters for the first time, he held them hitless with 4 strikeouts. But when the line-up flipped over in the 3rd, five of six would reach, with two singles, two doubles and a triple, scoring four two-out runs. There were some clear mistakes in terms of location, especially with his fastball and slider.
It was his third walk, to base-stealing threat and number-9 hitter Evan Carter, that got pulled from the game.
That’s really it. There is nothing of substance or interest to report from this one. The small, insignificant, and individual scratchings on the box score are our literature now, our cheap entertainment to pass the time. Inevitably, someone in the car gets so bored they just start reading roadside signs out loud, or making statements about what they see beyond their window, with little commentary or discretion. Bryce Eldridge batted first. He hit a long fly out to deep center, he singled, and there’s a McDonalds. Eddys Leonard got another start in left and bagged his first Major League hit with a double in the 2nd, and Historic Kennebunkport. Drew Cavanaugh finally notched his first Major League extra base hit with a two-bagger of his own in the 9th. Nate Furman pinch hit for Buddy Kennedy, and got everyone to lean in in the 8th inning with the Giants down 6-0 — would he get his first knock too? A bird soared overhead. Maybe a hawk? Or even an eagle of some kind…? Furman walked on five pitches. Nah…just a turkey vulture.
There was a point on the drive, somewhere in southern Maine, maybe in the 4th when Leonard popped up with two on to end the 4th, or when Willy Adames chased out of the zone for the second out with Cavanaugh in scoring position in the 5th, that I really zoned out. Perhaps Tony Vitello, or Ron Washington, or Rafael Devers experienced the same thing — going glassy-eyed as they stared out from the dugout at the field in front of them. Nothing ahead on the horizon. The trees on either side of the road blurred. My gaze panned slowly from my side mirror, to my speedometer, to the hair on my knuckles to the license plate of the Honda Element I had been chasing for miles. I couldn’t stop myself, and read it out loud: LOL LIFE.
