The San Francisco Giants didn’t limp into the second half of the 2016 MLB season. That’s far too kind.
Rather, San Francisco stumbled and crashed like Chris Farley’s Matt Foley into an ill-fated coffee table.
Yes, entering play Monday, the Giants are 58-40, good for first place in the National League West and just 1.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the best record in baseball.
If you’re a member of the orange and black faithful searching for positive signs, you can find them.
Then again, there’s this: The Giants have gone 1-7 since the All-Star break. That includes a three-game sweep by the San Diego Padres in Southern California, a two-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and a 2-1 series loss to the New York Yankees in the Bronx.
There are lousy road trips, and then there are lousy road trips.
“I don’t think it really mattered where we played these last eight games,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said after San Francisco concluded its SoCal-to-Big Apple swing with a 5-2 loss to the Yankees on Sunday, per MLB.com’s Chris Haft. “We didn’t play good baseball like we were before the [All-Star] break.”
Ladies and gentlemen, your understatement of the week.
What gives? Was this merely a bump in the road—the type every club experiences over a 162-game slog—or is it evidence the Giants can’t hang with the Senior Circuit elite?
The Giants’ troubles on this trip ran the gamut, which can be taken as a good sign or a bad sign depending on the mood you’re in.
Sometimes, the offense faltered, scoring one run in a loss to the Padres on July 15, getting shut out by the Red Sox on July 19 and plating just six runs in the three games against New York.
But the bats also tallied a half-dozen runs in a 7-6 loss to the Pads on July 16 and did their share in an 11-7 defeat at Fenway on July 20.
Likewise, the starting pitching vacillated between exemplary and awful, with gems by the likes of All-Star starter Johnny Cueto contrasting against gas-can outings by, say, oft-injured veteran Matt Cain.
Even on defense, the Giants got mixed results. Crawford—the best glove man in the game, according to FanGraphs’ metrics—committed three errors in Friday’s loss to the Yankees alone.
That hints at an anomaly, something that won’t happen again. Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles elucidated that theory.
“Start with the Crawford errors as a metaphor,” he wrote. “They don’t mean he’s suddenly awful at defense. They mean he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, repeatedly. Why, he’s the personification of the Giants in the second half! Not bad. Just bad right now.”
But San Francisco’s woes go deeper than poor timing or bad luck.
The starting rotation is fronted by ace lefty Madison Bumgarner (2.14 ERA, 161 SO, 142.2 IP) and Cueto (13-2, 2.53 ERA, 142.1 IP).
After that, no starter owns an ERA below 4.00, including Jeff Samardzija, who inked a five-year, $90 million deal over the winter but has won only two decisions since May 30.
The bullpen, a source of strength throughout the Giants’ even-year dynasty, leads both leagues with 18 blown saves.
Then there’s the offense, which has been without the services of right fielder Hunter Pence (hamstring surgery), second baseman Joe Panik (concussion) and third baseman Matt Duffy (Achilles injury).
All three are working their way back, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. In the meantime, the Giants have relied on a melange of mid-level prospects (outfielders Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker) and middling journeymen (infielders Ramiro Pena and Conor Gillaspie).
They’ve had big moments. At a certain point, however, the glass slipper wasn’t going to fit. The coach was going to turn back into a pumpkin.
A healthy Pence/Panik/Duffy triumvirate could be enough to stabilize the offense, just as the return of right-hander Sergio Romo from an elbow strain may bolster the bullpen.
Ultimately, though, the Giants need reinforcements.
Entering play Monday, the Chicago Cubs were reportedly (per Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball) closing in on flame-throwing Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. The division-rival Los Angeles Dodgers figure to be active, especially with ace Clayton Kershaw battling back problems.
Don’t expect the Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates or Miami Marlins to be complacent as the trade deadline approaches.
In fact, 10 of the Giants’ next 16 games come against the Nationals and Marlins, the NL East champs and the second wild-card team if the season ended Sunday.
San Francisco may not have the pieces to land a Chapman. But it should explore all avenues to improve the bullpen and possibly add an impact bat while hoping one or more of Samardzija and veteran righties Cain and Jake Peavy can buttress Bumgarner and Cueto.
The Giants have “checked on” an array of relievers, including the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Jeanmar Gomez and the Los Angeles Angels‘ Huston Street, per Schulman. And Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media floated Yankees right fielder Carlos Beltran as a possible target, noting that San Francisco added the veteran switch-hitter at the deadline in 2011.
The Giants limped out of the break. Now, we wait to see if they can reshuffle the roster, get their even-year legs back under them and sprint toward October.
All statistics current as of July 24 and courtesy of MLB.com, ESPN.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.
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