San Francisco Giants Morning Minute: And It’s a Brand New Ballgame
On this edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute, we discuss a brand new ballgame in the National League West’s division race.
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Good morning, San Francisco Giants’ fans, and welcome to another edition of the Giants Morning Minute. On Tuesday, the Giants fell flat again, losing a 2-0 decision to the Miami Marlins. Tom Koehler (9-8) earned the win while Matt Moore (0-1) was the loser in his first decision as a Giant. Fernando Rodney finished things off for his 19th save.
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-3 on Tuesday, bringing the National League West race to a dead heat. The Colorado Rockies also lost, marking their third straight loss and keeping them nine games back.
Let’s take about that NL West race.
This isn’t a familiar place for the Giants this season. Since Sunday, May 15th, when the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants have held first place all by themselves. They ran with that, and eventually pushed their lead to as large as eight games on June 26th. But that lead has disappeared, and what was once a gap big enough to drive a truck though is no lead at all.
The Giants and Dodgers wake up on Wednesday with identical 64-49 records, in a true tie for first place in the division. Since the All-Star break, the Giants are just 7-16 while the Dodgers are 13-9, allowing Los Angeles to turn a 6.5-game deficit into a tie in less than four weeks.
It’s been a complete team effort during the Giants’ mid-season meltdown. The offense has been asleep way more often than that, unable to back up any sort of strong effort from the pitching staff. When the offense does have a good day at the office (no matter how rare it is these days), the pitching hasn’t been able to back them up, either. The defense has been hit and miss, looking like one of the game’s best one minute before transitioning into something that looks like it should be viewed with “Yakety Sax” being played in the background.
Just the last four games alone have been a microcosm of the second half. On Saturday, the Giants put together their best win of the half, beating the Washington Nationals, 7-1. It was the type of win that put thoughts into minds that this could be the beginning of the turnaround. Instead, they were shut out 1-0 the very next day. But Monday, they downed the Marlins 8-7 in a 14-round boxing match behind a record day by Brandon Crawford. Those thoughts, maybe this is the one, came back and were immediately shot back down again, by a 2-0 loss.
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The offense’s downfalls have been exacerbated by major struggles from key returning pieces. Since returning from the disabled list after missing time with a concussion, Joe Panik has four hits in 40 at-bats. His idea of the strike zone is still quite good (he’s struck out just four times in 49 plate appearances), but his timing is still way off and he’s not squaring balls up at a high rate. Hunter Pence, recently back from hamstring surgery, is 8-40 (.200) in 10 games since returning, and has struck out 15 times. He’s swinging at just about everything, and it’s a good bet that his black eye is having at least some effect. He’s struck out nine times in 17 plate appearances since fouling a ball into his own face.
But it’s not just those two. The entire offense goes cold at the same time, making it impossible for the team to put any positive momentum together. The pitching has allowed 35 home runs, more than any other team in the National League, so while a .240 opponent average is in the bottom half of the MLB, the home runs are making those hits hurt even more.
For now, all there is for fans is the hope that this poor play can’t continue. The hope that the Giants’ .173 average with runners in scoring position since the break is unsustainable and will see an uptick soon. The hope that the pitching staff’s 1.5 home runs allowed per nine innings is just an anomaly, and will come back down to earth soon. The hope that this slump is just that, a slump, and will turn.
The story isn’t over for the Giants and Dodgers. It’s just getting started, in fact. Both teams have 49 games left to play, including nine head-to-head matchups that just get bigger with each passing day. The Giants’ eucatastrophe may be written in the coming weeks, but the rough draft for their dyscatastrophe could also be in the works. Time will tell which edition is the final draft.
Next: Giants Morning Minute: Crawford's Historic Night Leads Way
And that will do it for this edition of the Giants Morning Minute. Up next, the Giants and Marlins conclude their season series with an early game. Jeff Samardzija and David Phelps will take the mound.