San Francisco Giants: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
The San Francisco Giants are an enigma. This season, they were the best team in baseball early on, but recently, they’ve looked like a desperate team searching for both answers and wins.
In the first half of the season, the Giants had one of the best records in baseball. Their new starting pitchers, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, were providing quality starts, they were playing like a team, and life was good.
In the second half of the season, injuries have piled up, the bullpen has been inconsistent and sometimes unreliable, games have been given away, and time has started to run out.
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The Giants experienced one of their worst losses of the season on Wednesday night when they fell 6-5 to the Colorado Rockies, who are not considered a legitimate threat in the National League. The Giants entered the ninth inning on Wednesday leading 5-3 before giving up three runs and ultimately giving the game away.
These types of losses are the hardest to tolerate. A win was just three outs away for the Giants, and that win was practically gifted to the Rockies. When that happens, it really stings as a fan, especially in September when every win is crucial. A loss like that is even tougher to witness since the Giants have given up their lead in the NL West and are currently clinging on to a wild card playoff spot.
Baseball season is one of the most emotional parts of the year, because it’s such a long, tiring season. 162 games over six months can seem endless at times, and it puts fans on an emotional rollercoaster. Fans can experience extremely uplifting, exciting times during a season while also experiencing depressing, confusing times just a month or so later.
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After seeing the Giants complete such a strong first half of baseball, fans set extremely high expectations for the team that were honestly almost unfair and unrealistic. Fans expected this team to carry their top record into the end of the season and continue to dominate their opponents.
Since baseball season is so long, teams are bound to hit speed bumps, and injuries are unpredictable and can also be extremely significant. These expectations on the team were blown out of proportion. The Giants’ second half performance is frustrating, but this team also tends to make things interesting late in the season and can be rather torturous at times, as we all know, so this isn’t too out of the ordinary for them.
Watching the Giants can be stressful at times, especially now, but fans also have to keep in mind the history of this team. The Giants can make things more difficult on themselves sometimes, but they also have the tendency to peak at the right time. In the years of their World Series runs, they often got hot mid-to-late September and carried that momentum with them into the playoffs and through the World Series.
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A lot of times, the team that ends up winning the World Series gets hot at the right time and stays hot throughout the playoffs. The Giants are notorious for this, and they are known for rising to the occasion when they need to. Fans need to remain hopeful and believe that this team will learn from their recent mistakes, come together as a unit, and bounce back in time.
Yes, the bullpen needs some tweaking. And yes, we could use some more clutch and timely hitting and just general consistency across the board. However, I refuse to be a pessimistic fan that stops believing in their team just because of a recent slump. The Giants’ “never say die” attitude is why I will not give up on them.
The Giants are resilient, they step up when they need to, they win as a team, and they constantly defy expectations. They have three World Series rings to prove it, and they’re set to chase after a fourth one.