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San Francisco Giants: Painfully, the Season has Come to an End

By Sean Bialaszek

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 30: Andrew Suarez #59 of the San Francisco Giants is pulled in the third inning during their MLB game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park on September 30, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 30: Andrew Suarez #59 of the San Francisco Giants is pulled in the third inning during their MLB game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park on September 30, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images) /
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Painfully, another disappointing season has come to an end for the San Francisco Giants, and they enter an offseason full of uncertainty.

The season finale ended the same way so many other games have recently for the San Francisco Giants. They sat and watched as their victorious opponents formed a handshake line in the middle of the field, celebrating another win.

On Sunday, the Giants were on the losing end for the 89th time, and this one stung more than most. On Saturday, they rolled over and allowed their archrival Dodgers to clinch a postseason berth, as well as move into a tie for first place as the Rockies lost to the Nationals. The Rockies lost again on Sunday, so when the Dodgers knocked off the Giants to complete their sweep, Los Angeles clinched their sixth consecutive division title.

The Giants sat and watched as the Dodgers celebrated again. They watched while a team that has built with excellent top-end talent, ridiculous depth, and a top-notch farm system, bulldozed their way through them to get back to October baseball. The Giants, with their big contracts, shoddy depth that couldn’t cover for extensive injuries, and lowly farm system, were not even close to a match for the 40 men the Dodgers had on their roster for the final weekend.

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In their send-off to long-time clubhouse leader Hunter Pence, the Giants were picked apart from the very first pitch. Two batters into the game, it was 1-0 Dodgers. After the next batter, it was 2-0 Dodgers. By the end of the third inning, the lead stretched to 9-0, then 12-0 after four, and 14-0 after five.

The Giants could do nothing but watch as Max Muncy, another castoff that has become a star with the Dodgers, hit his 34th home run of the season, a ball that landed in McCovey Cove. Muncy more than doubled up Giants’ home run leader Evan Longoria, who hit 16. The Giants didn’t have a 20-home run hitter for the third straight season. The Dodgers had seven guy go deep 20 times this year alone.

With the Rockies winning two of their three games against the Washington Nationals, the Giants had to win once in their final three games to help Colorado clinch the division. Instead, they lost three in a row. Now the Dodgers and Rockies will have a one-game playoff on Monday to decide the winner of the division.

San Francisco was shut out for just the second time this month, but for the 14th time in September, the Giants scored two or fewer runs. In 26 games over the season’s final month, the Giants scored more than three runs only seven times. They scored 69 runs in September, by far the franchise’s lowest mark for a full month. The 2018 Giants didn’t go out with a bang. They barely went out with a whimper.

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    • The good news is that the loss clinched the Giants the 10th pick in next year’s draft. They ended up 5-21 in the month of September, the worst record for a full month in franchise history, and gained about four positions in the draft with their expert tanking strategy. That’s pretty much where the good news ends.

    Now, the Giants head into an offseason full of uncertainty, even more so than last year following a 98-loss season. First and foremost, they need to find a new general manager. Then that new general manager will have to figure what direction to take this team in after two consecutive losing seasons with a payroll close to $200 million.

    Whoever that new general manager is, they will have many difficult decisions to make. The outfield seems to be completely up for grabs, though Bruce Bochy said he’d be “comfortable” with Steven Duggar as their starting center fielder (that could obviously change, depending on the new guy). He has to figure who to keep and who to offload from the current roster. And maybe the biggest thing is he has to figure out what to do with Madison Bumgarner.

    Next. New GM Has Work Cut Out for Them. dark

    It won’t be an easy offseason, and could be the most interesting for the team in a long time. They have to put someone in charge first, and hopefully that will be the person to bring them out of this hole.

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