The San Francisco Giants key to a postseason berth will be their pitching

The San Francisco Giants have been on an incredible hot streak as of late. But will be up to their pitching to carry them to a postseason berth.

Underdogs are a crazy thing. Fans root for them, knowing very well the factors that could contribute to their eventual downfall. For the 2019 San Francisco Giants, it’s those factors that make their recent success that much more remarkable.

The Giants have won 14 of their last 16 games and have been an MLB best 13-2 in the month of July. San Francisco isn’t even just barely gliding along in these games. No, rather they’re soaring on a private jet to the Cayman Islands with the way they’ve been playing lately.

All factors of the Giants’ game are clicking right now. The offense has been superb, leading the league in runs scored in the month of July. Pitching has improved tremendously as the bullpen has been excellent all season, but the starting pitching has seen a drastic improvement.

Even defensively the Giants are making more plays. It’s a complete turnaround for a team that many just assumed would roll more and more into rebuild mode as the season went on.

Yet, here they are — defying all odds in manager Bruce Bochy’s final season. Leaving fans wondering if the team will still be sellers at this year’s trade deadline or if they will opt to stand pat and see if they can continue this current run to a postseason birth.

The fact that the Giants can even be mentioned in the same breath as “postseason” is remarkable in and of itself. Even with this current run of success, the actuality is this.

For San Francisco to make the postseason, the wild card is their best shot as they currently lie two games back of the second spot. If the Giants do manage to obtain that spot, then the team will likely have to rely on its pitching to get them there.

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The Giants bats — as great as they’ve been lately — are likely to cool off at some point. Prior to this current series against the New York Mets, the Giants previous two series were played at Miller Park and Coors Field — two ballparks widely known for playing well offensively.

In the past two games against the Mets, the Giants have only scored four runs, compared to the 40 runs they just scored against the Colorado Rockies. Granted, they have had to face pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, usually a combo that doesn’t bode well for most offenses.

Regardless, however, pitching will have to lead the way.

The likelihood of the pitching staying consistent is much more reliable, as Giants starting pitchers have seen a big improvement as of late. In Friday nights’ game, pitcher Tyler Beede threw the best start of his Major League career going eight innings while striking out five and only allowing three hits.

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Pitcher Drew Pomeranz has also improved immensely pitching over 33 1/3 innings, striking out 41 batters and managing an ERA of just 3.78. Pitcher Jeff Samardzija has also been outstanding, pitching for a record of 7-7 with a 3.93 ERA.

Of course, the Giants have always been able to rely on their ace, Madison Bumgarner. His last start against the Mets was an absolute gem as he went nine innings while only allowing one run on a total of just 94 pitches.

If he does end up getting dealt in an effort to start the selling process for Farhan Zaidi and the front office, the Giants won’t be able to make up for that kind of pitching prowess — even with the improvements of the rest of the staff.

The Giants ability to get to this point is nothing short of remarkable. However, there’s still plenty of season left and many teams have seen their hot streaks run out of gas as the season continues.

And in order for them to keep adding fuel to the proverbial fire, their pitching staff will have to lead the ride towards a wild card berth.