To describe the first 100 games of the Giants season as “up and down” would be selling it incredibly short. There have been spectacular highs and some very brutal lows on the way to a just okay 52-48 mark with 62 games to play. Right now, and for much of the last six weeks, the Giants are entrenched in a struggle that becomes increasingly maddening with each loss.
You’d be hard pressed to find a less inspiring way to come out of the All-Star Break than the way the Giants did it. They were swept in Toronto over the weekend, dropping all three games in uniquely infuriating fashion for fans of the orange and black. On Friday the Giants became the first team in franchise history to record 11+ hits and be shutout since 1959. Justin Verlander again got no run support, but a brutal second inning led to an ugly stat line for the still winless 42-year-old future Hall of Famer.
On Saturday, the Giants took a more conventional approach to their plague of offensive futility. Blue Jays left hander Eric Lauer retired the first 12 batters he faced, before Willy Adames blasted a solo shot that ensured the Giants wouldn’t be no-hit. Adames was essentially the only positive on Saturday, as Logan Webb logged his second straight poor start, and the Giants mustered just four total hits. Adames blasted a second solo shot later in the game.
Sunday, the offense finally showed up as a unit. But it was too little too late, as an uncharacteristically average Robbie Ray start was made worse by an awful misplay in left by Heliot Ramos.
This weekend trip north of the border certainly won’t be making an appearance on the championship DVD.
With the latest low, it’s fair to wonder if it’s time to hit the panic button. 62 games is still a big chunk, but in what will likely be a crowded National League wild card race, the margin of error becomes thinner every day. Murph & Markus made the panic dilemma their question of the day on Monday morning. The hosts were split, with Murph showing more signs of fatigue with this version of the G-men than Markus. Here’s how it sounded.
San Francisco will try to get back on track in Atlanta this afternoon, as Hayden Birdsong makes his first start of the second half.