San Francisco Giants News

With one series standing in between the San Francisco Giants and the All-Star break, casual observers have every reason to believe the organization is on the verge of a fire sale. After dropping two out of three games in Detroit against the Tigers, Bruce Bochy’s ballclub returns home for a three-game set against the Marlins sitting 19 games under .500, 23.5 games back of the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers and with a farm system that needs replenishing.

After stealing a 5-4 victory on Wednesday night against Detroit, the San Francisco Giants entered Thursday’s series finale in an ideal position to fly home with their third consecutive series win. That is, until right-hander Johnny Cueto was scratched minutes before taking the mound.

The Giants will go for their third straight series victory on Thursday morning, but they’ll be forced to do so without starter Johnny Cueto. Cueto was scratched about a half hour before taking the mound on Thursday in Detroit with an inner ear infection, and he’ll be replaced by Giants’ reliever Chris Stratton.

Last offseason, the San Francisco Giants set out to make the ninth inning boring. Over the past decade, Giants’ closers like Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla all enjoyed various stretches of dominance in their role, but for the most part, late-inning situations have been an adventure for San Francisco.

Madison Bumgarner probably hadn’t heard the name D.J. Peters before Wednesday evening. Chances are, Bumgarner won’t remember Peters’ name much beyond Wednesday anyway. But in the fourth inning of Bumgarner’s rehab start in San Jose, the right fielder for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes did his best to leave his name etched in the left-hander’s memory.

There was a growing sense entering his start on Wednesday evening that Ty Blach could be pitching to keep his spot in the San Francisco Giants’ rotation. If that’s the case, Blach put a lock on his spot, and then did his best to hide the key.

For fans of bad baseball teams, there’s no better time of year than the month of July. After watching their favorite teams fail to live up to expectations for three months and counting, fans can at least take comfort in the rapid approach of Major League Baseball’s trade deadline.

The Giants may be on a bit of a hot streak after winning six out of their last seven games, but at 33-52 they still remain three games back behind the Padres and dead last in the NL West. Only the aforementioned Phillies have a worse record at 28-54.

In the midst of his 13th season with the San Francisco Giants, right-hander Matt Cain started the team’s Independence Day contest at Comerica Park in Detroit under remarkably different circumstances than the last time Cain pitched in the Motor City. On Tuesday, a struggling Cain took the ball for the Giants nearly five years after he started Game 4 of the 2012 World Series against the Tigers, a game that extended into 10 innings before San Francisco clinched its second championship in three seasons.

After three saves in San Francisco’s 6-0 week, the Giants’ bullpen was named MLB.com’s Bullpen of the Week.