Joe Panik

It took until June 12, but the Giants finally enjoyed their first home off day of the season in San Francisco. To date, all of the team’s off days have been spent traveling or in a road city, and Monday’s slice of freedom couldn’t have come at a better time.

After back-to-back subpar offensive outings against the Minnesota Twins, the San Francisco Giants are shaking up their lineup for Sunday’s series finale. But even though the Giants managed just two runs in the first two games of their series with the Twins, manager Bruce Bochy said the team’s struggles at the plate aren’t the reason he’s giving some of his regulars a day off.

It’s been nearly two weeks since Giants’ reliever Hunter Strickland pelted Nationals’ star Bryce Harper with a 98-mile per hour that led to a brawl between the two sides. Though Strickland will have his appeal hearing on Tuesday, there’s another Giants’ player who doesn’t have closure from the May 31 showdown.

A day after launching his third home run of the season, San Francisco Giants’ second baseman Joe Panik was riding the pine. Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy traditionally likes to keep a player that homers in a previous game in the lineup, but on Friday evening, Bochy was left with no choice but to sit his starting second baseman.

The only Giants’ player with an extra base hit on Friday night is second baseman Aaron Hill, and Hill is only in the lineup because the team’s starter can’t go.

The Giants have seemingly invented new ways to lose ballgames in 2017, but in the bottom half of the ninth inning in Milwaukee, it appeared as though they wouldn’t need to get creative.

On Wednesday, San Francisco Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said the left field position has been a “black hole” for his ball club. Perhaps rookie Austin Slater took those words to heart, as the Giants’ rookie left fielder launched his first career home run in the top half of the fourth inning of Thursday’s ballgame.

With no outs in the top of the 8th inning Saturday in the San Francisco Giant’s game against the visiting Cincinnati Reds, Eugenio Suarez smashed a ball to Panik’s left. Panik snagged the grounder, spun, and put a throw on the money to Brandon Belt, who had just moved to first base from left field.

Three San Francisco Giants have been nominated for 2016 Gold Glove awards.

It took more than five and a half hours to complete Game 3 of the NLDS between the Giants and Cubs. For Giants fans, however, Brandon Crawford’s game-winning run off of Joe Panik’s game-winning double was well worth the wait.