If you’re trying to figure out why the San Francisco Giants have managed to win only three of their first eight games, the simplest explanation is this: they’re playing sloppy, uninspired baseball.
As for why they’re playing so poorly, that’s much harder to answer. It’s the kind of mystery that keeps Buster Posey and Tony Vitello awake at night though thankfully my job doesn’t depend on the Giants winning. Yours, unfortunately, involves reading my thoughts whether the team is thriving or falling apart, and right now the Giants look downright ill.
On Monday, they tried to snap out of it and for a short time, it almost worked. They even convinced a few people (myself very much included) that things were turning around.
Because during this two-week skid, the Giants have repeatedly failed at the basics: missing cutoffs, botching tags, making errant throws, struggling in situational hitting, and failing to string together hits. The simple fundamentals that well-paid professionals should handle.
But when the Philadelphia Phillies arrived in town on Monday, the Giants briefly looked like a different team. Early on, they played clean, sharp baseball, even when it didn’t result in runs.
In the first inning, Bryce Harper smoked a liner down the third-base line that looked like an easy double, but Heliot Ramos played it perfectly and nearly threw him out. He didn’t get him Harper was safe by inches but it was smart baseball.
The offense followed with a pair of strong singles from Luis Arráez and Matt Chapman, only for Rafael Devers and Ramos to end the threat. Still, it was competent baseball the Giants hadn’t shown in weeks.
They continued to execute in the third inning. After J.T. Realmuto reached and advanced on a wild pitch, Adrian Houser calmly struck out Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber, then got Harper to ground out — the kind of damage control the Giants have desperately lacked.
Then the bottom of the third happened. Willy Adames started things with a double, Arráez followed with a single, and Arráez took second on a smart read during the throw a clear sign the Giants weren’t beating themselves. Chapman then drilled a first-pitch curveball into triple’s alley, scoring two, and Ramos added an RBI single. Just like that, a dreadful 36-inning streak without a three-run inning was over.
They added another in the fourth, thanks to more clean baseball: back-to-back singles from Harrison Bader and Patrick Bailey, an Adames walk, and an Arráez sacrifice fly that nearly left the park. It felt like everything was finally working as it should.
But it didn’t last.
Houser’s tightrope act snapped in the fifth as the Phillies strung together hits from Realmuto, Justin Crawford, and Harper to cut the lead. He escaped without further damage, but the cracks were showing.
By the sixth and seventh, the collapse was complete. Houser allowed another pair of hits and left with a rally brewing. Vitello turned to Ryan Borucki, whose season has gone poorly especially against right-handed hitters. This time he struggled against lefties, too, walking Schwarber and surrendering a game-tying two-run single to Harper. Because he hadn’t faced the required three batters, he stayed in, gave up an RBI double to Alec Bohm, and after recording one out, exited. Caleb Kilian allowed another inherited run to score on a sac fly.
What had been a 4–2 Giants lead turned into a 6–4 deficit.
Meanwhile, the offense dried up completely. They put only two runners on base from the fifth inning onward a Jung Hoo Lee single in the eighth and an Adames double in the ninth and neither threat amounted to anything.
And so the Giants lost again, 6–4, undone by the same issues that have haunted them all season. For a brief stretch, they looked like a functional baseball team. But only briefly.
