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[San Francisco Giants]

Effectively wild

Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

In a game of competing mistakes, the Giants lost...which means they won...

In Friday’s opener between the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants, there was an air of wildness emanating from the mound. Baseballs were skidding across opposite batter’s boxes, digging craters in front of home plate, skipping past catchers to the back stop.

Some of this is by design of course. With count leverage, he doesn’t need to be refined. This game is about hitting a rock with a stick. A crude offering has been known to elicit a crude hack, so why not push those boundaries? Sometimes a pitcher needs to bury a curveball and aims to bounce it off the plate. The gamble is that a ball in the dirt becomes more of a liability, a little less predictable. There are expectations of performance to mitigate these risks: when the pitcher intentionally spikes his throw, it needs to be close enough to the catcher for him to lean over it and smother it; when there’s a ball in the dirt, the catcher doesn’t become a catcher at all, but a blocker.

It was a failure of these expectations that sunk the Braves and floated the Giants on Friday night. One sin committed by a pitcher in the 1st, and once by a catcher in the 10th. Worse yet, both errors happened with two outs, with a runner on third base, and, in a contest decided by one-run, both mattered.

The #SFGiants' MLB-leading SEVENTH walk-off victory of the season ‍

— SFGiants (@sfgiants.com) 2025-06-07T05:30:00.344Z

Braves reliever Pierce Johnson is all junk all the time. He threw 15 pitches in the 9th and 10th innings and 14 of them were curveballs. He got an unproductive out from Heliot Ramos to lead off the 10th, and Jung Hoo Lee rolled a weak grounder to second to advance Tyler Fitzgerald to third. But his command was a bit sporadic. A lot of his offerings were up in the zone, popping out of his hand rather than snapping out of it. Still, the top of the line-up bats couldn’t square it up, and Wilmer Flores fell into a quick 1-2 hole. Count leverage, with pitches to play with and a base to play with, there is no expectation to be too fine, or to overthink what to throw next. Johnson isn’t a reliever in that moment, he’s an undertaker: bury the curve, bury the batter.

You’ll note that in one sense, Johnson does the job. What he throws in the general vicinity of the plate is a curveball down and out of the zone. The initial concept of that 1-2 pitch was for it to come in at that shoe-top height, but just a scooch more to the right. It’s a bad pitch, an easy take — but was it “wild?”

Scorekeepers are fettered to their book. They live on the surface of the action. Interpretative work doesn’t come into play, nor should it. What happened is Johnson hooked a hook into the dirt, and the baseball understandably scooted past catcher Sean Murphy, allowing the winning run to score.

Now that the book is closed on that play, the more critical digging can begin. I think any catcher who’s put the work into becoming a professional backstop will say Murphy went after that offering all wrong. Clearly the pitch missed the location, but with a runner on third, Murphy shouldn’t have tried to pick that hop with his glove. On a pitch away from the intended target, with no room to error, Murphy needs to corral, to block, to keep the ball in front of him. Again, he is no longer a catcher but a blocker. The root cause of this misplay is he’s a 30-year old catcher in the 10th inning of play. It’s also the one-knee down receiving position that’s all-the-rage now. The posture helps with framing pitches by bringing pitches down in the zone up into it, but the drawback is that it grounds the catcher in a less athletic position. It looks like the lateral break of the pitch surprised Murphy. The baseball kept tailing away from him after he committed to gloving it, and by the time it hit the ground, he was knotted up in a clumsy posture with his glove arm stretched across his chest pulling his upper body forward and away from his lower half. His legs hardly moved, he didn’t get completely to his knees, he fell forward going after the ball, and that was the game.

Murphy’s mistake in the 10th foreshadowed byAtlanta starter Spencer Schwellenbach’s mistake in the 1st.

The whoopsie: an overthrown splitter, trying to do too much to get him out of a frustrating first frame. But reality and the official scorebook were aligned here. When the broadcast locates an offering on the infield grass, that’s a cut-and-dry wild pitch.

Even the robots had trouble locating where the baseball ended up. It actually kicked off the dirt closer to the plate, but if a pitch is spiked in front of home plate, there’s really not much Murphy can do. The further away from the catcher the pitch is, the more unpredictable the hop will become. He actually does what he should’ve done in the 10th (an example of the difference in leg-strength, energy level for a catcher in the 1st frame and in extras). He gets on to his feet and wears the ball off his chest, but it’s the Hail-Mary gamble of a goalkeeper on a penalty kick. You have to be big and then guess big. Murphy goes one way, and the baseball goes the other. I mean, if Wilmer Flores is going to be able to score on a wild pitch, it’s got to be real wild.

The wild pitch punctuated a 3-run 1st for the Giants. San Francisco hadn’t scored in the first frame of a game since last Friday, and hadn’t put a crooked number in the 1st since April 19th (3-2 win v Angels). Three consecutive singles by Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Wilmer Flores got things started, and Dom Smith lifted his first of two sacrifice flies to drive in Lee.

And with two outs, the Braves started to pass out gifts. Schwellenbach got what should’ve been a trouble-ending ground ball off the bat of Willy Adames, but third baseman Austin Riley booted it. Schwellenbach then walked Mike Yastrzemski on four-straight pitches before drilling that splitter into the ground.

Two errors, a walk and a wild pitch — a rally partially funded by handouts. It wouldn’t be the last. That frame set the tone for the rest of the game, with both teams seemingly competing in generosity. While the two run-scoring wild pitches take the cake, San Francisco pitching did their darnedest to keep the Braves in this game.

Hayden Birdsong, who struck out 4 through the first three frames, went haywire in the 4th. The strike zone became a mirage, a distant and impossible to attain oasis.

Birdsong hit Matt Olson with a curveball to lead off the inning, then needed just 9 pitches to walk Marcell Ozuna and Ozzie Albies. Alex Verdugo almost immediately cashed in on the rally-for-free, missing a game-changing grand slam by a foot or so. Birdsong ultimately got Verdugo to strike out, but Murphy brought in Atlanta’s first run on a sac fly and Michael Harris III brought in their second on a 2-out, 2-strike single — their first knock of the game.

Birdsong came out for the 5th but an infield single and another walk to Olson ended his night at 90+ pitches. He needed just 46 pitches to get through the first three innings, but required about 50 to record the next four outs. He walked 5 and hit a batter over 4.1 IP, but with Tristen Beck coming on in relief, had his book closed with the lead in-tact, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits while striking out 5.

With Birdsong derailed, the game’s momentum seemed to slide towards Atlanta. The Giants added a run in the 5th on another sac fly by Smith, but the bullpen struggled to come up with stress-free frames. San Francisco pitching surrendered a three-run lead by walking seven batters and hitting two of them over the 10 innings.

Beck had to be pulled in the 6th after giving up a two-out single, throwing a wild pitch, then walking number-9 hitter Nick Allen to bring up Ronald Acuña Jr. A back-up slider from Ryan Walker got Acuña swinging to end the 6th, but in the 7th, he hung another slider (pretty much the same location as the Acuña one) to lefty Matt Olson who did not miss it.

With the game tied, when you’d hope the Giants would lock-in and focus, inhibition won out. They approached both sides of the ball with arms stretched-out, an open hand.

That exposed style of play was the most evident on the bases. Ramos and Lee both reached first to lead-off the 7th against veteran Craig Kimbrel, and without a ball being put in play, both were erased on the base paths.

I don’t mind the caught-stealing by Ramos — it was a close play, and on an elevated fastball, it wasn’t a great pitch to go on. I get the desire to be aggressive and make something happen. Scoring position with nobody out and a contact hitter like Lee at the plate is a good start to a run-producing recipe — but I do think the aggressiveness against a struggling team like Atlanta was a bit near-sighted. Kimbrel clearly hadn’t settled in — it was his first appearance of the 2025 season — and he ultimatey walked Lee on four-pitches. Waiting to see how the at-bat developed would’ve given Ramos enough information to see that Kimbrel would’ve just given second to him for free rather than jumping to the conclusion that he had to take it.

Caught stealing — fine. Risk is part of the fun. The straight pick-off of Lee though was not as forgivable, especially when acting as the winning run with the big thumpers in the line-up at the plate.

Okay, well, live and learn. It won’t happen ag…

If the Giants lost this game, the base running SNAFUs would’ve be the story. Losing the winning run on the basepaths three times in the final three frames is a no-no, especially when some of the team’s hottest hitters were at the plate. Still, in his postgame interview, Fitzgerald didn’t seem too contrite about the pick-off to end the bottom of the 9th. Sounds like this kind of aggressiveness in these lean times is part of the game plan for the Giants.

Outs for free. Then in the 10th, Erik Miller started to hand out bases for free. With two outs, they elected to intentionally walk Murphy to get the lefty match-up with Michael Harris who Miller promptly hit to load the bases and put the go-ahead runner at third. Spencer Bivens took over and nearly walked in the Manfred Man for theBraves fifth run, but Luke Williams couldn’t resist a 3-2 sinker inside, nor could he out-run a Matt Chapman cannon.

A night defined by freebies, and ultimately, it was the scuffling Braves who walked off the diamond looking up to the sky, cursing their dulled killer-instincts that defined their sustained success for so many years. They lost a 6-run lead in the 9th on Thursday, a wild-pitch cost them in this one. They’re now 9 - 17 in one-run games, the Giants are 14 - 12. It was San Francisco’s seventh walk-off win of the year, which leads the Majors; and their twelfth game in a row decided by two-runs or fewer.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...es-walk-off-tyler-fitzgerald-effectively-wild

 

[San Francisco Giants]

6/8 Gamethread: Giants vs. Braves

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Landen Roupp vs. Spencer Strider.

The San Francisco Giants have won four games in a row, each by exactly one run. Today, they’ll try to make it five, and they’ll try to sweep the Atlanta Braves in the process.

On the mound for the Giants is righty Landen Roupp, who makes his 13th start. Roupp is 3-4 on the year, with a 3.18 ERA, a 3.47 FIP, and 61 strikeouts to 22 walks in 62.1 innings. He pitched 6.1 shutout innings against the San Diego Padres his last time out, and has allowed just one earned run in his last four starts.

For the Braves, it’s righty Spencer Strider, who is making his fifth start. The 2023 All-Star has fallen on tough times this year, as he’s 0-4 with a 5.68 ERA, a 6.38 FIP, and 19 strikeouts to eight walks in 19 innings.

Enjoy the game! Go Giants!

---

Game #66​

Who: San Francisco Giants (37-28) vs. Atlanta Braves (27-36)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 1:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area, KNTV

National broadcast: MLB Network, out of market only

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ves-how-to-watch-landen-roupp-spencer-strider

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Yaz haz a day

D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

It’s been awhile since Mike Yastrzemski has got to do the double finger-gun shake celebration thing...

Way back when in early May, Mike Yastrzemski’s batting average sat at .284, his OPS as high as .878, after a 2-hit, 2 RBI game against Colorado.

Yaz’s solid month at the plate was one of the reasons for the San Francisco Giants hot start. His performance forced Bob Melvin’s hand in terms of roster decisions, inserting himself at the top of the line-up to replace a lost LaMonte Wade Jr. Opportunities for Luis Matos to get reps in right dried up because the veteran was so solid on both sides of the baseball.

But even Yaz wasn’t immune to the miasma that settled over the Giants clubhouse last month. In fact, it may have affected him the most. He hit just .215 in May with an OPS of .574. From the start of the Athletics series on May 16th to first pitch Sunday, Yaz was 7-for-60 at the plate with just one extra base-hit, sinking his season average down to .230 and his OPS under .700. He hadn’t knocked in a run since that game against Colorado on May 4th.

Things got so bad that Buster Posey’s recent roster shake-up, while not as drastic as the Wade DFA, served as a bit of a wake-up call for Yaz. One of the moves brought up not a youthful franchise prospect but a beleaguered 29 year-old left-handed outfielder much like Yaz once was.

Daniel Johnson’s presence helped give the 34 year-old some time off to rest his weary bones (he got just three PA in the San Diego series), and it also sent off some alarm bells. I don’t think Yaz has ever taken his position on the roster for granted, but I imagine it still helps to be reminded of one’s impermanence from time to time. Seeing a fresh face roll in and immediately start filling in your spot in the batting order, and playing your position — that would get anybody’s attention.

With some recent days off and some heat on his rear, Yaz came up with game-tying plate appearances twice for the Giants in their 4-3 win over the Braves.

Down 1-0 in the 2nd against Spencer Strider, Yaz got enough barrel to a tough 2-strike fastball to lift it to center deep enough to score Matt Chapman from third.

Down 3-1 in the 4th, Yaz once again came up with runners on second and third, this time without the safety net of a productive out to fall back into. Ronald Acuña Jr. took a hit away from Dom Smith with Chapman and Wilmer Flores on first and second, and Casey Schmitt could only advance them 90 feet on a weakly rolled grounder to third. A knock was needed to even the score, and Yaz delivered, digging a 2-1 slider out from below the zone, striking it hard enough for the baseball to land directly on the right field foul line before tucking itself into the corner.

Yaz would then score on Ozzie Albies’ booted grounder, giving the Giants the lead in the finale for good. Landen Roupp collected his fourth win, riding out a couple of rough frames against the top of Atlanta’s line-up to go six strong innings. San Francisco has now played in seven straight one-run games and won five of them.

Three RBIs, the winning run scored, and a double — the drought ended in a flood… Well, a heavy downpour at least. Yaz needed it. The Giants needed it. The Braves didn’t need it, but we needed it. Maybe Adames needed it too — hopefully the old man’s performance amped him up during his planned R&R before Tuesday’s game in Colorado.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ap-mike-yastrzemski-atlanta-braves-mlb-scores

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Is it over for Wilmer Flores?

Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

It appears that RBIs do not guarantee a spot on the All-Star team.

This post by MLB.com’s Mike Petriello has bothered me the past few days:

I was trying to figure out Wilmer Flores's season because there's some All-Star talk and yet nothing under the hood seems better -- most seems worse? and then I saw: RISP OPS: 1.080 empty OPS: .653 so that explains the RBIs and big moments. But also just cannot last long.

— Mike Petriello (@mikepetriello.bsky.social) 2025-06-08T02:09:47.756Z

It’s important to remember that Mike Petriello is a Dodgers fan first and foremost. The post coincided with the Giants moving to within one game of the Dodgers in the NL West when the Dodgers were supposed to be 10 games up on the division by now. So, this felt like a drive by shooting at a rival while at the same time being emblematic of the very worst that baseball analytics writing offers to the general public: mainly, that it’s no fun.

The average person probably encounters analytics-driven baseball writing in this way:

FAN: Wow, I LOVE this player! That game was fun!

ANALYTICS WRITER: Actually, that guy you love is bad and your definition of fun is wrong!

I’m as guilty of doing this as anyone who writes about baseball online, of course, so I’m well aware that I’m in Hypocrite Mode, but the above post feels more petty than substantial. Might a Dodger fan actually care about the rivalry?

Now, Wilmer Flores is hardly the frontrunner to represent the San Francisco Giants at Truist Park in Atlanta, but three days after All-Star voting opens is an interesting moment to undermine a campaign before one really gets going. And the argument is that he’s not worthy of a spot because a split stat is not sustainable. It’s a weird/funny statement to make: Shut it down, folks! This thing that grabbed your attention is actually a mirage! That number reflects an unrepeatable result!

But, for the moment, let’s compare Wilmer Flores to other players who have been great with runners in scoring position this season:

14 out of the 15 dudes here are mashers. Wilmer Flores is the exception by far. Lots of fans want to believe that a savvy veteran can stay ahead of the performance abyss if they work hard enough, and maybe that’s true. But it’s a safe bet to simply say, “Old guy with bad batted ball data. Therefore, everything you’re seeing is unsustainable and anything that’s not sustainable is dumb luck.” Wilmer Flores is a party favor. His entire career irrelevant to the analysis. At least, that’s usually what’s going on when something like this gets posted for mass consumption. And, in this case, it ignores the pageantry of the game itself.

When I got started on this post, I thought Flores would be listed on the All-Star ballot under designated hitter, in which case Petriello’s comment would make even less sense because — obviously — nobody is going to threaten Shohei Ohtani for NL DH. But then I looked at the thing and there’s Wilmer listed at first base??? What???

Okay, well, now I can see a bit of an issue here. There’s no chance Mets fans and most baseball fans would leave Pete Alonso off their ballot, but then there’s LA’s Freddie Freeman. Surely, he’d make it onto the roster as a reserve because he’s doing well, has a track record of being an All-Star, and the game itself will be played in Atlanta in front of his old fans.

Here’s what MLB.com says about the reserve roster rules:

All of the pitchers and position player reserves are chosen through a combination of Player Ballot selections and choices made by the Commissioner’s Office.

There are 32 roster spots for each league (20 position players and 12 pitchers). The player ballots account for 17 players in both the AL and NL — eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers), as well as one backup for each position, including DH. The Commissioner’s Office is responsible for selecting six additional players in each league (four pitchers and two position players). At this stage, MLB must ensure that every club is represented by at least one All-Star selection.

We can assume that no Giants position player will receive enough votes to make it on the roster, which means Wilmer Flores currently has a 0% chance of being an All-Star for the first time in his career. If the league office intervenes to make sure a Giant needs to be on the team and Logan Webb is unavailable for some reason, then I presume their choice on the position player side would be Matt Chapman, which keeps Flores’s odds at 0%.

But! If Alex Pavlovic’s comments in the May 19th edition of the Giants Talk podcast are accurate, then players across the league have a lot of love for Wilmer. Enough to surpass Freeman (.351 average, 1.009 OPS) or Bryce Harper (.814 OPS but now dealing with a wrist injury) or Atlanta’s Matt Olson (.817 OPS) or fellow DH Kyle Schwarber (20 HR, .927 OPS)? VERY unlikely; however, in this one scenario, I’d say he has a non-zero chance to make the All-Star team as a reserve or injury replacement... so long as the RBIs keep coming.

Admittedly, RBI total is a pretty flimsy All-Star case, but I’m stupid enough to make it despite Petriello the expert’s research and conclusion — I’m a regular RFK Jr. over here! Sure, this will only be read by Giants fans, but that might be good for the rivalry? Here goes...

For a while there, Wilmer Flores ran neck and neck with Aaron Judge for the league lead in RBI, but both have been overtaken by Pete Alonso (61) and Rafael Devers (57). They’re still in the top 10 league-wide and Flores is 4th in the National League.

What if Wilmer Flores is still in the top 10 for RBI on say, July 1st? Would he still have a case?

Here are all the National League players who were in the top 10 for RBI as of July 1st who did not make the NL roster that season.

2024: Willy Adames, Christian Walker, Jake Cronenworth

2023: Francisco Lindor, Christian Walker

2022: Francisco Lindor, Rowdy Tellez

2021: Adam Duvall, Jesus Aguilar

2019: Eduardo Escobar, Marcell Ozuna, Eric Hosmer, Bryce Harper

2018: Anthony Rizzo, Jose A. Martinez

2017: Mark Reynolds (though he was one of the finalists for the final roster spot vote, which ultimately went to Justin Turner), Travis Shaw, Adam Duvall

2016: Jake Lamb (though he was one fo the final roster spot vote finalists — lost to Brandon Belt), Matt Kemp

2015: Starling Marte

That’s an interesting mix of players to be sure with an overriding theme that popular players can create logjams at certain positions (tough breaks for Lindor and Walker). Basically, 2-3 players a year are ignored despite high RBI totals. Wilmer Flores is the exact type of player (corner guy/DH) who gets ignored for reserve roles because that’s a spot where it’s very easy to find great players who missed the cut via fan vote.

He’s been a great story for the Giants this season. The “never made an All-Star team” angle could spark some momentum, but he’ll need to hit better than the .641 OPS he’s sporting here in June (28 PA). If he can get hot, then we nutty Giants fans can feel more justified in circulating this factoid in hopes that players around the league see it: since 2015, just 13 right-handed hitters have had 4,000+ plate appearances in the National League.

Wilmer Flores is the only player yet to be named an All-Star. That alone doesn’t make him worthy, but maybe those RBIs and his reputation might? We’ll have our answer in about a month and the discussion leading up to that announcement should be part of the fun of the season — even if we all know it’s a longshot.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...025-nl-all-star-analysis-san-francisco-giants

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Giants rally in 9th for sixth straight win

Jung Hoo Lee scored the first run and the tying run for the Giants Tuesday night. | Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Thanks to a furious comeback in the 9th inning and contributions from nearly the entire lineup, the SF Giants notched their sixth victory in a row — all by one run.

Down three runs on the road in the top of the 9th Tuesday night, the San Francisco Giants found a way to win. Or perhaps more accurately, the Colorado Rockies found a way to lose.

YAZ LINER FOR THE LEAD pic.twitter.com/6B6fY55OGt

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

Mike Yastrzemski’s two-out single capped a four-run 9th inning that gave the Giants a 6-5 win over the Rockies at Coors Field. As if playing their eighth one-run game in a row weren’t stressful enough, Camilo Doval let three Rockies reach base in the bottom of the 9th, but held on for his 10th save by getting former Giant Thairo Estrada to fly out with runners on first and third.

Doval gets the job done pic.twitter.com/yrmgnTgkF8

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

Erik Miller (3-0) “earned” the win by coming in to walk a batter and strike out another in the 8th, after reliever Spencer Bivens gave up two triples in his third inning of work after Kyle Harrison went five innings (3R, 6K, 4H, but two hits were home runs). One of those triples wasn’t really Bivens’ fault, after a fly ball to left simply eluded Heliot Ramos in left.

Dawgs putting in work.

️ https://t.co/WDjLr0xoEt pic.twitter.com/SymlZ0mT8x

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 11, 2025​

But in the 9th, the Giants got to 24-year-old rookie Zach Agnos, making his 19th career appearance. His first pitch was a bad mistake, a 95 MPH fastball right down the middle that Casey Schmitt hit 408 feet for his first home run of the season.

Schmitt gives the Giants some life pic.twitter.com/ABLLS0KKob

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

If Matt Chapman is out for another week, then it’s now Schmitt’s job to hit dramatic ninth-inning home runs. And also to make clutch defensive plays to bail out struggling pitchers, as Schmitt did starting a 5-4-3 double play in the bottom of the 9th.

What a 5-4-3 double play pic.twitter.com/LVFmeivrZE

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

The bottom of the order kept things going. Tyler Fitzgerald battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a nine-pitch walk. Dan Knizner walked on five pitches. Agnos got his first out on a Jung Hoo Lee groundout that forced Fitzgerald at third, but then he undid the good of erasing the lead runner by throwing a wild pitch. When Willy Adames worked a walk on eight pitches, the Rockies turned to Victor Vodnik, who sounds like a guy who would abduct Liam Neeson’s daughter, in total ignorance of his special set of skills.

Ramos hit a deep fly ball to center to score Knizner and send Lee to third, but the Giants were down to their last out. Plus, they’d loaded the bases, and we all know how well that generally goes for them. The Rockies may have felt a sense of relief, but they didn’t account for the absolute wheels of Wilmer Flores. The Giants DH topped a ball that rolled about 50 feet down the third base line and Vodnik’s throw to first didn’t come close to nailing Wilmer “Crazy Legs” Flores.

WILMER BEATS IT OUT TO TIE IT pic.twitter.com/ifL9d63rMK

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

Lee scored the tying run for the Giants and also their first run. He tripled to lead off the game, then showed off his speed by defying Gold Glover Brenton Doyle to score on a medium fly ball to center from Adames.

Adames knocks in JHL to put the Giants on top quickly pic.twitter.com/rCVuNeYVnq

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

Starter Kyle Harrison didn’t do terribly in his first start at altitude, but he certainly got Coors’d by Kyle Farmer’s line drive homer that barely left the park and gave the Rockies a 3-2 lead.

COL - Kyle Farmer Solo HR (3)

Distance: 376 ft
EV: 104.8 mph
LA: 22°
️ 81.6 mph slurve (SFG - LHP Kyle Harrison)
️ Would be out in 25/30 MLB parks

SFG (2) @ COL (3)
5th#Rockies pic.twitter.com/qXWm4HhEoA

— MLB Home Runs (@MLBHRs_) June 11, 2025​

It’s hard to blame the ballpark for the 424-foot bomb Ryan McMahon delivered in the 4th to give Colorado a 3-2 lead. It would have been out of all 30 major league ballparks and every ballpark in MLB history except the Polo Grounds.

Ryan McMashin'

Vote Ryan McMahon https://t.co/qUYt6Z5yfB pic.twitter.com/5syPKTY6f4

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 11, 2025​

On offense, the Giants were getting opportunities from the wildness of Rockies starter Carson Palmquist, who walked three Giants and hit two more in his 4 innings of work. The Giants wasted two innings where Palmquist beaned runners into scoring position in the 3rd and 4th, then the Giants chased him a walk to Ramos followed a leadoff homer by Adames.

Adames goes yard to tie it up pic.twitter.com/fU7kOw3Zmf

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 11, 2025​

Then came an incredible relief performance that inspired this author’s “Rockies Give Giants The Bird” headline that had to be scrapped after the 9th inning rally. Reliever Jake Bird came in and struck out the first five Giants he faced, on only 19 pitches, then got Knizner to ground out. Between the walk to Ramos and Schmitt’s home run, the Rockies bullpen retired 12 straight Giants, and only the last one even got to a 3-2 count.

The bad news from this game was that Jerar Encarnacion is now 1-for-14 on the season, with his lone hit coming on an infield single. The team went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. The late-inning pitching still seems quite volatile, even if some of the pitching and defense worries were extremely Coorsy.

But ultimately it was a sixth straight win. Even with the Rockies falling to 12-51, Coors Field remains a world where the laws of physics don’t always apply and where curveballs go to die, which also includes slurves like the one Farmer hit out. And if the Giants hitters who are struggling are going to break out anywhere, it’ll probably at a mile above sea level.

A great win for the Giants, and another great business opportunity for Bay Area cardiologists. One-run wins count exactly the same in the standings after all.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ants-rally-9th-for-sixth-straight-win-rockies

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Wednesday BP: Matt Chapman Injury Update

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

The Giants placed Matt Chapman on the 10-day injured list yesterday with right-hand inflammation, recalling Christian Koss from Sacramento.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants placed Matt Chapman on the 10-day injured list yesterday for right hand inflammation. Chapman jammed his throwing hand during Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves while attempting to dive back to first base in the eighth inning, before ultimately getting picked off.

Although x-rays were negative, Chapman said after Sunday’s game that he could feel his hand starting to feel stiff, and expressed worries about ligament damage in his fingers. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, Chapman is scheduled to see hand specialist Dr. Steve Shin on Friday in Los Angeles and the team is expected to know more after that.

Bay area fans may remember Dr. Shin as the doctor who performed hand surgery on Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. He is also the Los Angeles Dodgers’ hand specialist. Hat tip to our own Bryan Murphy for that info.

In the meantime, the Giants have recalled infielder Christian Koss from Triple-A Sacramento, where he was sent in last week’s flurry of moves.

With the margin of error lately being precisely one-run, Koss and other members of the Giants’ offense will need to pick up the slack big time. Especially as the team faces the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, where runs rain down like flames from angry gods.

Also, don’t forget to vote for the All Star Game! As a reminder, we’re still doing a push for Chapman, as well as Wilmer Flores, Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee. Vote early, vote often, and go Giants!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...nts-matt-chapman-injury-update-christian-koss

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Another Mile-High comeback gives SF Giants 7th straight win

Mike Yastrzemski ties the game with an RBI double Wednesday night. | Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The Giants mounted another late-inning comeback at Coors Field, turning a 6-3 deficit into a 10-7 victory

The San Francisco Giants broke their streak of one-run games Wednesday night at Coors Field, but they kept alive their more important streak of winning baseball games. Trailing by three runs in the late innings for a second straight game, the Giants put together a four-run inning for the second straight game, than tacked on three more in the 9th for a 10-7 win over the Colorado Rockies and a seven-game winning streak.

YAZ COMES THROUGH ‼ TIE GAME pic.twitter.com/TaDhPCDoWH

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Maybe the Giants are paying tribute to the dearly departed LaMonte Wade, Jr. by saving their most impressive offensive explosions for after the sun goes down over the Rockies. Or, the baseball goes down in front of the actual, baseball-playing Rockies, like on Casey Schmitt’s RBI single in the 9th.

Schmitty drives in Willy pic.twitter.com/4fhiegVgzx

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Still, the Geneva Convention still forbids the kind of fan treatment caused by the bottom of the 9th inning. Protecting a four-run lead, Camilo Doval walked a batter, gave up a home run, and two more singles before getting Orlando Arcia to ground out to end it.

You know who likes hitting in Denver? Willy Adames, who got his batting average back above .200 and collected three RBIs. One night after he homered, scored two runs, and drove in two at Coors Field, Adames started the Giants’ scoring by driving in Jung Hoo Lee with a two-run homer in the first inning off starter Kyle Freeland.

Two straight games with a homer for Willy Adames pic.twitter.com/F1GhSRbWSu

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Adames had three runs, three hits, and three RBIs in the win. He got his third RBI on a play where, just like Tuesday night, Jung Hoo Lee turned a shallow fly ball into a sacrifice fly thanks to his intimidating speed.

Another Adames RBI thanks to Lee's speed pic.twitter.com/HAlDH76Cee

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

The Giants’ big free-agent shortstop started off both of their late-inning rallies. Trailing 6-3, Adames led off the 8th inning with a single, followed by a Heliot Ramos single and a one-out single from pinch-hitter Dominic Smith. Casey Schmitt fouled off four pitches on his way to an eight-pitch walk, then Mike Yastrzemski crushed a Tyler Kinley (0-3) slider to right, just missing a grand slam but driving in two runs and tying the game.

How did the Giants tie the game? With last night’s loser Zach Agnos in to pitch, Bob Melvin called a safety squeeze for Tyler Fitzgerald that seemingly led to Schmitt getting nailed at home plate. But Melvin challenged the call and won, and the Giants had a 7-6 lead.

Schmitt is SAFE after BoMel's challenge, and the Giants lead pic.twitter.com/vj2Gqv71oY

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Safety squeeze at Coors Field? Let’s freakin’ go.

With Agnos still in the game, possibly out of some misguided ideas of tough love from Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer, the Giants loaded the bases with no one out with two walks sandwiched around an Adames double. After a Wilmer Flores sac fly, Schmitt singled in Adames and Yaz grounded a single for the Giants’ 10th run.

Schmitt is SAFE after BoMel's challenge, and the Giants lead pic.twitter.com/vj2Gqv71oY

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Giants starter Robbie Ray cruised through two relatively uneventful innings before the Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman drove in Colorado’s first run with an RBI double. Goodman also went deep on Doval in the 9th and finished 3-for-5 with two doubles. For the series, Goodman is 5-for-10 with two doubles, a triple and a home run. He’s going to be tough to face for the next two-and-a-half seasons before the Rockies trade him for a disappointing return to save money.

4-run frame pic.twitter.com/OD6s24fTaH

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

Ray did induce an easy ground ball to second base from Giants hero Thairo Estrada with runners on second and third, but it turned into disaster when Jerar Encarnacion’s scuffling return to the Giants scuffled a whole lot harder. He couldn’t handle a pretty basic throw from Fitzgerald, and both runners scored. After a walk, another out, and an RBI single, the Rockies had a 4-3 lead.

4-run frame pic.twitter.com/OD6s24fTaH

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

Tristan Beck relieved Ray after the 4th inning, after Ray finished with a line of 4R, 2ER, 6H, 2BB, and 5Ks. While Beck did give up two runs, he held down the fort for three innings and earned his first win of the season.

The Giants lineup lost another member when Patrick Bailey joined Matt Chapman on the injured list. New catcher Logan Porter caught three innings without incident to close the game, though he struck out looking while Tyler Fitzgerald was caught stealing to end the 8th inning. But Schmitt has done an incredible job subbing for Chapman so far, hitting 4-for-8 with two runs and three RBIs in this series and showing off an amazing glove.

What a play by Casey Schmitt pic.twitter.com/DbK56KYuDu

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Do the Giants have the two best defensive third basemen in baseball? They just might.

While the Giants are thriving in late-night baseball, they’ll have to get it done in daylight in tomorrow afternoon’s contest with the Rockies if they want the series sweep. Spread the word. The San Francisco Giants are an offensive powerhouse now! At least after the 7th inning.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...k-sf-giants-7th-straight-win-colorado-rockies

 

[San Francisco Giants]

6/12 Gamethread: Giants @ Rockies

Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Hayden Birdsong vs. Antonio Senzatela

The San Francisco Giants conclude this three-game series against the Colorado Rockies this afternoon from Coors Field.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Hayden Birdsong, who enters today’s game with a 2.55 ERA, 3.59 FIP, with 45 strikeouts to 17 walks in 42.1 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Friday, in which he allowed two runs on two hits with five strikeouts and five walks in four and a third innings.

He’ll be facing off against Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who enters today’s game with a 6.68 ERA, 5.38 FIP, with 33 strikeouts to 21 walks (and a league-leading 101 hits allowed) in 62 innings pitched. His last start was in the Rockies’ 4-2 loss to the New York Mets on Friday, in which he allowed three hits and four walks with two strikeouts in four innings.

---

Game #69​

Who: San Francisco Giants vs. Colorado Rockies

Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

When: 12:10 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ow-to-watch-hayden-birdsong-antonio-senzatela

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Rockies turn tables on SF Giants in 8-7 walkoff win

Dominic Smith channels Steph Curry by chewing on his mouthpiece after a home run. | Photo by Geneva Heffernan/MLB Photos via Getty Images

The Giants were one strike and one costly error away from sweeping the Rockies before Colorado’s three-run 9th gave them an 8-7 win.

Coors Field giveth, and Coors Field taketh away. After two games where the San Francisco Giants rallied back from big deficits, the Colorado Rockies turned the tables on them Thursday. The Giants had a 7-2 lead after five innings, but the Rockies chipped away at the lead and won it on Orlando Arcia’s two-out, two-strike, two-run walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th for an 8-7 win, denying the Giants a sweep.

Happy flight and sweet dreams TONIGHT!#Rockies x @denvermattress pic.twitter.com/gv1KClXVb0

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

Randy Rodriguez came close to retiring the Rockies in the 9th on two separate plays. He initially got a lot of help from his defense, specifically Jung Hoo Lee,

After two walks and a Thairo Estrada double loaded the bases with one out, Rodriguez faced Brenton Doyle and induced a double-play ball to Casey Schmitt at third that could have ended the game. But Schmitt bobbled the ball and everyone was safe. After Rodriguez struck out pinch-hitter Hunter Goodman, he went to 0-2 on Arcia and his next pitch just missed outside. Three pitches later, Arcia singled to left to score Doyle.

It was a reversal of the previous two games, when it was the Giants scoring big in late innings. In this one, they built a big lead, thanks to a big game from new first baseman Dominic Smith and a very solid start from Hayden Birdsong, making his Coors Field debut.

Smith homered and went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs. The big blow came in the 5th inning off starter Antonio Sanzatela, who gave up seven runs and nine hits in 4+ innings. Smith followed a Wilmer Flores double and a Mike Yastrzemski walk with his first home run as a Giant — a 433-foot bomb into the second deck in right field.

Dominic Smith's first Giants homer didn't disappoint pic.twitter.com/YzCBRdK6Cg

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

That hit chased Senzatela, but the remaining Colorado relievers held the Giants to just two hits over the next five innings. They got runners on first and second in both the 7th and 9th innings, but the rallies were snuffed out by double plays each time.

Smith reached on an infield hit in the second as the Giants batted around and turned five singles, a walk, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly to score four runs. Logan Porter got his first hit and first RBI as a Giant for the team’s second run, then came around to score on Heliot Ramos’ two-run single.

Logan Porter's first hit as a Giant to extend the lead pic.twitter.com/j0Q7VlcX9p

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Ramos caps off a four-run inning for the Giants pic.twitter.com/pLDWwfM5EK

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Birdsong acquitted himself well in his first start at altitude. Through 3 2⁄3 innings, he’d only given up a single infield hit, but with two out in the fourth inning, another infield hit, two more singles, and a walk led to two Rockies runs after a two-run single from rookie Ryan Ritter.

Ritter stays hot! pic.twitter.com/DKGU3rrCEl

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

In his final inning, Birdsong gave up a home run to Mickey Moniak, who homered in his second straight game. If it makes you feel better about the loss, the home run hit a sign that meant the Rockies will donate $15K to a service dog charity.

Mickey Moniak’s home run hit the mitt, which means @uchealth’s donation to @FreedomSvcDogs is at $15,000. pic.twitter.com/sU3jxMxGSk

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

They also earned tacos for their fans by scoring seven runs, and let’s be honest: Fans who are still supporting the Rockies in 2025 absolutely deserve free snacks for their loyalty.

https://t.co/cmLbIKiVtw pic.twitter.com/0fMKV8Ah62

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

The Rockies put themselves in position for their dramatic rally thanks to a two-run double from Estrada, who still might resent the Giants for choosing Brett Wisely and Christian Koss over him, to which we say: Fair enough.

Estrada doubles in a pair pic.twitter.com/H4Qih5gaWD

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 12, 2025​

It’s rough that the Giants missed a chance to sweep, but they also could have been swept without a few fortunate plays. Now it’s on to Los Angeles, where they’ll be ready to start another seven-game win streak. Right? RIGHT?

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...urn-tables-sf-giants-8-7-win-colorado-rockies

 

[San Francisco Giants]

What might a Buster Posey edition of “Wheeler for Beltrán” look like?

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Is this the bold move that the Giants need in 2025?

The San Francisco Giants have probably put themselves in a position where they shouldn’t stand pat at the trade deadline, and that means it’s time to consider the implications of that. Their 40-29 record is their third-best start to a season in a decade after 2021 (44-25) and 2016 (43-26). Is this the year to go big?

Fourteen years ago, Buster Posey’s shattered ankle compelled Brian Sabean to trade top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler to the Mets for the Hall of Fame-bound Carlos Beltrán. He had a .920 OPS in 44 games, but he missed a couple of weeks with injury soon after the trade and that missing time was enough to prevent the Giants from getting back to the postseason after winning the World Series in 2010.

The 2025 Giants aren’t quite as motivated. The hard work of reestablishing relevance by course correction has been completed. Dominic Smith, Daniel Johnson, and Andrew Knizner aren’t the depth moves that would’ve been made in recent seasons nor are they the final moves Buster Posey and Zack Minasian will make this season, but if the tweaks are working, is there a strong need to land a big fish on the position player side via trade?

I’m now several days late to Tim Kawakami’s article at The San Francisco Standard that talks about Posey’s admiration for the Wheeler for Beltrán deal of 2011. The tone hypes a big trade narrative (though is quick to mention that it’s no guarantee), and we’ve heard stories since the offseason that Buster Posey has been trying to swing big trades, so there’s certainly reason to believe that the Giants are interested in going big at the deadline. Is there a “Wheeler for Beltrán” comp out there?

I can only figure that out by considering a few details from the original deal:

• We don’t need to get caught up in what Zack Wheeler has become (a #1 starter who is pitching his way into the Hall of Fame), only keep in mind that he was the team’s #1 prospect at the time (I’m bumping him up because Brandon Belt had already been promoted).
• Carlos Beltrán was already a no doubt Hall of Famer at the time of the swap and on an expiring contract.
• Sandy Alderson was alleged to have asked for either Wheeler or OF Gary Brown (the team’s #2 prospect) for Beltrán, and Brian Sabean went with Wheeler.

It’s difficult to generate a 2025 equivalent because there isn’t a no doubt Hall of Famer in the final year of his contract out there and we don’t know who the Giants’ top pitching prospect is. As Andrew Baggarly points out in his trade deadline primer this morning:

Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow shared an interesting insight in an appearance on KNBR last week.

“Buster Posey recently asked me, ‘Between Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and (Kyle) Harrison, who do you think is the best one?’” [...]

Is Posey already beginning to assemble a pecking order when it comes to the Giants’ wealth of young pitching? It certainly seems that way.

Carson Whisenhunt is technically the team’s top pitching prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. That gives four possible options, though as Baggarly suggests, Roupp’s age (26) probably bumps him out of the mix in a headline-grabbing deal. But, I’m trying to put together a 1:1 comp here, so I need to make a decision. In that case, I agree with Mike Krukow’s conclusion: it’s Kyle Harrison. He’s got the best upside of the bunch with a limited enough track record that other teams can still dream on him. Birdsong and Roupp can be seen as development successes with a more limited upside, and Whisenhunt’s lack of major league experience might make him less appealing. So, yeah, Kyle Harrison is our Wheeler.

If the 2025 Sandy Alderson equivalent asked for the 2025 Wheeler or the 2025 Brown in exchange for the 2025 Carlos Beltrán, then, that would be either Harrison or Eldridge for 2025 Carlos Beltrán. Which leads us to the last problem: there is no 2025 Carlos Beltrán.

Not exactly.

In the 13 seasons prior to Carlos Beltrán’s 2011, he had amassed 55.1 fWAR. The equivalent players in 2025: Jose Altuve (57.8), Paul Goldschmidt (55.8), Francisco Lindor (54.3), Manny Machado (53.6), Bryce Harper (52.5), Jose Ramirez (51.5), Aaron Judge (51.4), Nolan Arenado (50.7). I must also note that Buster Posey is right after Harper (52.4), but he’s not active.

Since I can’t imagine why Houston would trade Jose Altuve, the only plausible (though still highly improbable) move, then, would seem to be Kyle Harrison for Paul Goldschmidt. I’m not sure either team makes that move. Beltrán was in his age-34 season at the time of the deal and the Mets were muddling through a rebuild. Goldschmidt is 37 and the Yankees are in 1st place in part because of him. I don’t discount that Buster Posey values experience and track record and in-season performance over age, but the Yankees say no immediately.

The only other player who stands out is Kyle Schwarber. The left-handed DH is in the final year of his deal, is just 32, and is on a 40-home run pace once again. The Phillies, though, are in 2nd place, and Schwarber’s a key part of their inconsistent lineup. They also have the third-best pitching staff in the sport, so they don’t need what the Giants are offering. The only reason I’m bothering to mention him is that the team hit a 1-9 skid recently and that’s got people wondering if it’s time for them to shake things up.

So, as you can see, the lack of a Beltrán-type makes this comparison all but impossible. When we start to consider other players who could help the lineup but don’t fit the potential/actual Hall of Famer mold, the truth is laid bare: which pitcher should the Giants deal in order to upgrade the lineup? Take away “top prospect,” too, and the exercise becomes a little easier.

Ryan O’Hearn has been a guy the McCoven have been pushing for since at least last season. The 31-year old 1B/DH has a .798 OPS in his three seasons with the Orioles, and this year he’s slashing .307/.389/.482 in 229 PA.

The Angels’ Tyler Ward has the fourth-best ISO (Isolated Power) average (.267) in the sport behind Judge, Schwarber, and Arizona’s Eugenio Suarez. He’s hit 18 home runs in 66 games this season. The Minasian Brothers just completed their first trade, but I don’t see them completing one that involves Ward because, as with O’Hearn, I’m not sure I see the value for the Giants in trading away a potentially great player for an adequate one.

Ward is under team control for another season, so that might be enough motivation, but he’s basically had one great season (136 wRC+ in 2022). He’s slashed .239/.313/.434 over the past three seasons, a 107 wRC+; and, after posting a 9.5% walk rate in each of the past two, it’s down to 7% here in 2025 and his strikeout rate has jumped to 28%. I don’t think the Giants should trade Kyle Harrison or Carson Whisenhunt or Hayden Birdsong for another Jerar Encarnacion. Maybe Landen Roupp.

The other part of “Wheeler for Beltran” is that it was a sensible bold move. The upside was greater than the downside and both teams benefited. In an age Moneyball-addled introverts who only care about zero sum operation, imbalance is the starting point and bold can only mean more downside risk. Mike Elias was a genius until he wasn’t, and it’s easy to imagine him asking for the Giants’ top prospect for O’Hearn and settling for some other team’s 15th-best prospect when Posey doesn’t budge. The market is populated by irrational actors who seek to take advantage of the new guy and the former jock.

If Buster Posey wants to make a bold move, then he’ll have to get wild.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...look-like-san-francisco-giants-trade-strategy

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Saturday BP: Who is your pick for Player of the Week?

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Another week of Giants baseball is coming to a close, so it’s time to find out who Giants fans think was the Player of the Week!

Good morning, baseball fans!

We’re coming to the end of another week of San Francisco Giants baseball, which means it’s time to take a look back at the week that was and make our picks for this week’s Player of the Week!

This week, my pick has to be Willy Adames. After facing quite a bit of scrutiny about his performance thus far this season, Adames showed up in the series against the Colorado Rockies in a big way. Over those three games, he had five hits, five runs, five RBI and two home runs.

That is definitely how you take advantage of a Coors Field series. Well done!

Two straight games with a homer for Willy Adames pic.twitter.com/F1GhSRbWSu

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025​

Who is your pick for Player of the Week?​

Also, don’t forget to vote for the All Star Game! As a reminder, we’re still doing a push for Matt Chapman, Wilmer Flores, Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee. Vote early, vote often, and go Giants!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ncisco-giants-player-of-the-week-willy-adames

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Sunday BP: What were your favorite highlights of the week?

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Another week of Giants baseball comes to an end today, so let’s see what Giants fans think were the best highlights of the week!

Good morning, baseball fans!

Another week of San Francisco Giants baseball comes to an end today as the Giants wrap up their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers later today.

This means it’s time for us to pick our favorite highlights of the week!

This week, I have to give the honors to the 9th inning comeback in Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies. Wednesday’s game also featured a late-game comeback, but there’s something about scoring four runs in the ninth inning to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat that just sticks with you. Probably something to do with it not being your team that gave up four runs in the ninth. It’s pretty great!

What were your favorite highlights of the week?​

Also, don’t forget to vote for the All Star Game! As a reminder, we’re still doing a push for Matt Chapman, Wilmer Flores, Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee. Vote early, vote often, and go Giants!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...5-san-francisco-giants-highlights-of-the-week

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Giants get good news...but still lose

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

San Francisco dropped the series finale against LA 5-4, while off the field they celebrated the trade for Rafael Devers

The San Francisco Giants dropped the rubber match against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday with a 5-4 loss — a game that felt a bit peripheral in the wake of splashy Rafael Devers trade.

The news took the clubhouse by surprise just as it did the rest of the baseball world. Willy Adames, interviewed on-field by ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcasters, commented that the team found out just 15 minutes before they took the field. Projected starter turned trade-piece, Kyle Harrison, had already done his pregame bullpen session before he was ushered back into the clubhouse, out of his orange-and-black duds and rushed to LAX.

The Giants pitching plan came together on a fly. Sean Hjelle took the ball for his first career start and performed serviceably considering the situation and the fact that our ears were still vicariously ringing after the pounding Landen Roupp took yesterday. Hjelle would strike out 5 over 3.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks.

Though initially down 2-0 after a sacrifice fly in the first from Andy Pages and a solo homer by Tommy Edman in the 2nd off starter Sean Hjelle, the Giants grabbed the lead in the 4th with a 2-out, 3-run rally against carrot-top starter Dustin May.

A hit-by-pitch by back-up to the back-up catcher Logan Porter preceded a single from Mike Yastrzemski before Christian Koss punched an RBI single up the middle. With the line-up turned over, Jung Hoo Lee tucked a 103 MPH grounder between first base and the outstretched glove of Freddie Freeman. The rolled into the right field corner allowing both runners to score before Lee settled at third for his fifth triple of the year.

The Giants had a chance to add-on to their lead in the top of the 5th with Dom Smith hustling around the bases from first on a two-out gapper to left by Tyler Fitzgerald. Left fielder Kiké Hernandez slid to keep the ball from rolling to the fence, but didn’t come up with it cleanly and overthrew the cut-off causing the baseball to kick around the infield. Smith charged around third but ultimately heeded Matt Williams’ stop sign (call-back to Heliot Ramos blowing through one on Friday). Both runners would end the inning stranded out there.

A one-run lead was going to be a dice-y endeavor to protect for six innings. Yesterday’s blow-out meant typical bridge arms like Spencer Bivens and Tristen Beck were off the table, nor was Jordan Hicks available since he had just been dispatched to Boston. Relief options were sparse. Bob Melvin called on recent addition Joey Lucchessi to hopefully span the gap to the higher leverage arms in the later innings and manage the heavy lefty swings at the top of the LA order. The veteran southpaw closed out the 4th but got himself into trouble in the 5th, giving up lead-off singles to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. He got Freddie Freeman to ground out to second, advancing both runners into scoring position before passing the baseball on to Ryan Walker to find a way out of the mess.

For a moment, Walker did. A flash of light appeared at the end of the inning’s dark tunnel when he struck out Teoscar Hernández, who had homered in the previous two games.

There was a way out of the fray. A hit or an error was required to tie up the game, and Ryan Walker had the same-side advantage over Andy Pages.

But Pages, living in the shadow of the top of the LA line-up, is out of the spotlight and driving opponents mad. He’s playing Gold Glove caliber defense in center, hitting for average, and most frustratingly, batting .381 with a .900-plus OPS with runners in scoring position.

He rocketed his first pitch deep and left of the left field foul line. I didn’t even finish exhaling my sigh of relief before Pages shot Walker’s next offering — a very, very bad, terrible, rotten hang-dog slider — over the wall and deep and very much right of the left field foul line.

A three-run, lead-swapping shot that proved to be the decider. Daniel Johnson lifted a solo shot in the 8th — his first homer as a Giant and first since 2021 — to get San Francisco within one, but three swinging K’s from the 2 thru 4 hitters in the 9th sealed the deal.

A series loss to the Dodgers is a series loss to the Dodgers. A certified bummer no matter the circumstances. BUT...there’s reasons to feel okay about, or find peace with, this outcome. One: taking 1 of 3 against the Dodgers in LA is nothing to sneeze at. Two: the Giants threw together this pitching plan with a depleted relief corps minutes before first pitch, and they didn’t get absolutely torched by one of the best offenses in the Majors. Sweet! Three: the Giants weren’t even supposed to be here, remember? Back in March, the division wasn’t supposed to be in play. By this first head-to-head match-up these two teams were supposed to be miles apart. Here we are in mid-June and the Giants are dogging LA’s shiny blue heels. Not only is San Francisco a threat — but now they’re evolving.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-recap-dodgers-rafael-devers-trade-mlb-scores

 

[San Francisco Giants]

The Aftermath

Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Giants acquired a great player — or did they?

Because I’m one of the dumbest people to ever suck air, I’ve had to develop some strategies to protect against my intellectual deficits. One of them has been to always be skeptical of my joy, because chances are that I’m too stupid to see how it’s wrong to enjoy something for some reason. This strategy was invoked yesterday. I thought it was a good idea for the San Francisco Giants to trade for slugger Rafael Devers. I mean, just watch all of these highlights from last season:

215 home runs (18th in MLB), 696 RBI (10th), and 273 doubles (5th), since his debut in 2017, and a career line of .279/.349/.510 to go with three All-Star selections, two Silver Slugger awards, and MVP votes in five of the last six seasons. I would consider him a great hitter. What position will he ultimately play? TBD, but that’s not my focus right now!

President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey told the KNBR morning show that ownership impressed him through the long process of acquiring Devers.

They want a championship-caliber team out there and this is a huge signal. [...] Hopefully, signals to the fan base [...] that our goal is to be the last ones standing.

That sounds good to me. I like that my team has ambitions and takes concrete steps to make them happen. The Giants have tried and failed to use their money advantage to sign guys so we always knew that a big trade would have to satisfy the big fish need. In order to do that, the team would have to buck the industry trend of being too precious with their prospects. They finally have some of note who could be moved and they pulled the trigger. Posey’s behavior is better than the alternative (hemming and hawing), right?

There were some concerns within Giants HQ in recent years that Farhan Zaidi wasn't decisive enough to pull off the kind of blockbuster trade that Buster Posey just did. https://t.co/1bEBiVDcHx

— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) June 16, 2025​

Plus, acquiring Devers led to this funny (to me, anyway) discovery:

Buster Posey asked if he could re-sign Brandon Belt, Larry Baer said no way, and so Zack Minasian helped him find a workaround.

— Bryan Murphy (@bryanmurphy.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T04:05:32.106Z

But at the end of the day, this is Dumb Fan Pleasure. According to 100% impartial sources, this trade is a borderline disaster for the Giants. My favorite kind of baseball analysis is The Thing You Think Is Good Is Actually Bad You Stupid Idiot, and the national baseball writers didn’t disappoint!

Here’s MLB.com’s Mike Petriello:

I think where I'm at right now is "I don't like this for either team"

— Mike Petriello (@mikepetriello.bsky.social) 2025-06-15T23:51:18.441Z

I get the Giants wanting to add a big bat, and Devers has been really good this year. I also think this is a pretty big ballpark downgrade for him, and also 3B/1B are both spoken for in SF for a while, so he's a full-on DH for.. ever?

— Mike Petriello (@mikepetriello.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T01:00:57.059Z

.941 OPS home .792 OPS road For Devers over the last two seasons.

— Mike Petriello (@mikepetriello.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T01:03:31.843Z

and three-year LHB park factors: 2. Fenway 26. San Fran.

— Mike Petriello (@mikepetriello.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T01:06:32.358Z

Baseball Prospectus’s Jarrett Seidler goes a bit deeper into the numbers:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more obviously obscenely underwater contract get moved without retention and with only a minor offset. Wowwwwww

I can evaluate this as a cold baseball deal like the Red Sox FO likely did, or I can evaluate this the emotions, but if you ask me what the Red Sox are doing, it’s probably dumping him before the car goes off a cliff no matter what they say to the media about the other stuff

Moving on from a DH running a 75 zcon for his last 1000 PA, which is not really a profile you want to owe hundreds of millions to over the next decade

[Strike Zone Contact Rate...] is generally a very good predictor of future hit tool when combined with other stuff

The plain English version is that for the last year and a half Devers has been the only hitter in the league who makes contact at a 20 grade level within the zone who doesn’t suck

the group of teams that are both good and spendy enough to make this move in-season are mostly comprised of leadership which are going to run Devers’s current deal into an advanced model which spits out a result like “welp that’s like $100 million more than you should be committing to him”

This is a salient point in the analysis. We all figure that the last 5-6 years of Devers’ deal will be bad to really bad, but there’s evidence that it’s going to be bad immediately, too. Out of 125 qualified hitters since the start of last season, Rafael Devers is DEAD. LAST. in players’ contact percentage in the strike zone. That’s... significant!

But let’s take a look at zone contact in the Statcast era and see if we can find any solace from low Z-contact guys over the years.

So, I take a little solace here because there are some guys on here who have wound up being okay despite having seasons with lots of swing and miss in the zone (Willy Adames, Ronald Acuna Jr., Luis Robert, Matt Chapman) — but only a little. There are a couple of caveats, as you can see:

• There are a lot of 2020 seasons on this list. That was a 60-game season during a global pandemic. Are those rates illustrative of anything other than that?
• You don’t see a lot of guys who wound up being okay show up on this list more than once.

It’s important to keep in mind that we haven’t even played half the season yet, so there’s a nonzero chance that Devers’ rate improves, thereby making 2024 the outlier rather than the trend. I’ll admit that I feel this is unlikely, but regardless of my feelings, it’s plausible.

The general tone of the criticisms is that Devers is a bad player because of his contract. That it’s “underwater” already and that the ~$250 million the Giants owe him over the next ~8 years (not exact because there are actually several years of deferrals built in) makes the trade a heresy against efficient baseball. Add in the negative measure data — despite the All-Star results — and you have a perfect turd of a deal according to totally impartial sources. I am giving tremendous credit to Mike Petriello (Dodgers fan) and Jarrett Seidler (Mets guy) and even former Dodgers beat writer and close friend of Clayton Kershaw, Andy McCullough, the benefit of the doubt that they think Devers is a bad player and that’s why the deal is bad for the Giants. Said McCullough, who gave the Giants a “C” for the acquisition:

He is, for sure, one of the top 15 to 20 hitters in the sport, and he will help the lineup of a San Francisco club that has kept pace with the Dodgers in the early months of the season.

The question for the Giants, though, is if he will remain among that group during the subsequent nine years of his deal, during which San Francisco will owe him $250 million, in his age-29 to age-36 seasons. Anyone with easy access to an actuarial table can tell you how those things tend to go.

Now, is it easy to imagine all three of these guys rationalizing it differently if the Dodgers or Mets traded for Devers? A thousand times yes. Petriello and McCullough’s immediate defensiveness is more naked homerism than Seidler’s immediate thumbs down and “the industry’s” belief that the contract was underwater before the ink dries isn’t all that compelling to me because most of the teams are spending less than the Giants as a general policy. The criticisms shouldn’t stick for the simple reason that a lot of the same naysayers had concluded that the Giants would need to overpay to land a slugger because they can’t obtain (or develop them otherwise). The moment they do, it’s suddenly a bad deal?

The Giants are a rich team. Thinking about their payroll flexibility is the height of concern trolling in that it’s wholly ignorant. The Giants added the type of player they haven’t had in the organization since Barry Bonds. They have tremendous payroll flexibility (CBT payrolls the next 4 years, per Cot’s MLB contracts: $160.2MM, $135.8MM, $136.3MM, $118.8MM) along with the highly valued asset of “controllable arms.”

The ultimate test is how Devers does in a Giants uniform. Does he make the Giants better? Ben Clemens put it best last night on FanGraphs:

Guys like Devers don’t grow on trees. Want an example of what I mean? There are no players on either the Red Sox or Giants projected for a better batting line the rest of the season. In 2024? You guessed it: No player on either the Red Sox or Giants produced a higher wRC+ than Devers. There are better hitters than Devers, but there aren’t many. Building a baseball team is a game of marshaling scarce resources, and one of the scarcest of all is a truly impactful hitter.

If he’s great this season and the next few, it’s a win for the Giants.

Remarkably, ZiPS does not project him to hit 30 home runs at any point. This will be a real test of Devers’ talents and Oracle’s park effect. We have 25 years of history to show us that, absent unsanctioned PED use, Devers is unlikely to be a masher. But he could be effective in so many other ways. Clutch. No platoon split. The kind of hard contact the lineup hasn’t featured in the Statcast era. The ripple effect of his presence — will Heliot Ramos see better pitches? Will Willy Adames relax now that he’s got another friend on the team? Will Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge reap the benefit of having less pressure to carry the lineup? Or will Devers simply thrive in a less toxic environment? Still, even on paper, the addition is not necessarily as amazing as it might seem at first glance.

Our own Brady Klopfer’s big concern is that the Giants gave up prospects for a $250+ million designated hitter, so the skepticism isn’t coming just from the east coast. Eno Sarris follows the Giants closely and said this:

Why I would trade Kyle Harrison: he’s a low slot high spin efficiency starter, like an Andrew Heaney. Very difficult to find secondary pitches that are elite for them, especially if they don’t turn over changeups well. Best is to hope velo stays up, develop many meh secondaries.

I don’t see the downside with this move. Maybe James Tibbs III winds up being the best player in this deal down the line, but a Rafael Devers in hand is worth two in the minors, or whatever.

At worst, Devers transforms the lineup from below average to average — unless he pulls a Ricky Ledee or the uncertainty revolving around which position he will play long-term winds up being too disruptive. That might be a situation where we must Trust the Posecess. The best case scenario is that Devers energizes the entire lineup and we get something closer to the 2021 team. In between are a number of upside scenarios that would make us all very happy, and I think somewhere in this range is likelier than either extreme.

So, the aftermath of the move is that Boston fans are miserable, Dodgers fans are skeptical, Buster Posey looks like an aggressive, yet rational actor in his first year on the job, and Giants fans are happy. What’s not to like?

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...fael-devers-trade-analysis-industry-reactions

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Wednesday BP: All-Star voting update

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

As of the first All-Star voting update, it’s not looking great for Giants players hoping to make the team as a starter. But it’s not hopeless either!

Good morning, baseball fans!

Earlier this week, the first updates for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game were released. As a reminder, we are asking our community to do targeted voting for Matt Chapman, Wilmer Flores, Jung Hoo Lee, Heliot Ramos and now Rafael Devers.

Currently, there is only one San Francisco Giants player in the top five of their category, and that is Devers, who I assume carries his votes with him to the National League because he is currently in second place for NL designated hitters.

Unfortunately that means he’s behind Shohei Ohtani, who has about half a million more votes than him.

Here’s where things stand for the five players we’ve been pushing for:

• Wilmer Flores: 9th place among NL First Basemen with 59,537 votes
• Matt Chapman: 8th place among NL Third Basemen with 183,223 votes
• Rafael Devers: 2nd place among NL Designated Hitters with 796,382 votes
• Heliot Ramos: 18th place among NL Outfielders with 140,206 votes
• Jung Hoo Lee: Not ranked among NL Outfielders in this update

I believe that this first phase of voting ends on June 26th, so I’m still planning to push for these same players for now. Which makes this an excellent opportunity for me to share the link to vote!

Make sure you get your votes in every day if you want to see any of your San Francisco Giants as starters in this year’s All-Star Game!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-francisco-giants-all-star-game-voting-update

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Thursday BP: Dusty Baker story time

Photo by Tony Avelar/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

The Giants released a video earlier this week where F. P. Santangelo sits down with Dusty Baker to get some of his best stories from his playing and managing career.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants will conclude their three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians this afternoon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a video from the team’s YouTube account because I think many of you will find it interesting.

F. P. Santangelo sat down with former Giants manager and current advisor to the team Dusty Baker to pick his brain about his lengthy career as a player, coach and manager.

It’s a 25-minute video, so go get your coffee and settle in for some great stories!

Also, don’t forget to vote for the All Star Game! As a reminder, we’re still doing a push for Matt Chapman, Wilmer Flores, Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers. So vote early, vote often, and go Giants!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-2025-san-francisco-giants-videos-dusty-baker

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Go with the Flo

Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

Wilmer Flores delivered the clutch hit the Giants have been starved for all series

Two runs didn’t take on Tuesday, nor was it enough on Wednesday — but on Thursday, two runs was just right.

Those runs weren’t a given either. The San Francisco Giants were down 1-0 going into the 7th. They looked as helpless as they had all series against Cleveland Guardians starter Gavin Williams. The 25-year old right-hander held the Giants scoreless for six innings, giving up just two hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

I wouldn’t say the stuff Williams dealt was dominant by any means. He earned a lot of early count leverage, but labored to put hitters away. Leading off the 1st, Mike Yastrzemski forced 9-pitches out of Williams before he swung over a shoe-top cutter. So it went all game: a lot of 3-ball counts, a lot of easy takes, but the lack-of-sharpness went unpunished.

The Giants put runners on base in every frame against Williams but the 4th. They had a runner in scoring position every inning but the 4th and the 6th — yet hits were scarce, hard contact hard to come by.

Rally, as it had been all series, was a foreign concept. The Giants could piece together the beginnings of something that resembled a scoring opportunity, but they could never secure the definitive blow, or provide the finishing touches. It’s not hard to suss out why.

A substantial rally is tough to manufacture when, one, a team tries to spread two already threadbare hits (both singles with the bases empty) across six innings; two, the lead-off man is retired in every frame against the starter but one (the 3rd); and three, only once did consecutive hitters reach base against the starter, which happened with one-out in the 5th and that pressure was immediately relieved by Willy Adames rolling into a routine 6-4-3 double play. Next frame, Williams ended his day with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

That pair of two-fers were deflating to say the least. Jon Miller’s disappointment seeped out through the airwaves as he reported on Heliot Ramos being cut-down at second. At that point, scoring a run felt impossible. I The Giants were 0-for-6 batting with a runner on second going into the 7th. They were 1-for-25 with runners in scoring position in the series, their last situational knock came ages ago in the 1st inning of the first game.

But for one inning, the series narrative for the offense changed. Williams was swapped with reliever Matt Festa, who in his third consecutive game, coughed up some key missing elements to the Giants rally formula.

By allowing the lead-off runner to reach base (Casey Schmitt’s second single of the game) and allowing back-to-back baserunners with a walk to Jung Hoo Lee, the Giants finally had a fiesta gathering against Festa on the bases. But they had also been here before, and had been burned before. What was still missing was the most elusive of all: the hit with a runner on base, the hit that would score a run.

Even Bob Melvin felt like that was asking for too much. He signaled Patrick Bailey to lay down a sacrifice bunt, trade an out for 90 feet and the opportunity to tie the game on an out. That was a distinct possibility with the Giants best RBI man in Wilmer Flores ready to come off the bench.

Flo stepped in for Christian Koss, and Cleveland’s manager Stephen Vogt swapped Festa with righty Nic Enright for the right-on-right advantage. The count went 2-2. Flo fouled off a 93 MPH fastball slightly up in the zone then stayed back on a looping slider. The baseball wasn’t scorched, just well placed, rolling between the third base bag and the third baseman to easily plate two and claim the lead.

The 2-1 lead stuck. Randy Rodriguez K’ed two in the 8th, and Camilo Doval set the Guardians down in order in the 9th for his 11th save.

Good thing too, because another 1-0 loss would’ve been too much to handle for the frayed nerves of this fanbase. The Giants had already played four 1-0 games and lost three of them. Their last one spoiled 8 scoreless innings from Logan Webb, and Thursday’s lack of run support nearly blew another Webb gem.

After spinning an out-of-character cutter and four-seam heavy outing against LA, the righty returned to a more typical mix of sinker (26%) - sweeper (33%) - change (19%). He went 7 strong, allowing 1 run on 7 hits and 0 walks while striking out 9. The outing was good for his fifth consecutive quality start, giving him a dozen in 15 appearances so far.

The Flores RBI double got the Giants back in the win column — their first since Webb’s last start in LA nearly a week ago. It was their 21st comeback win on the season, helping them improve to 18-15 in one-run games.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...wilmer-flores-logan-webb-guardians-mlb-scores

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Giants - Red Sox Series Preview

Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

Within a week of the blockbuster Rafael Devers trade, his ex-team rolls into town...

Tributaries will branch their way out from the headwaters of the Rafael Devers trade for years to come, and over that time, the San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox organizations will be linked.

The transaction shocked the baseball world, drawing ire, praise, skepticism from both fanbases. From those in the industry, the trade to seemed to favor the Giants in the present, but has the potential to swing for the Red Sox dependent on how prospects develop, the addition of a third pitch by Kyle Harrison, and how Boston’s front office invests all the money they just freed up by unloading a multi-million dollar contract.

But right now, we are in the present. No one in the quartet of traded Giants will suit up and play in the away-grays of Boston over the weekend. After his acquisition, Harrison was immediately sent down to Triple-A Worcester. The injured Jordan Hicks threw a live BP session on Thursday, will pitch on a rehab assignment next week, and eventually join Boston’s bullpen. Outfielder James Tibbs was assigned to Double-A Portland, and starting pitcher Jose Bello is playing rookie ball.

That just leaves Devers as the only present and physical representative of what went down. All eyes will be on him, and the fact that he is playing, contributing to the Giants at a Major League level, is a victory, no matter how small. So put on our rose-colored and extremely myopic lenses and celebrate, we won the trade by a landslide! Maybe over the weekend we can all forget about the talent lost, the salary burden gained, and just pretend Boston let us have Devers for free. It wouldn’t be the craziest thing that franchise has done.

It’s always an effective strategy to eliminate an opposing team’s best hitter from their line-up, and it’s an even better trick when you can magic that bat into your own line-up. A nifty sleight of hand pulled by Buster, now will it buy the Giants a sweep? a series win?

San Francisco has dropped two series in a row while Boston has won the last four. They won 5 of 6 games against the Yankees including a sweep at Fenway. The Red Sox are hot, winning 8 of their last ten. Now again, the majority of those wins were with Devers cementing the center of their line-up, but the Sox haven’t cracked or fallen apart in his absence. Three games into this post-trade reality, and they’ve won two of them (@ Seattle); the Giants, with Devers, won only one!

Is Devers a barrel of toxic waste…or has not enough time passed to weigh the true consequences of the move? Probably the latter…

The Red Sox have been finding offensive production elsewhere, and not from who’d you expect. 2024 All-Star Jarren Duran isn’t doing much (97 wRC+), nor is MLB’s number-1 ranked prospect Roman Anthony, who has been hitting exclusively against right-handers for platoon advantage, yet still owns just a .074 BA with a 14 wRC+ in 31 PA. The hot hands are a more peripheral bunch. Carlos Narváez, Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro have all logged an .800-plus OPS with a 130+ wRC+ in June. Then there’s Trevor Story, who is finally having a Boston moment in his fourth year on the team. His Red Sox tenure has been an injury-riddled disaster. His max number of games played in a season is 94. He made just 274 trips to the plate over the 2023 and 2024 seasons. After managing a major slump in May (.158 BA, 13 wRC+), Story is hitting .283 (60 AB) with a 127 wRC+ so far this month.

All in all, none of these numbers are ascendent, nor should they strike fear in any of San Francisco’s arms. What should worry the Giants is Boston’s starting pitching, which is a bit surprising considering how poorly their rotation has performed overall in 2025. Their rotation ERA and WHIP both rank 23rd in the Majors, their H/9 ranks 26th, their BB/9 18th and HR/9 16th.

Their only truly dominant arm, southpaw Garrett Crochet, pitched on Wednesday — lucky for the Giants. Unlucky for the Giants — projected starter Hunter Dobbins has been just as solid in his last handful of starts. He limited the New York offense to just two Aaron Judge homers over two games and 11 IP. Batters have struggled to become baserunners against Dobbins, hitting just .170 with a 0.75 WHIP in June. His low K-rate is balanced out with a low BB-rate, and an elevated ground ball rate that has helped produce a .159 BABIP (note: home runs are not considered “balls in play”).

Brayan Bello, with his Webb-like mix of sinker-sweeper-change, has also generated ground ball after ground ball. His season’s 53% GB-percentage is in the 89th percentile and in June, that number is flirting with 60%. The 26-year old is known to get in his own way. The walk rate is high, and he doesn’t often go deep in games. He went five consecutive starts in May without pitching through the 5th inning. But in June, Bello has turned things around, logging three quality starts, including seven scoreless innings against New York.

Based on how the Giants are hitting and the Sox’s projected starters are pitching, this series will probably play out like many others. We’ve watched the same game over and over again, with the same basic questions hanging over their heads. Can the Giants string together some hits? Will Wilmer Flores’s clutch double inspire them to put together some more productive at-bats with runners in scoring position, or will Willy Adames’ struggles, who hasn’t had a hit with a runner in scoring position since May 23rd, win out? Imagine the delicious communal schadenfreude we’d experience if Devers lashed out at the plate against his former team. Emotions tend to elevate in these kinds of match-ups, especially with the feelings so fresh. No better time than the present to launch his first homer in his new duds. A splash hit would be a nice cherry...

I hope he plays first base in every game.

---

Series Overview​

Boston Red Sox

39 - 37, W1, Last 10: 8 - 2

Away: 17 - 20, .500>: 22 - 21, RS - RA: 358 - 340

San Francisco Giants

42 - 33, W1, Last 10: 5 - 5

Home: 23 - 13, .500>: 23 - 24, RS - RA: 315 - 272

Schedule & Projected Starters​

Friday, June 20th @ 7:15 PM (PT)

Hunter Dobbins, RHP - 3.74 ERA (11 GS, 55.1 IP)

vs.

Hayden Birdsong, RHP - 2.79 ERA (16 G, 5 GS, 48.1 IP)

Saturday, June 21st @ 1:05 PM (PT)

Brayan Bello, RHP - 3.49 ERA (11 GS, 59.1 IP)

vs.

Landen Roupp, RHP - 3.99 ERA (14 GS, 70 IP)

Sunday, June 22nd @ 1:05 PM (PT)

Lucas Giolito, RHP - 4.73 ERA (9 GS, 45.2 IP)

vs.

Robbie Ray, LHP - 2.68 ERA (15 GS, 87.1 IP)

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...iants-boston-red-sox-series-june-2025-preview

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Giants still punch-less against Red Sox

Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

Boston didn’t miss Rafael Devers bat much in 7-5 win over San Francisco

Well, this one wasn’t too pretty. The San Francisco Giants finally put more than two runs on the board, pitched with an early multi-run lead, created opportunities to extend that lead against a not-sharp Boston starter Hunter Dobbins, and…they lost 7-5.

In three separate bases-loaded situations, the Giants generated just two runs and five outs.

Christian Koss came up with the bases jammed and nobody out in the 2nd and 4th innings, and both times rolled into double-plays. Credit where credit’s due — he put the ball in play, and the ball in play ultimately drove in a run both times. But you generally don’t want an offensive contribution ending with the defense feeling like they pulled a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Nothing was punished. Nothing was definitive. Every run scored came with a caveat. The Giants first run came home because Wilmer Flores slapped a knuckler to David Williams at second which glanced off his glove. Mike Yastrzemski extended their lead to three-runs in the 3rd with a two-out single that ricocheted off the pitcher Dobbins and rolled back into the no man’s land between the mound and the plate.

The team’s only other RBI was Flores’s single in the 5th, which re-tied the game at 5-runs apiece, but any viable opportunity to tack on was snuffed out when Flo was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home.

The Giants worked 8 walks against Boston pitching, had 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Starter Hunter Dobbins, who has one of the lowest BB rates in the lead, walked 5 in 4 inning pitched, but gave up just 4 hits — all singles. They set the table, and the table was set for them, but San Francisco lacked the K.O. punch as they have all year. The guy they hoped would provide it went 0-for-5 at the plate, but many of the ripest run-producing chances didn’t fall into Rafael Devers’ lap.

And in the opposite corner was a scrappy Boston Red Sox line-up that is turning out pants pockets, flipping couch cushions and finding missing car keys and crumpled up fivers. Their line-up collected 11 hits on Friday, five of them went for extra bases. Number 8 hitter Ceddanne Rafaela went 3-for-4, a triple shy of the cycle. His solo shot in the 6th off Sean Hjelle, the one that gave Boston the lead for good, was his seventh of the season. The double off Hayden Birdsong he hit in the 3rd was Boston’s first hit of the game, and set-up number 9 hitter David Hamilton’s 2-run shot to straight-away center — this from a player who is hitting .186 after Friday’s 2-hit night.

That homer, just Hamilton’s third of the year, was the signal that the Giants were in for it. The game had been entirely pleasant up to that point. Just a couple innings in, but still, a 3-run lead this early on with San Francisco’s pitching chops — my offense starved imagination played tricks on me. I daydreamed of a blow-out, a cake-walk through 9, with no drama, frustration, or worry...

Shoulda known better.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...recap-boston-red-sox-rafael-devers-mlb-scores

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Rafael Devers exacts his revenge

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Back in the win column.

The San Francisco Giants won on Saturday, and they did it the only way they know how: by one run. But they also did it the way they planned for six days ago, when they swung a trade with the Boston Red Sox, the team they just beat: by way of Rafael Devers.

Devers exacted his revenge on Saturday, and he did it with emphasis. The Giants won the baseball game 3-2 because Devers was in it, on their side. They would not have won the game had he not been.

He won’t get credit for one full win on the WAR charts, but the Giants are 43-34 because he wore orange and black on Saturday, and they’d be 42-35 if he did not.

It happened in the third inning, with two outs and Andrew Knizner on base, courtesy of an error by David Hamilton. Devers, who had ground out in his first at-bat, took a very straightforward one to measure, two to rake approach. The first pitch from former teammate Brayan Bello was a 95-mph fastball, belt high on the outer third of the plate.

Devers watched it slam into the glove of Connor Wong with a satisfying thwack.

And so Bello tried it again, pumping another fastball — this time at 96 — to the same location. And Devers, as he’s done so many times in his first few games with the Giants, swung out of his shoes.

This time he made solid contact. And true to his introductory presser promise, he was unperturbed by the toils of Oracle Park, choosing instead to adapt to the environment and spin the ball the other way, clearing the left field wall by a stunning amount for a left-handed hitter.

The Giants didn’t know it then, but they would need those two runs. To that point they had scored just one, courtesy of the hitter who, thanks to Devers’ arrival, has been relegated to just the second-best power hitter on the team, Heliot Ramos.

Ramos took on more of a battle, seeing six pitches from Bello in the first inning before launching a cutter into the bullpen, where it easily cleared the fence but unfortunately fell short of smacking Sean Hjelle in the face.

For eight innings, it seemed like that run by Ramos would be enough. Landen Roupp bounced back from his difficult outing last week to dominate Boston’s hitters for six innings, allowing just three hits (all singles) and three walks, while striking out seven. After his six innings ended, the one run Ramos provided would have been enough.

Randy Rodríguez needed just nine pitches to conquer the seventh inning, and when it ended, the one run Ramos provided still would have been enough.

Tyler Rogers required a mere 10 pitches for the eighth inning, and when it ended, the one run Ramos provided still would have been enough.

But Camilo Doval ran into ninth-inning trouble, and suddenly Ramos’ run was not enough. Now they needed the two provided by the new guy; the new star.

Doval, intent on milking the Giants’ love of one-run wins, gave up hits to the first three batters, allowing one run to score in the process. An error by Knizner allowed a second run to score, while a stolen base moved the tying run into scoring position with just one out.

But after early-season closer controversy, Doval is now the finisher without debate. He got himself into the mess, but Bob Melvin trusted him to get out of the mess. And a groundout and a popout later, he did exactly that.

Eight of their last 10 wins have now come by one run. Thanks, Raffy.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...recap-rafael-devers-heliot-ramos-landen-roupp