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4/26 Gamethread: Giants vs. Rangers

View from the front of Tyler Mahle making a face as he throws a pitch.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Robbie Ray vs. Tyler Mahle.

After getting shut out on Friday night, the San Francisco Giants will look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon and even their three-game series with the Texas Rangers. And guess what? It’s Brandon Crawford Appreciation Day! So appreciate Brandon Crawford, damn it. Or I’m coming for you.

San Francisco will be a player short today, as second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald was scratched from the lineup with a chest contusion, which was sustained when diving for a ground ball in Friday’s game.

Taking the mound for the Giants is southpaw Robbie Ray, who makes his sixth start of the year. Ray is still searching for the control that was the highlight of his spring, as he’s been a bit of a walk machine in the early going. He’s 3-0 on the year with a 4.07 ERA, but has a 5.86 FIP and 25 strikeouts to an MLB-worst 18 walks in 24.1 innings. He gave up two runs in five innings against the Milwaukee Brewers his last time out.

On the other side is righty Tyler Mahle, who has been nothing short of dominant in five starts this year, though he also is walking a lot of people. The nine-year veteran is 3-0 with a 0.68 ERA, a 2.50 FIP, and 25 strikeouts to 12 walks in 26.2 innings. Mahle has only allowed 10 hits all season, and no home runs. He leads the Majors in ERA, ERA+, hits per nine innings, and home runs per nine innings. He pitched seven shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers his last time out, and for that we thank him, even if it scares us.

Enjoy the game! Go Giants! Go Brandon Crawford!


Lineups


Giants

  1. Mike Yastrzemski (L) — RF
  2. Willy Adames (R) — SS
  3. Jung Hoo Lee (L) — CF
  4. Matt Chapman (R) — 3B
  5. Wilmer Flores (R) — DH
  6. Heliot Ramos (R) — LF
  7. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) — 1B
  8. Christian Koss (R) — 2B
  9. Sam Huff (R) — C

LHP. Robbie Ray

Rangers

  1. Kevin Pillar (R) — CF
  2. Wyatt Langford (R) — LF
  3. Josh Jung (R) — 3B
  4. Jake Burger (R) — 1B
  5. Marcus Semien (R) — 2B
  6. Jonah Heim (S) — C
  7. Kyle Higashioka (R) — DH
  8. Josh Smith (L) — RF
  9. Nick Ahmed (R) — SS

RHP. Tyler Mahle


Game #28


Who: San Francisco Giants (17-10) vs. Texas Rangers (15-11)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 1:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: n/a

National broadcast: FOX

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

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...neups-robbie-ray-tyler-mahle-brandon-crawford
 
4/27 Gamethread: Giants vs. Rangers

Jordan Hicks kicking his left as he finishes a pitch.

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Jordan Hicks vs. Jack Leiter.

It’s rubber match time! After a dramatic walk-off win on Saturday, the San Francisco Giants find themselves tied with the Texas Rangers in their three-game series. With a victory this afternoon, the Giants would win their sixth series of the season, while a defeat would hand them their third series loss of the year. Personally, I’m rooting for the former.

Taking the mound for the Giants is righty Jordan Hicks, who makes his sixth start of the season. Hicks is still searching for a way to make the results match up with the stuff. He’s impressed with wicked movement and a heater hitting triple digits even late in starts, but so far is just 1-3 with a 6.59 ERA, a 3.99 FIP, and 24 strikeouts to 13 walks in 27.1 innings. He gave up six runs (five earned) in five innings against the Milwaukee Brewers in his last start, and has allowed 17 earned runs in his last three outings.

On the other side is right-hander Jack Leiter, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, who has just 11 career games to his name. Leiter has been limited to just two games this year, but has been electric in those two, with a 2-0 record, a 0.90 ERA, a 1.33 FIP, and 10 strikeouts to just one walk in 10 innings. He hasn’t pitched since April 2, as this is his first game since being activated off the Injured List.

Enjoy the game! Go Giants!


Lineups


Giants

  1. Mike Yastrzemski (L) — RF
  2. Willy Adames (R) — SS
  3. Jung Hoo Lee (L) — CF
  4. Matt Chapman (R) — 3B
  5. Wilmer Flores (R) — DH
  6. Heliot Ramos (R) — LF
  7. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) — 1B
  8. Patrick Bailey (S) — C
  9. Christian Koss (R) — 2B

RHP. Jordan Hicks

Rangers

  1. Josh Smith (L) — SS
  2. Jake Burger (R) — 1B
  3. Joc Pederson (L) — DH
  4. Adolis García (R) — RF
  5. Marcus Semien (R) — 2B
  6. Josh Jung (R) — 3B
  7. Jonah Heim (S) — C
  8. Dustin Harris (L) — LF
  9. Leody Taveras (S) — CF

RHP. Jack Leiter


Game #29


Who: San Francisco Giants (18-10) vs. Texas Rangers (15-12)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 1:05 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...tch-lineups-schedule-jordan-hicks-jack-leiter
 
Monday BP: Which series are you most interested in this week?

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Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The Giants are back on the road this week. Let’s see which series Giants fans are most interested in.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are ready to embark upon another week of baseball. Eventually. They get a rare Monday off today, before heading down south to take on their division rivals, the San Diego Padres, in a short two-game series.

After that, they immediately head back to Oracle Park to take on their other division....well, maybe rivals isn’t the best word here, but fellow NL West team, the Colorado Rockies. They will host the Rockies for a four-game home series which will feature a celebration honoring Brandon Crawford on Saturday that includes a pretty cool t-shirt giveaway.

As much as I tend to prefer home games and the liveliness of the home crowd, I’m going with the Padres series this week. Sure, it’s weirdly short, but I think a lot of us are itching to see how these Giants do against one of their direct competitors in the division. This will be the first time the Giants play either the Padres or the Los Angeles Dodgers. So I think it will be a series to look forward to.

Which series are you most interested in this week?​


Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...an-francisco-giants-schedule-review-community
 
Weekend Minor League roundup, 4/26-27: Lots of fun was had!

Marco Luciano holding a glove and laughing on a practice field.

Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Saturday and Sunday’s action on the farm.

It was a busy weekend for the San Francisco Giants. While their Major League club was celebrating Brandon Crawford and winning games on walk-off little league home runs, their Minor League Baseball affiliates were all chugging away at their seasons.

Here’s all the action from a fun weekend on the farm. And it’s the last weekend for a while with only four Minor League teams playing, as the Arizona Complex League season gets started on Saturday!

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.


News


An award to hand out! Low-A San Jose outfielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 17 CPL) was named the Player of the Week in the California League after an absolutely blistering week in the batter’s box. Congrats, Lisbel!

The Giants transaction tracker makes no mention of this, but High-A Eugene RHP Josh Bostick (No. 27 CPL) appeared on the Injured List this weekend. Hopefully he’s OK.


AAA Sacramento (14-13)


Saturday: Sacramento River Cats beat the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres) 4-2 (10 innings) [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats beat the El Paso Chihuahuas 7-2 [box score]

A lot of fun performances for the River Cats over the weekend. Most encouraging and exciting, to my eye, was the continued hot streak coming from the bat of left fielder Marco Luciano.

It was a delightful weekend for Luciano, the former top prospect who, it bears noting, is still just 23 years old. He hit 2-7 over the weekend, smacked an absolute mammoth of a home run, drew 2 walks, was hit by a pitch, and struck out twice.


pretty sure Luciano hit this ball to new mexico...tie game! pic.twitter.com/lg43eOsQQA

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 27, 2025

After his slow start to the season, Luciano is starting to put things together in a big way. Over his last 13 games, the righty has gone 15-49 with 2 home runs, 5 doubles, and 11 walks, though he also has 17 strikeouts. As was the case even when Luciano was struggling in the early going, the most encouraging thing has been that he’s hitting the ball very hard again — that was what propped up his prospect status for so many years, but it mysteriously disappeared last year, both in the Majors and Minors.

Luciano’s home run was hit at 113 mph ... for context, the hardest hit ball in play by any Giant in the Majors this year was just 111.6 mph (which came, surprisingly, off the bat of Luis Matos). His home runs have been jaw-droppers, and a huge amount of the balls he puts in play — both outs and hits — have left the bat at high velocities. He’s now up to a .755 OPS and a 107 wRC+ on the year, though that number is propped up a bit by the 15.7% walk rate that, while encouraging, isn’t going to be sustainable at the next level.

If Luciano keeps this up, he’ll end up in a similar position to his current teammate and fellow former top prospect, LHP Kyle Harrison. Which is to say, he’ll work his way into the mix with no clear way of actually getting Major League time.

Unlike with pitchers, the Giants can’t exactly count on injuries piling up in the outfield (though they probably will, at some point). So if Luciano forces the issue, where does he go? Matos is struggling mightily as the fourth outfielder, but he’s been serving as the backup center fielder and the platoon right fielder, so it wouldn’t be easy to swap him out for Luciano, a learning-on-the-fly outfielder who has only played in left. He could, potentially, take David Villar’s spot and serve a designated hitter against lefties while Wilmer Flores plays first base, but I doubt the Giants want to use him in such a small role when he could be playing everyday in Sacramento ... especially since Casey Schmitt and Jerar Encarnación should both return in May.

The answer, then, is that Luciano will probably stay in Sacramento until the door opens ... but I’m enjoying watching him try to force it open, and hopefully that continues.

He wasn’t the only player with a nice offensive weekend. The biggest highlight belonged to catcher Brett Auerbach, who hit 2-8 with a walk, a strikeout, and a go-ahead 10th-inning home run on Saturday. What a moment!


ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED ⁉️ BRETT BASEBALL BLASTS ONE DEAD CENTER TO GIVE US THE LEAD!! pic.twitter.com/bcvpMMO2ss

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 27, 2025

Auerbach is quietly having a sensational season after hitting shockingly well with Sacramento last year when promoted quickly due to roster needs. With Villar in San Francisco, Auerbach has held off Luciano for the title of best bat in Sacramento, as the 2020 undrafted utility player is sporting a .784 OPS and a 112 wRC+. I’m not entirely sure what his path to the Majors is, but he’s certainly making a compelling case and, at the very least, he seems destined for a cup of coffee at some point.

It’s also noteworthy that Auerbach caught both games. While originally drafted as a catcher, the right-handed hitter has turned into more of a utility player who can be the emergency catcher ... he’s spent time at second base, third base, left field, and right field this year, but these were his 1st 2 games of the year behind the dish. I would assume that means that Logan Porter and Max Stassi were a little banged up, as neither played over the weekend.

Second baseman/third baseman Osleivis Basabe continued his nice season. After going 0-4 on Saturday, the 24-year old went 2-4 with a walk and a home run on Sunday, bumping his OPS to .726 and his wRC+ to 91. Those aren’t bad numbers for a glove-first infielder, but it’s still hard to see how Basabe works his way onto the active roster given that he’s been passed by Christian Koss (though it’s certainly worth noting that Basabe is on the 40-man roster still).


THE RUNS DON'T STOP COMIN'

basabe muscles this one out to left-center to extend the lead 7-2! pic.twitter.com/fsRELjaG8t

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 27, 2025

Rounding out the dinger party was right fielder Victor Bericoto (No. 24 CPL), who smacked the 1st dinger of his AAA career. It wasn’t a cheapie, either, as he took on dead center.


bericoto's first triple-a home run gives us the lead! pic.twitter.com/e8XzSjAZG7

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 27, 2025

Bericoto has been having one hell of a resurgent year after his mediocre 2024, and recently got a well-deserved promotion when Villar was called up to the Majors. The righty went 3-9 over the weekend, with an outfield assist to complement that 2-run homer, though he was also caught stealing and struck out 4 times. Still, he looks comfortable in AAA, and I wouldn’t rule out seeing him in San Francisco at some point this year.

Unfortunately, the tough year continued for center fielder Grant McCray, who hit just 1-9 with a double, a walk, and 4 strikeouts over the weekend. McCray remains an impressive player who will be an everyday player in San Francisco should anything happen to Jung Hoo Lee (god forbid), but he’s not exactly burning down Sacramento this year, as he has just a .624 OPS and a 70 wRC+ (though his 26.2% strikeout rate is an encouraging step in the right direction). Oddly, McCray’s power has completely dried up this year, despite playing in the Pacific Coast League: after having a .201 isolated slugging percentage in the Minors last year (between AA and AAA), and a .177 mark in his MLB debut, he’s sitting at just .071 this season. His double on Sunday was just his 6th extra-base hit (5 of which have been doubles) in 126 plate appearances.

Equally strange is that McCray, one of the fastest players in all of professional baseball, continues to see his stolen bases shrink. In 2023, the speedy lefty swiped 52 bags in High-A, good for 0.41 per game. Last year, across AA, AAA, and the Majors, he had just 19 stolen bases, or just 0.14 per game. That’s about where he is this year, as his 5 thefts have resulted in 0.19 per game. Let the speed play, Grant!

Good, if not great pitching performances by the starters. On Saturday it was RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 15 CPL), who seems to be a forgotten player compared to the former top prospects like Harrison and Mason Black, the current top pitching prospect in Carson Whisenhunt, and the shiny new toys on the 40-man roster in Carson Seymour and Carson Ragsdale.

But McDonald is still one of the best prospects in the system, and is on the 40-man roster. Saturday was a reminder of what he can do, and what he needs to work on. He showed how hard he is to hit, as he gave up just 3 knocks in 4.2 shutout innings, while striking out 5 batters. But he also showed the control issues that have plagued his year, throwing just 40 of 84 pitches for strikes (a dismal rate), while walking 4 batters. McDonald’s ERA is just 3.84 this year (great for the PCL), but his FIP sits at 5.03, largely because he’s now walked 12 batters in just 22.1 innings.

On Sunday it was Seymour (No. 21 CPL), who has been arguably the biggest star in Sacramento this year. The powerful righty rebounded from his worst outing of the year to throw 5 strong innings, though he wasn’t at his sharpest, as he gave up nearly 2 baserunners per inning, ceding 7 hits, 1 walk, and 1 hit batter, though limiting the damage to just 2 runs, while striking out 4. Seymour is still having an excellent year — he has a 1.93 ERA and a 3.46 FIP, numbers that rank 1st and 3rd, respectively, out of 31 PCL pitchers with at least 20 innings thrown this year. But he definitely hasn’t been as sharp his last 2 times out, as you can see by the splits:

First 4 starts: 18 innings, 10 hits, 5 walks, 2 runs, 22 strikeouts
Last 2 starts: 10 innings, 11 hits, 6 walks, 4 runs, 8 strikeouts

Perhaps I’m getting too granular!

With RHP Lou Trivino struggling in San Francisco, you’ve got to think the door might open for RHPs Tristan Beck or Sean Hjelle to rejoin the Major League bullpen. Both are having spectacular seasons, but neither had a good weekend. Deuces were mostly wild for Beck on Saturday, as he pitched 2 innings and gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs, but had 0 strikeouts (1 of his walks was also intentional). Hjelle was able to keep the runs off the board with a scoreless outing on Sunday, but gave up a hit and 2 walks in 2 innings, with 2 strikeouts. Beck now has a 2.40 ERA and a 2.98 FIP, while Hjelle is sporting a 1.17 ERA and a 2.67 FIP.

AA Richmond (5-16)


Saturday Game 1: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Akron RubberDucks (Guardians) 4-1 (7 innings) [box score]
Saturday Game 2: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Akron RubberDucks 2-1 (9 innings) [box score]
Sunday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Akron RubberDucks 16-7 [box score]

I like to think that the Squirrels and Ducks are just baseball purists who don’t like the 7-inning doubleheaders that Minor League Baseball uses (and the Majors used in 2020). After playing a 7-inning game on Saturday, they manually eschewed it for the back half of the doubleheader, going scoreless through the scheduled 7 innings and the “extra” 8th inning, before finally handling the scoring in the 9th inning, for a 9-inning “extra innings” loss. Traditional!

Not a lot doing for Richmond, though, as has been the case all year, really. The best news was that first baseman/designated hitter Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) played in all 3 games. After making his highly-anticipated season debut on Tuesday, Eldridge was mysteriously absent for the next 2 Squirrels games, before appearing on the lineup card for Friday’s game that ended up postponed.

Thankfully it wasn’t an aggravation of his wrist injury, as NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic noted on Monday’s Giants Talk podcast that Eldridge had just been a little under the weather.

Unfortunately, Eldridge’s season is mirroring his Spring Training: a very early, very impressive home run, followed by a whole bunch of struggles. He had just 1 hit over the 3-game weekend (a single) and, since homering in his 1st at-bat of the year, has gone just 1-12 with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. Is that cause for concern? Hell no! But it is cause for writing a little blurb in this here article.


Bryce gets the good guys on the board pic.twitter.com/6EK16JNpV9

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 27, 2025

A nice weekend for a pair of hitters who are off to nice starts this year: left fielder/right fielder Jairo Pomares (No. 41 CPL) and second baseman Diego Velasquez (No. 16 CPL). Pomares, a lefty slugger looking to regain his prospect status, hit 3-11 over the weekend with a go-ahead 3-run home run in the team’s only win. He added a walk and his 1st 2 stolen bases of the year, while striking out twice.

Pomares, who is 24, is sporting a nearly identical batting average and slugging percentage to his half-season Richmond debut last year, but he’s lowered his strikeout rate while nearly tripling his walk rate. As such, he’s seen his OPS jump from .714 to .744, and his wRC+ from 104 to 117.

Velasquez, a 21-year old switch-hitter who is nearly 3 years younger than the average Eastern League position player, hit 5-11 with 2 doubles, a walk, and a strikeout.


Seven consecutive games with a hit for Diego Velasquez‼️ pic.twitter.com/Vnny3yyaQW

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 27, 2025

Velasquez doesn’t have the frame to ever be a power hitter but, with every passing game, it seems more and more likely that he can be a good enough contact hitter, and control the strike zone well enough, to still be an offensive threat, especially given his position. Despite a middle-of-the-pack BABIP (.328), Velasquez is rocking a .301 batting average, which is 12th among 92 Eastern League hitters with at least 50 plate appearances this year. Relatedly, his 9.4% strikeout rate is 3rd lowest out of those 92 hitters. It’s a .775 OPS, a 133 wRC+, and a whole lot of reason for optimism and excitement for Velasquez this year.

Quick check in on a pair of players I haven’t talked about much this year: center fielder/left fielder Vaun Brown hit 2-7 with 3 strikeouts, a stolen base, a caught stealing, and an error, while shortstop Aeverson Arteaga (No. 12 CPL) went 0-6 with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. Brown is not as broken as last year, but it’s still a pretty grim scene for someone who exploded onto prospect lists a few years ago. He has a .522 OPS and a 57 wRC+ and, while his strikeout rate is significantly better than in 2024, it’s still a close-your-eyes-when-looking 37.1%. The power is seemingly all gone for the exciting athlete ... just 3 years after hitting 23 home runs (and 54 total extra-base hits), Brown has just a double to his name in the extra-base category this season ... though he only has 35 plate appearances, as the Giants are still protecting him against righties a decent amount. Given that Brown turns 27 in 2 months, you’ve got to think his final games with the organization are in danger of coming this year. Arteaga has been even worse, with a dismal .468 OPS and a 41 wRC+. But since he missed pretty much the entirety of 2024, a lot of rust is to be expected. And he only just turned 22, making him nearly 2 years younger than his peers at the level.

I don’t know how I wrote that many words about position players after starting with “not a lot doing.” Sorry about that, y’all.

We can speed through the pitching, though, as there wasn’t much there either. LHP Seth Lonsway started the 2nd game of the doubleheader and was the star of the weekend amongst Richmond’s arms, as he tossed 5.2 shutout innings, giving up just a single, a walk, and a hit batter, while striking out 3. Lonsway was the team’s 6th-round pick in 2021, and he’s been fantastic in Richmond. He earned a midseason promotion there last year, and sported a 1.38 ERA and a 3.59 FIP in 6 games. He’s picked up where he left off, beginning this year with a 2.18 ERA and a 3.39 FIP through 4 starts. He’s been an old school, Logan Webb-esque arm this year, with just 5 walks in 20.2 innings, and a fantastic 60.0% groundball rate. Sacramento’s overflowing rotation will probably keep Lonsway from getting promoted anytime soon but, then again, he’s only made 10 appearance for the Squirrels. Some extra seasoning won’t hurt.


Seth Lonsway was sensational tonight

5.2 IP
1 H (and a no-hitter through five innings)
0 R
0 BB
3 K pic.twitter.com/ZV3nKKPpzV

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 27, 2025

Relieving Lonsway was RHP Trent Harris (No. 20 CPL), who continued his dominant campaign, giving up just a single in 1.1 shutout innings, though he didn’t have any strikeouts. Harris has yet to allow a run this year, and has ceded just 4 baserunners in 7.2 innings, while striking out 9. Speaking of great relief outings, RHP Nick Garcia pitched 2 perfect frames in Game 1 of the doubleheader, and struck out 3 batters to boot. I’ll be curious to see what the Giants do with Garcia, whom they took in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 draft before last season. He was dominant in AA last year but got destroyed in AAA. He’s off to a good start with Richmond this season, but the Giants might be hesitant to send him back to Sacramento.

Sunday was a tire fire on the mound, and I’m going to run through it just for a little comedic relief: LHP Joe Whitman (No. 9 CPL) gave up 5 baserunners and 4 runs in 2.2 innings; RHP Will Bednar (No. 42) allowed 4 baserunners and 3 runs in 0.2 innings; RHP Michael Stryffeler ceded 5 baserunners and 3 runs in 1 inning; RHP Dylan Cumming got rocked for 5 baserunners and 3 runs in 0.2 innings; and RHP Nick Morreale also surrendered 5 baserunners and 3 runs, albeit in 1.2 innings. Props to RHP Cameron Cotter, who saw all that transpire and then retired all 4 baserunners he saw, with 2 strikeouts.

High-A Eugene (11-10)


Saturday: Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane (Rockies) 6-3 (10 innings) [box score]
Sunday: Eugene Emeralds lost to Spokane 9-6 [box score]

What a day for 10th innings. While Auerbach was hitting a go-ahead dinger in the 10th for Sacramento on Saturday, third baseman/second baseman Thomas Gavello was doing something similar for Eugene, bopping a 2-run 10th-inning shot for some insurance after the Emeralds scored the Manfred Man. Delightful!

The nice thing about home runs — especially ones in extra-innings — is that they make a whole weekend good. So Gavello can look back on the weekend fondly, even though he hit 0-8 with 7 strikeouts in his other at-bats. It only takes 1 swing, folks!

While that was Gavello’s 2nd big fly of the year, a pair of his teammates had their 1st blasts of the season. On Saturday it was second baseman Quinn McDaniel, who had a sensational game, hitting 2-3 with a game-tying 2-run home run, 2 walks, a stolen base, and a strikeout. What a game! McDaniel, the team’s 5th-round pick in 2023, isn’t having a great season, with a .701 OPS and a 102 wRC+. But he’s dramatically slashed his strikeout rate from last year, and it only takes a few games like this to get the numbers looking rosy. The 22-year old right-handed hitter, who is repeating the level, also has 8 stolen bases in 9 attempts. He got Sunday off, though given what he did on Saturday, he probably wanted to play.

It was the opposite for first baseman Guillermo Williamson, who sat on Saturday but on Sunday went 1-3 with a 9th-inning home run, a walk, and a strikeout. Williamson, who only just turned 21, has a whole bunch of power in his swing, though he hasn’t always been able to make it play. He has a .741 OPS and a 108 wRC+ in his debut High-A season. He’ll need to improve his contact skills (he has a .219 batting average and a 29.3% strikeout rate), but there are worse things than a young left-handed hitter with a powerful swing and a 19.5% walk rate, that’s for sure.

Consistent hitting for designated hitter/center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL), who went 4-11 with a double and 2 strikeouts, though he was caught stealing. He continues to make his 2024 year look like no fluke. Center fielder/left fielder Jonah Cox (No. 26 CPL) hit 2-9 with a double, a strikeout, and an outfield assist, though he was also caught stealing, which is quite a rarity. Since joining the organization last year, Cox has 70 stolen bases and has been caught just 11 times.

Speaking of stolen bases, shortstop Zane Zielinski hit 2-8 with a walk and 2 strikeouts, and stole a base. Zielinski, the team’s 9th-round pick a year ago, didn’t make his professional debut until halfway through the month, but already has 8 stolen bases in just 15 games, and has yet to be caught. He also has a .720 OPS and a 110 wRC+!

Not very good pitching for Eugene. Sunday’s game wasn’t quite the tire fire that Richmond’s game was, but it sure wasn’t good, either. It was a bullpen game, with 7 pitchers combining to give up 7 hits, 10 walks, and 9 runs in just 8 innings, and no need to dwell on it further.

Saturday featured a not very good start by RHP Cale Lansville, but the bullpen was spectacular, with RHPs Brayan Palencia and Ian Villers each handling 3 shutout innings. Palencia, a 22-year old in his 1st year at High-A, needed just 34 pitches for his 3 innings, and threw 23 of them for strikes, giving up just 1 hit while striking out 2. Palencia, who has a 3.75 ERA and a 3.98 FIP, only has 9 strikeouts in 12 innings, but he’s issued just 2 walks. Villers, a 24-year old 8th-round pick from 2021, needed just 39 pitches for his 3 no-hit innings, giving up only a walk while striking out 4 batters. It’s mostly just good to see Villers healthy, but the results sure are delightful, too: he has a 0.75 ERA, a 2.31 FIP, and 14 strikeouts to 4 walks in 12 innings.

Low-A San Jose (13-8)


Saturday: San Jose Giants beat the Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies) 2-1 [box score]
Sunday: San Jose Giants beat the Fresno Grizzlies 8-6 (10 innings) [box score]

A delightful weekend to cap off a wonderful week for San Jose. They have a 4-game winning streak, and took their series against Fresno 5-1.

On Sunday, in something of a role reversal, the actual Giants were celebrating a walk-off little league home run, while the Baby Giants were celebrating an honest-to-goodness, clear-the-fence walk-off home run. It came courtesy of first baseman Zander Darby, who had a game that, I dare say, might have been even better than his name.


First walk-off home run at Excite Ballpark in 3 years! pic.twitter.com/vHyiNvksCR

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 27, 2025

Darby, a local kid who was taken in the 12th round of July’s draft, only just returned from the Injured List. He missed nearly a month to start the season, before making his season debut on Wednesday. After sitting Thursday through Saturday, Darby returned on Sunday for just his 2nd game of the year.

He hit 3-4 with a home run, 2 doubles, a walk, and 2 stolen bases. Eugenio Suárez might be the only person on the planet who had a better baseball game this weekend. But hey, at least Darby’s team won!

It’s mostly just good to see Darby healthy and getting a chance to show off. And lord, did he show off! What an awesome game that he’ll surely remember for the rest of his life.

Shortstop Jose Ramos couldn’t match Darby (who could!) but was also a star on Sunday. After going 0-3 with a stolen base on Saturday, Ramos hit 2-3 with a double and a walk on Sunday. He’s still trying to get his numbers in line — and catch up to his hot start a year ago — but the 22-year old has a lot of intriguing tools.

Sunday’s game was hilarious, in a very Minor Leaguey way. The Baby Giants stole a whopping 7 bases, but allowed 6. They also committed 4 errors. Welcome to the Cal League, everyone!

The most exciting part of the stolen base parade was how much center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 8 CPL) got involved in it. The reigning 4th-round pick hit 4-8 with a walk and a strikeout over the weekend, and stole 4 bases in as many attempts.

Jordan might be the best athlete in the system, but there were question marks about how it would play when he was drafted. He has McCray-esque speed, but in college was primarily a corner outfielder and was not a threat on the bases. The Giants were clear that they believe he can be more than that, and so far both the organization and the player are walking the walk. Jordan has played exclusively in center field (where he’s made numerous highlight plays), and already has 9 stolen bases (without being caught) in just 20 games. He had just 7 stolen bases in his entire college career, which spanned 107 games.

His athleticism is playing, and he’s showing great progress on his strikeouts (his 28.4% rate isn’t good, but it’s encouraging given that it’s lower than what it was last year in college). Funnily enough, the one thing that wasn’t a question with Jordan — his power — is the one part of his game we haven’t really seen displayed yet, as he has just 1 home run and a fairly pedestrian .141 isolated slugging. But that will come, and it’s extremely exciting that he has an .813 OPS and a 122 wRC+ without the power, especially when you add the dynamism on the grass and the bases. My hot take is that Jordan will be a top-25 prospect in baseball at some point next year.


Play of the game: Dakota Jordan is starting to make the spectacular look routine. pic.twitter.com/huyXxoogWv

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 27, 2025

On the mound, it was a very exciting outing for LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 31 CPL). Since coming to the Giants in the Alex Cobb trade over the summer, Bresnahan has been the very definition of a player who has brilliant stuff that the results can’t get close to matching. But on Saturday that was not the case. The stuff was brilliant and so, too, were the results for the 19-year old southpaw. Bresnahan pitched 5 dominant innings, allowing just 1 baserunner — a single — while striking out exactly half of the 16 batters that he faced. Bresnahan lived in the strike zone, needing just 62 pitches to get through 5 innings, and throwing 45 pitches for strikes. A low pitch count and a high strikeout count ... it’s hard to do any better than that! That’s a sign of the potential that Bresnahan has, and why the Giants are so excited about him despite the bloated ERA.

Sunday’s starter was also a pitcher who is trying to get the results to match the stuff, though they didn’t this time out. RHP Gerelmi Maldonado (No. 36 CPL), who is probably best described as the Jordan Hicks of the Baby Giants, struggled to find the zone, throwing just 26 of 49 pitches for strikes, while giving up 2 hits and 2 walks in just 2.2 innings. His defense did him no favors though, as both of the runs he allowed were unearned. And despite struggling to find strikes, he did manage to K 3 batters. A whole lot of talent in that arm.

On Saturday, 25-year old RHP Darien Smith made his Minor League debut, with the undrafted free agent coming off the IL to pitch 2 innings, allowing 3 hits and an unearned run, with 1 strikeout. Welcome to the pros, Darien!

Well that seems like enough thousands of words for one day. But hey, it’s an off day.


Home run tracker


AAA Marco Luciano (4)
AAA Victor Bericoto (4 total, 1 in AAA)
AAA Brett Auerbach (3)
AAA Osleivis Basabe (3)
AA Jairo Pomares (4)
High-A Thomas Gavello (2)
High-A Quinn McDaniel (1)
High-A Guillermo Williamson (1)
Low-A Zander Darby (1)


Injury report


Here’s a look at all the prospects who are currently on the injury list on the farm. Always take this with a grain of salt, as MiLB bookkeeping is notoriously bad.

Sacramento


RHP Juan Mercedes — Development List
LHP Enny Romero — Restricted List
LHP Reggie Crawford (No. 10 CPL) — 60-Day IL
RHP R.J. Dabovich — 60-Day IL
LHP Juan Sánchez (No. 33 CPL) — 60-Day IL
LHP Ethan Small — 7-Day IL
RHP Cole Waites (No. 32 CPL) — 7-Day IL
RHP Keaton Winn — 7-Day IL
LHP Chris Wright — 7-Day IL

Richmond


2B Nate Furman — 60-Day IL
RHP Ryan Murphy — 60-Day IL
RHP Mat Olsen — 60-Day IL
CF Turner Hill — 7-Day IL
LHP Nick Zwack — 7-Day IL

Eugene


RHP Elijah Pleasants — Development List
OF Alexander Suarez — 60-Day IL
RHP Josh Bostick (No. 27 CPL) — 7-Day IL
LHP Dylan Carmouche — 7-Day IL
LHP Hayden Wynja — 7-Day IL

San Jose


RHP Sam Bower — 60-Day IL
C Ty Hanchey — 60-Day IL
RHP Spencer Miles — 60-Day IL
SS Maui Ahuna (No. 23 CPL) — 7-Day IL
RHP Junior Flores — 7-Day IL
INF Jeremiah Jenkins — 7-Day IL
OF Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) — 7-Day IL

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...es-marco-luciano-carson-seymour-dakota-jordan
 
Giants-Padres Series Preview

San Francisco Giants v. San Diego Padres

Photo by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images

San Diego has lost 7 of 10. Meanwhile, Fernando Tatis Jr. is 1 of the 3 best players in baseball.

San Diego Padres? More like the San Diego Injuries! The Padres have 11 players on their IL right now, and some of them are players expected to help them contend here in 2025. Thankfully, that’s not a problem for the San Francisco Giants who can face a tough team that won’t have help from Jackson Merrill, Jake Cronenworth, and Yu Darvish. Will those deficiencies be enough for the Giants to sweep a 2-game series in San Diego?

The Giants have lost the last three season series against the Padres and are 9-14 in San Diego over that same span. Remarkably, last year’s matchup skews the result a bit. The Giants were 4-2 against Bob Melvin’s former team down south.

Both teams are in a vaguely similar situation in that the preseason expectation was that 2025 would be a regrouping of sorts — or, at the very least, the forecast for both teams was cloudy and uncertain. Some pundits thought the Padres would be a sub-.500 team with their payroll rollbacks, ignoring that they still had Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, and solid pitching. The Giants, well, you know — they’ve been disappointing since 2022, so, everybody had low expectations for them. Instead, both teams have stormed out of the gate and fought for the top of the NL West throughout April.

And yet the pundits had a point.

Both teams sport below average lineups. Admittedly, the Giants have been top 10 where it counts — runs scored (135 - 10th in MLB) — but, rate-wise, San Diego and San Francisco are 20th and 22nd in MLB, respectively. The Giants’ 96 wRC+ is 4% worse than league average, the Padres’ 103 is 3% better than average — but both teams are about the same, wins above replacement-wise (Padres: 2.8 fWAR, Giants: 2.6).

The reasons? The Padres are terrible baserunners (-0.8 baserunning runs, per FanGraphs) and defenders (-8.8 Defensive Runs Above Average). They’re also not hitting for much power (.131 ISO - 23rd in MLB) and that’s with about average luck on balls in play (.295 BAbip - 12th). The Giants, meanwhile, are much better baserunners (+2.1 baserunning runs - 7th), slightly better defenders (-6.9 Defensive Runs Above Average), and hit for a bit more power (.148 ISO - 15th) with less luck on balls in play (.279 BAbip - 22nd).

They’re, effectively, average at best lineups buoyed by great pitching. San Diego’s team fWAR just 28 games into the season is +4.5, tied with the Astros for 2nd in MLB, right in between the Rangers (+4.3) and the Mets (+5.8). The Giants are 8th with +3.7.

There is a key difference between the two figures, though. The Padres, who have played 13 of their first 19 games at the pitcher-friendly Petco Park, have a team xFIP of 3.94 — based on the quality of contact, their team ERA (currently 2.82) should be higher. This shows up in their home-road split. Their home ERA is 1.81 and on the road it’s 4.81. Bummer for the Giants, they’re playing the Padres on their home turf where they’ve gotten amazing results. The Giants’ home-road ERA split is not nearly as stark: 3.08 at home, 3.82 on the road.

A month into the 2025 season and the Giants finally get to play against an NL West rival.


Series overview​


Who: San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
Where: Petco Park | San Diego, California
When: Tuesday at 6:40pm PT, Wednesday at 1:10pm PT
National broadcasts: None

Projected starters

Tuesday: Logan Webb (RHP, 3-1, 1.98 ERA) vs. Nick Pivetta (RHP, 4-1, 1.20 ERA)
Wednesday: Landen Roupp (RHP, 2-1, 4.56 ERA) vs. Michael King (RHP, 3-1, 2.18 ERA)


Where they stand​

Giants, 19-10 (2nd in NL West), 135 RS / 107 RA | Last 10: 5-5
Padres, 17-11 (3rd in NL West), 106 RS / 83 RA | Last 10: 3-7​


Padres to watch​


Luis Arraez: Before landing on the concussion IL a little over a week ago, the low-power, high-contact hitter was 10-for-his-last-30, including a pair of homers and double. Just 1 strikeout against 3 walks, too. Concussions are extremely serious in all situations, so we’ll need to see if he looks like he’s fully healthy, of course, while also holding our breaths, because he’s a career .389 hitters against the Giants (78 PA).

Nick Pivetta: He was a late signing for the Padres, who wound up having to surrender a draft pick to get this qualifying offer guy. I’m not sure he made the best decision turning down ~$21 million for San Diego’s 4-year, $55 million deal and I’m not sure that the Padres made the best decision signing a guy who had a 4.33 ERA / 4.20 FUP the prior 4 seasons. The strikeout stuff is key, though, and pitching at Petco will certainly eat into that career 1.5 HR/9 — indeed, he’s allowed just 1 HR in his first 30 IP of 2025. Still, he’s had just one bad start in the early season (3 ER in 3 IP at Wrigley Field). It’s not a 1:1, but this matchup is not unlike what the Giants saw from Tyler Mahle the other day. A low run-scoring situation. He’s allowed just four walks in his last 19 innings.

Connor Joe: After spending time with the Rockies, he’s landed on the Padres and it feels a little personal. Joe has a career line of .305/.376/.467 against the Giants in 29 career games (117 PA). He’s 3-for-9 against Logan Webb. Chances are that he’ll come off the bench rather than start... but you never know.


Giants to watch​


Willy Adames: I declare that I have made peace with Adames being a total flop for the next couple of months. April, May, most of June — let’s just assume he’s not on the team. He is a black hole of value on the field, but it seems like he’s a good guy in the clubhouse. Unfortunately, adjusting to a new team while taking on all the pressure of having landed the most valuable contract in the history of the Giants has gotten to him. I say all this because maybe his history in Petco Park can overcome it: .372/.471/.512 (51 PA — 11 games), but if it doesn’t, there you have it — he’s still nervous and pressing.

Jung Hoo Lee: That unfortunate injury which limited his 2024 debut really feels like a boon for him and the Giants this season. He’s like like a secret weapon — or, as though teams simply have no immune response to his skill set. He is an outside context problem — for now — and I think Jung Hoo Lee’s game is the perfect wrench to throw in the Padres’ pitching plans.

Mike Yastrzemski: The Padres have been tough on left-handed hitters so far this season (.197/.268/.307), but Yaz has 3 career homers at Petco and has an .888 OPS to start the season. Admittedly, he’s hit much better at Oracle than on the road (.308/.426/.590), but with two right-handed starters going up and the Giants having very limited left-handed bats in their lineup (or bench!), he might have the chance to swing one of these games.


Prediction time​


Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...l-2025-series-preview-logan-webb-nick-pivetta
 
Wednesday BP: Which Giants players do you want to see in the All Star Game?

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Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

We’re still a couple of months out from this year’s game, but with the Giants off to such a hot start, I thought we’d see who Giants fans want to see represent the team this year.

Good morning, baseball fans!

We are just over a month into the 2025 season, and the San Francisco Giants are off to a strong start. As always, I will remind myself that it’s still early in the season, but it’s been a fun ride so far.

We’re a little over two months out from this year’s All Star Game, but I thought we’d check in a couple of times and see which players you guys want to see represented this year. This is a Giants blog, so we’re focusing primarily on them. But you can answer across the board if you’d like.

Personally, I’d really like to see Jung Hoo Lee represent the Giants this year. Mostly because I think he’s really cool and I enjoy watching him play baseball and I think everyone else should get to do that too.

Of course, his .324/.383/.546 line and 1.7 bWAR don’t hurt either. He’s pretty consistently in the top ten among the league on offense. And his defense is very fun to watch as well.

Which Giants players would you like to see in this year’s All Star Game?​


Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2025/4/30/24420393/mlb-2025-san-francisco-giants-all-star-game
 
Thursday BP: Watch Brandon Crawford’s celebration ceremony

2212140177.0.jpg

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

In case you missed it, the Giants celebrated their iconic former short stop before Saturday’s game.

Good morning, baseball fans!

On Saturday, the San Francisco Giants held a ceremony to celebrate one of the heroes of the championship era, the Bay Area’s own Brandon Crawford.

The ceremony was held before the game between the Giants and the visiting Texas Rangers, which meant that former Giants manager Bruce Bochy was able to take part in the festivities. Several of Crawford’s teammates were also in attendance, with speeches given by Buster Posey and Hunter Pence as well as a few other speakers.

The ceremony was a little over a half hour, and the Giants have provided it in its entirety over on their YouTube channel.

So in case you missed it, get yourself a coffee and settle in and watch it here:

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ncisco-giants-brandon-crawford-video-ceremony
 
5/1 Gamethread: Giants vs. Rockies

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Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Justin Verlander vs. Kyle Freeland

The San Francisco Giants welcome the Colorado Rockies to Oracle Park tonight to kick off a four-game series.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Jason Verlander, who enters tonight’s game with a 4.99 ERA, 4.12 FIP, with 28 strikeouts to 12 walks in 30.2 innings pitched over six starts. Verlander’s last start was in the Giants’ 2-0 loss to the Texas Rangers on Friday, in which he allowed two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and a walk in six innings. Sadly, the lack of run support spoiled one of his better starts of the year thus far.

He’ll be facing off against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland, who enters tonight’s game with a 5.93 ERA, 2.91 FIP, with 23 strikeouts to four walks in 30.1 innings pitched over six starts. His last start was in the Rockies’ 8-7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, in which he allowed six runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts and a walk in four and a third innings.


Game #32


Who: San Francisco Giants vs. Colorado Rockies

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:45 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...s-how-to-watch-justin-verlander-kyle-freeland
 
Will Lin-Manuel Miranda bring a Rapping Buster Posey to the big screen?

Celebrity Sightings In New York City - March 19, 2025

Photo by James Devaney/GC Images

Lin-Manuel Miranda is working on a project about the Molina Brothers, who are connected to the Giants in a significant way!

A-rip, rap, a-slibbidy-day, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s got a brand new joint on the way! A movie if you choosey, made with love — not on a dare — about the three Molina brothers: Jose, Bengie, and Yadier.

That’s right. America’s Top Theater Kid is developing a new film about the Molina brothers.

“I’ll tell you something I’m working on: the Molina brothers, who are from my dad’s hometown of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico [“long known as... ‘the Village of the Squatters.’”]. Vega Alta is home to, like, an appalling number of Major League Baseball players... It’s really incredible. So to be able to honor that in a movie is something we’re really actively trying to do.”

The three Molina brothers (José, Bengie, and Yadier) were high-profile catchers in 2000’s Major League Baseball, known for their distinctly defensive strategy that led all three brothers to significant professional success. At various times alumni of the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs, the Anaheim Angels, the St. Louis Cardinals, and more, the Molina brothers are the only three brothers in MLB history to all win World Series rings.

Okay, so this is being described as a movie, but if you look at the creator of Hamilton’s list of produced material, it’s mostly musicals. His feature film directorial debut, tick, tick... BOOM!, is an adaptation of a musical (I think it’s pretty good btw) about the making of Rent. He’s got In the Heights, Moana, etc. There’s a nonzero chance that this movie is a musical about a trio of baseball-playing brothers, which could be a great idea, as baseball movies are typically not what Hollywood has sought for the past 15 years or so (I know from experience) — but a fresh angle on the genre? Hmm. Maybe some audiences might be interested. The musical aspect is strictly speculation, though. What does this project in development (and, therefore, not a certainty) have to do with the San Francisco Giants?

Well, Bengie Molina is the oldest of the Catching Molina’s. The Forever Giant played in San Francisco from 2007 through part of 2010, when the Giants traded him to the Texas Rangers. Bengie retired in 2010, after he and the Rangers lost the World Series to the Giants and the catcher who compelled his being traded in the first place: Buster Posey.

Stands to reason that the end of Bengie Molina’s baseball career might include a Posey reference, and if there’s a chance that this is a musical, then there might be a signing and dancing Buster Posey coming to movie screens some day. Will he be a villain? A hero? Somewhere in between? I’ll admit I’m interested in seeing them both on the silver screen.

There have been many memorable days and nights here in the McCovey Chronicles community. One of those was the day Brian Sabean traded Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers so that Buster Posey could finally become the team’s everyday catcher.

It happened while the team was midflight. As cold-blooded as that was, there was much rejoicing and hallelujah. There may or may not have been a comment that was simply the poster for the movie Operation Dumbo Drop. It’s not that Bengie Molina wasn’t a Good Giant, but Buster Posey was promised as the future, and Bruce Bochy was intent upon holding off that future for as long as Molina was on the roster.

Oh yes, there was much discussion about Bochy’s track record for sticking with veterans. The Vinny Castilla situation absolutely came up in those days, too.

Bochy was enraged during a trip to Washington, just before the MLB All-Star break, when asked by a front-office official why he was continuing to play Castilla. Bochy relayed that Castilla was his best option and he would continue to play him. If they didn’t like it, Bochy said, “Get rid of me or get rid of Vinny. Your choice.”

Castilla was released 10 days later.

So, the only way to unlock the future was to ditch the past. In this case, a 35-year old catcher whose family had become baseball royalty of a sort. It was probably only a shock to Molina, because you never think your time is up until you get that tap on the shoulder, right? But ever the professional and good guy, he said in the moment to Andrew Baggarly, then for the San Jose Mercury News:

Q: Do you believe Posey is ready to catch this staff?

A: Buster and I are very good friends. I don’t care what people think or say. I love that kid. We’re good friends, his wife and my wife too, they are friends. We are good people.

He’s going to have to talk a lot, watch a lot of video and he’ll be ready. He’s a great player, a great guy, a very open-minded guy, and he’s going to do all right for this team. I think this is his time to get these guys ready to go, and you never know. Maybe he will be the key. Maybe I was the wrong answer for them. He is very humble and that’s going to help a lot.

But also, Yadier Molina and Buster Posey were in reputational competition with each other through their playing careers, with Cardinals fans and a lot of the East Coast-based media firmly on the “Yadi is the best catcher ever” train for a good long while and it took Posey some time to break through that. Not that Yadier Molina isn’t a probable Hall of Famer.

Does all of this background add up to some good songs or sequence in a potential movie? I’m not sure. I can imagine a lot of different versions of the story. A musical with a Christopher Nolan structure of cross-cutting through time so that the Molina Brothers win their World Serieses at the same point in the movie.

I don’t think there will be a song where a woman sings, “Molinaaaaa! I just met a boy named Molinaaaaa!” but maybe a song of frustration where Bengie knows his time is winding down and there’s Buster Posey darting around the clubhouse talking about his exciting and unknown future, grinning from ear to ear. Or reporters who flocked to Yadier suddenly rushing over to Buster once he hits the scene. Yeah, Posey as quasi-villain in a movie musical about the Molina Brothers. That’s the ticket.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...hers-movie-buster-posey-villain-question-mark
 
5/2 Gamethread: Giants vs. Rockies

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Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Robbie Ray vs. Antonio Senzatela

The San Francisco Giants continue their four-game series against the Colorado Rockies tonight at Oracle Park.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be left-hander Robbie Ray, who enters tonight’s game with a 3.73 ERA, 4.87 FIP, with 33 strikeouts to 19 walks in 31.1 innings pitched over six starts. Ray is still undefeated in the 2025 season, his last start was in the Giants’ 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday, in which he allowed two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and one walk in seven innings pitched.

He’ll be facing off against Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who enters tonight’s game with a 5.22 ERA, 5.91 FIP, with 13 strikeouts to five walks in 29.1 innings pitched over six starts. His last start was in the Rockies’ 6-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, in which he allowed four runs (with three home runs) on eight hits with four strikeouts in five innings.


Lineups


Giants

  1. Mike Yastrzemski (L) — RF
  2. Willy Adames (R) — SS
  3. Jung Hoo Lee (L) — CF
  4. Matt Chapman (R) — 3B
  5. Wilmer Flores (R) — DH
  6. Heliot Ramos (R) — LF
  7. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) — 1B
  8. Sam Huff (R) — C
  9. Christian Koss (R) — 2B

LHP. Robbie Ray

Rockies

  1. Brenton Doyle (R) — CF
  2. Jordan Beck (R) — LF
  3. Hunter Goodman (R) — DH
  4. Ryan McMahon (L) — 3B
  5. Michael Toglia (S) — 1B
  6. Sean Bouchard (R) — RF
  7. Jacob Stallings (R) — C
  8. Owen Miller (R) — 2B
  9. Alan Trejo (R) — SS

RHP. Antonio Senzatela


Game #33


Who: San Francisco Giants (19-13) vs. Colorado Rockies (6-25)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 7:15 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: MLB Network (out-of-market only)

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

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ies-how-to-watch-robbie-ray-antonio-senzatela
 
5/3 Gamethread: Giants vs. Rockies

View from the side profile of Jordan Hicks stepping forward to make a pitch.

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

Jordan Hicks vs. Bradley Blalock.

It’s day baseball time! After a disappointing series opener on Thursday, the San Francisco Giants recovered with a delightful win on Friday night against the Colorado Rockies, and now they look to go ahead in the series.

Taking the mound for the Giants is right-hander Jordan Hicks, who makes his seventh start of the season. How you view Hicks’ season likely depends on how you view different pitching metrics, as he’s 1-3 with a 6.12 ERA, a 3.68 FIP, and 27 strikeouts against 13 walks in 32.1 innings. His last outing was his best in a while, as he gave up two runs with no walks in five innings against the Texas Rangers.

On the other side is right-hander Bradley Blalock, a pitcher I’ve definitely absolutely heard of, no doubt about it. Blalock, a 24-year old who has appeared in just 10 games in his young career, will make his second start of the year, and his fourth total appearance. He’s 0-1 with a 10.29 ERA, a 6.77 FIP, and three strikeouts to two walks in seven innings. He made his first start of the year his last time out, and gave up six runs in four innings against the Cincinnati Reds.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Go Giants!


Lineups


Giants

  1. Mike Yastrzemski (L) — RF
  2. Willy Adames (R) — SS
  3. Jung Hoo Lee (L) — CF
  4. Matt Chapman (R) — 3B
  5. Heliot Ramos (R) — LF
  6. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) — 1B
  7. Patrick Bailey (S) — C
  8. Luis Matos (R) — DH
  9. Brett Wisely (L) — 2B

RHP. Jordan Hicks

Rockies

  1. Brenton Doyle (R) — CF
  2. Jordan Beck (R) — LF
  3. Ryan McMahon (L) — 3B
  4. Hunter Goodman (R) — C
  5. Michael Toglia (S) — 1B
  6. Nick Martini (L) — DH
  7. Kyle Farmer (R) — SS
  8. Mickey Moniak (L) — RF
  9. Adael Amador (S) — 2B

RHP. Bradley Blalock


Game #34


Who: San Francisco Giants (20-13) vs. Colorado Rockies (6-26)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 1:05 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...schedule-lineups-jordan-hicks-bradley-blalock
 
Ray Day

MLB: Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants

Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Giants don’t lose on Ray Day

It was a Frangelico kind of evening. As fun as the 2025 season has been so far, fans of the San Francisco Giants haven’t had many of these, games of leisure, I mean, one in which you can enjoy stretched-out on the couch rather than stressed-out on the edge of your seat, constantly getting up to go to the bathroom between innings, or anxiously rearranging throw pillows after every pitch.

I poured myself a glass of that hazelnut liqueur in the 5th inning, right after Robbie Ray closed out the frame with another ridiculously high fastball to the ridiculously tall catcher, Jacob Stallings. A bold move, I know, pouring myself what was in essence a celebratory drink. A debutante gesture of nonchalance that had the power to rent the fabric of the sports universe. A real jinx-y move, in other words. Especially so, given the late-lead lost to a very beatable Colorado yesterday.

Earlier in the day one of my students asked me how a team like the Giants could lose to a team like the Rockies. It was the middle of history class, we were reading about the Missouri Compromise — but these organic moments of real learning are rare, so I took the opportunity to digress, to explain that this was the beauty of baseball, that even the most terrible teams will win a third of their games, and the best teams will lose a third, and what happened to the Giants on Thursday evening was one of the wonderful characteristics of the long season. One achingly frustrating loss doesn’t define a year; what defines a year is how a team responds in the next game. At this point, that all-too-familiar glaze had settled over the student’s eyes. He was looking in my general direction, not at me though, but at a fly crawling along the wall over my left shoulder. The other kids were dutifully waiting me out as well by scribbling dark graphite lines onto their notebook paper, poking their pencil eraser up their nose, scratching at their fingernail polish… You win some and lose some — the school year is a long season as well.

My point being is the Giants responded. They have all year, be it after a loss or down early in a game. Potential collapse is always a possibility, but that possibility, that uh-oh feeling tingling in your gut, can disappear fast considering a game’s rhythm and tone. Early on Friday, that tone was apparent: the Giants were not going to drop this one — especially with Robbie Ray on the mound.

By the 5th, when I decided to treat myself to a digestivo, things were more than comfortable. A 4 -run lead felt like 10. Their 3-run second fueled by a Wilmer Flores lead-off double and a LaMonte Wade Jr. RBI double gave Ray something to lean on. Matt Chapman’s 6th homer (and first extra base hit and RBI since April 24th) supplied a significant added cushion.

And it’s a thing now: the Giants don’t lose when Ray pitches.

Colorado had just two base runners in their first four innings: one in the 1st promptly erased attempting a delayed steal and one in the 4th on a two-out infield single. Ray had his 7th K by the end of the 5th. He strolled through the Rockies batting order, serving up a no-nonsense diet of four-seam fastballs and hard sliders.

This is the Ray Way — but unlike the typical Ray outing, he wasn’t reliant on whiffs, on chase, on challenge fastballs to bail himself out of unfriendly counts. After coaxing 23 swings-and-misses from hitters in his last start, he managed just 9 on Friday. No matter: he dotted offerings around the zone for 14 called strikes. Colorado hacks nicked off 20 fouls, but few at-bats wore on. Though the lefty generally abhors contact, he stayed efficient with either quick K’s or dictating contact. Two-thirds of the balls in play were on the ground, most of them rolled over on friendly hops to San Francisco’s left-side.

A toast felt appropriate after Ray ended his eveing with a 1-2-3 frame. After going years without pitching through the 7th inning, he’s pulled it off in consecutive starts, carving away chunks of his ERA while doing it (down from 4.07 to 3.05). Eight strikeouts (tying a season high) helped spread thin the Rockies four baserunners against him, managing just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position in the 6th.

Hayden Birdsong faced the minimum over the 8th and 9th, securing San Francisco’s first shutout of the year. After an annoying loss, the Giants responded. Now let’s hope they keep it rolling for the rest of the weekend.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-recap-robbie-ray-colorado-rockies-mlb-scores
 
Kyle Harrison returns, Lou Trivino DFA’d

Kyle Harrison on the mound, getting ready to throw a pitch.

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

Welcome back, Kyle.

Well over a month into the season, the San Francisco Giants have made their first voluntary roster move. Shortly after Sunday’s win over the Colorado Rockies, the Giants announced that veteran reliever Lou Trivino had been designated for assignment. Taking his place is left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison, the former top prospect in the organization, who was called up from AAA Sacramento.

Waiving Trivino is not particularly surprising. His return to the Majors (he hadn’t pitched since 2022), and for the manager he had spent most of his career pitching for, was one of the best stories of Spring Training. But the 33 year old had struggled, and was pretty clearly the last option in the eight-player bullpen, primarily relegated to mop-up duty (such as on Sunday, when he pitched the ninth inning of a 9-3 win). In 11 appearances with the Giants, Trivino had a 5.84 ERA, and gave up 11 hits — including four home runs — and five walks in 12.1 innings of work. There’s a very good chance that Trivino will clear waivers, at which point he would likely accept an assignment in Sacramento.

But while Trivino leaving isn’t surprising, the person taking Trivino’s spot on the roster is. With right-handed pitchers Sean Hjelle and Tristan Beck pitching very well in Sacramento, I assumed the Giants would turn to one of them, given their experience in relief roles. Instead, they’re turning to someone who very well might be one of their five best rotation options right now.

Harrison spent all of 2024 in the Giants rotation (save for a short stint on the IL), but was optioned in the spring after getting a late start due to rehab from an injury, as well as a severe illness. But he has been sensational in AAA where, through six starts, he has a 3.46 ERA, a 2.98 FIP, and 13.2 strikeouts against 2.8 walks per nine innings. He has returned to his status as the best strikeout artist in the Pacific Coast League, only now he’s not walking many batters, either.

Most notably, however, is the velocity. Harrison’s once-impressive velocity spent most of last year in the 92-93 range, and whether or not it would bounce back this year was one of the primary talking points in camp. It’s been steadily increasing and increasing and increasing ... and in his last start he was regularly sitting 97, and even touched 98.

The Giants beat reporters have said that Harrison is up to replace Trivino in the bullpen, not to slide into the rotation, so for now the five-man rotation will stay as is, but you have to imagine that can only last for so long. If Harrison pitches as well in relief as Hayden Birdsong has been doing, the Giants will have to eventually find a way to get starts for one or both of them.

For now, though, the team is making it clear that their intention to play their best players is more than just talk. Harrison and Birdsong may be the two best starting pitcher prospects in the system, but the Giants are happy to pitch them out of the bullpen just to make sure that their arms are being used to help win Major League games.

And hey ... after 35 games, the Giants finally have a second lefty in the bullpen!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...er-transactions-kyle-harrison-lou-trivino-dfa
 
Giants enjoy an off day in Chicago

Matt Chapman sitting on the ground in a slide while Nico Hoerner tries to turn a double play.

Photo by Griffin Quinn/Getty Images

Or an ugly loss at Wrigley.

On Monday, in the fourth inning of their series opener against the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants right fielder Luis Matos stepped into the batter’s box against Matthew Boyd. There were two outs and Matt Chapman stood on second base, with the Giants trailing 2-0.

Matos stood and watched idly as four fastsballs flew out of Boyd’s hand and landed in Carson Kelly’s mitt. The first landed in the zone. The next three didn’t. On the fifth pitch, Matos finally felt timed to Boyd’s fastball, and proceeded to swing straight through a perfectly-timed changeup. On the sixth pitch, Matos felt timed to Boyd’s changeup, got a second one, and launched it well into the bleachers.

Anyway, I hope you all had a nice Monday evening. See you tomorrow!



Okay, fine. We can talk about the rest of the baseball game, even though there’s nothing fun to talk about beyond that Matos home run. So let’s talk about that Matos home run a little more. Suddenly, the Giants fourth outfielder looks mighty comfortable again. Over the last three games, he’s 4-11 with two homers, one double, two walks, and two strikeouts.

Interestingly, Matos has been crushing right-handed pitchers this year, but has been struggling against lefties, though the sample size is so small that it comes with a surgeon general’s warning. So seeing him have not just a third straight strong game, but a gorgeous swing off a southpaw was a gorgeous sight.

And, not to belabor the point, but uhh ... kind of the only gorgeous sight that the Giants provided on Monday.

For the Giants, Monday was a loss. A rather lopsided loss. A 9-2 loss, if you’re demanding the specifics. And frankly, it was just a bad day at the office that can be easily and quickly washed away with a trip to Portillo’s, or whatever their go-to Italian beef joint is.

But it was also a reminder that good baseball teams are hard to beat. The Giants just cruised to a four-game series win over the Colorado Rockies but, if we’re being honest, it wasn’t their best baseball. There were times during the season where it felt like what they were doing only worked because of who they were playing. The Rockies were going to counter the Giants mistakes not with capitalization, but with return favors.

The Cubs are a good team, and so they wouldn’t. The Giants weren’t sharp, and they paid the price. The Cubs pounced on every mistake the Giants offered up: pitchers who couldn’t find the strike zone, infielders who couldn’t find the web of the glove, hitters who couldn’t move the runner over.

Against teams like the Cubs, the margin for error is often nonexistent. In the bottom of the fourth inning, minutes after Matos had tied the game, Landen Roupp opened the frame with back-to-back strikeouts, then got Pete Crow-Armstrong to hit a groundball to reigning Gold Glove winner Matt Chapman.

Chapman booted it, which gave Chicago all the light they needed. Crow-Armstrong reached safely on the error and, after back-to-back singles bookending a stolen base, the Cubs had scored a pair of runs.

But the sixth inning was where this was really on display. Still in it, down just 4-2, the wheels fell off. Hayden Birdson replaced Roupp, and gave up a leadoff home run to Carson Kelly, who apparently is the best hitter in baseball history now. Perhaps rattled or perhaps just facing a great player, Birdsong then got stuck in a long battle with Crow-Armstrong, which ended in a single.

So it goes. That wasn’t the issue.

The issue was that, finally facing the soft part of the lineup, Birdsong got Nico Hoerner to ground into a tailor-made double play, but a Willy Adames error resulted in two safe runners instead of two outs. Birdsong reprised the role when he got Dansby Swanson to hit a left-side grounder, but Chapman booted another one. Instead of the inning being over, the bases were loaded with no outs.

It’s probable to overcome those mistakes against the Rockies, and possible to overcome them against an average team. But it won’t happen against the best offense in the Majors.

Birdsong walked the next batter, Nicky Lopez, which scored a run. He limited Ian Happ — who had homered earlier in the game — to a sacrifice fly, which scored another run. He walked Kyle Tucker to load the bases. He handed the ball to Bob Melvin, who handed the ball to Spencer Bivens, who give up a single to Seiya Suzuki, which scored two runs. He walked Michael Busch, which loaded the bases.

And then Kelly, who started the whole party, hit a groundball to Chapman. At long, merciful last, the Giants turned the double play.

It wasn’t a red flag or a concerning loss. The Giants self-proclaimed best defensive left side infield in baseball — a perfectly fair claim — committed four errors, and there’s no way to view that as anything but a funky aberration or a secret agent groundskeeper. They had limited offensive opportunities and failed to capitalize on them, and that’s hardly cause for concern with a team that’s been fantastic in scoring situations this year.

It’s just a loss. A bad loss. An ugly loss. A loss that you didn’t enjoy watching, save for that 20-second moment where Matos swung and then rounded the bases while Jon Miller serenaded you. And certainly a loss that served as a strong reminder that even good teams — and the Giants are a good team — cannot mess around and expect victory against other good teams.

Something tells me they won’t make that mistake tomorrow.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...cores-luis-matos-hayden-birdsong-landen-roupp
 
Tuesday BP: Giants to feature in upcoming film

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Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

“Caught Stealing” hits theaters in August and features a main character who is a massive Giants fan in the 1990s. Can relate.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants aren’t often depicted in feature films. Usually, if being a baseball fan is a prominent part of a character’s personality, the baseball team tends to be from New York or Boston, etc.

However, the Giants will be featured (at least in passing) in the upcoming film “Caught Stealing” by director Darren Aronofsky. The film is set in the 1990s and follows Hank Thompson, who grew up in the Bay Area and ends up getting mixed up in some criminal shenanigans in New York City. A key part of Thompson’s character appears to be that he is a massive Giants fan. Which we love to see.


‘Caught Stealing’ First Look: Austin Butler Goes On the Run in Darren Aronofsky’s Crime Caper https://t.co/omU03VsShz

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) April 29, 2025

The film is set to feature an impressive list of actors, including Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Matt Smith, Regina King and Bad Bunny among more. And according a write-up from SF Gate’s Gabe Lehman, features some pretty great prop/set work with regards to Giants memorabilia that is accurate to the time period.

Honestly, they had me at “Giants fan” and Matt Smith. I’m a nerd, after all, and a huge Doctor Who fan. I still remember watching the American version of the UK’s Broadchurch series called Gracepoint. Smith’s fellow former-Doctor, David Tennant, reprises his main role from the original, but this time as a detective from a small town in Oregon. He talks about the Giants at one point and clearly it stood out to me because I’m a collector of weird moments like this.

Anyway, “Caught Stealing” is set to be released on August 29th. Mark your calendars and make sure to wear your gear.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...25-san-francisco-giants-caught-stealing-movie
 
5/7 Gamethread: Giants @ Cubs

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Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Robbie Ray vs. Ben Brown

The San Francisco Giants wrap up this three-game series against the Chicago Cubs this morning at Wrigley Field.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be left-hander Robbie Ray, who enters today’s game with a 3.05 ERA, 4.26 FIP, with 41 strikeouts to 21 walks in 38.1 innings pitched over seven undefeated starts. His last start was in the Giants’ 4-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday, in which he allowed just two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in seven innings, his strongest start of the year thus far.

He’ll be facing off against Cubs right-hander Ben Brown, who enters today’s game with a 4.88 ERA, 3.70 FIP, with 35 strikeouts to 14 walks in 31.1 innings. His last start was in the Cubs’ 10-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, in which he allowed just four hits and striking out four in six innings.


Lineups


Giants

  1. Mike Yastrzemski (L) — RF
  2. Willy Adames (R) — SS
  3. Jung Hoo Lee (L) — CF
  4. Matt Chapman (R) — 3B
  5. Wilmer Flores (R) — DH
  6. Heliot Ramos (R) — LF
  7. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) — 1B
  8. Sam Huff (R) — C
  9. Christian Koss (R) — 2B

LHP. Robbie Ray

Cubs

  1. Ian Happ (S) — LF
  2. Kyle Tucker (L) — DH
  3. Seiya Suzuki (R) — RF
  4. Carson Kelly (R) — C
  5. Justin Turner (R) — 1B
  6. Nico Hoerner (R) — 2B
  7. Pete Crow-Armstrong (L) — CF
  8. Dansby Swanson (R) — SS
  9. Jon Berti (R) — 3B

RHP. Ben Brown


Game #38


Who: San Francisco Giants (23-14) vs. Chicago Cubs (22-15)

Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

When: 11:20 a.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...hicago-cubs-how-to-watch-robbie-ray-ben-brown
 
Thursday BP: A tale of two pitchers

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Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

The 2025 Giants have a strange phenomenon going on with two members of the rotation.

Good morning, baseball fans!

Since today is an off-day for the San Francisco Giants, I thought we would talk about an extremely bizarre phenomenon plaguing the team at the moment.

I am well aware that pitcher wins aren’t really indicative of much, and matter more for incentive bonuses, arbitration, etc. That said, there is something really funky going on in the Giants rotation at the moment.

First of all, the team has not lost a single game that Robbie Ray has started. He has only gotten credited for the win in five of those, but it’s still interesting that the team is undefeated in his eight starts this year.

On the flip side, Justin Verlander has not gotten credited with a single win this year. Verlander has made eight starts, and while the team has won three of those games, they did so late in the game. Of those three wins, two were in extra innings, including Tuesday’s ridiculous nine-run 11th inning. At the same time, though, he’s only gotten credited with the losses twice.

So is Verlander just getting really unlucky? I don’t think so. He’s got a 4.50 ERA and a 4.42 FIP, which doesn’t indicate that to me that he’s getting the short end of the stick on defense, anyway. And it’s not necessarily a lack of run support either. Of his eight starts this year, there have only been three in which the Giants have scored three or fewer runs.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, but it is a strange thing to have happening on the same team.

What do you think is going on with Ray and Verlander’s luck?​


Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-francisco-giants-justin-verlander-robbie-ray
 
Giants-Twins Series Preview

Minnesota Twins v Boston Red Sox

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

Vaunted pitching, haunted hitting.

The Minnesota Twins have been a midwest-sized disappointment to start the 2025 season. Their 18-20 record has them 4th place in the AL Central when they were expected to be near the top of the division. They are being roasted for an inactive offseason. They are 20th in offense (95 wRC+) despite having Carlos Correa (who’s supposed to be great!), Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers, and Royce Lewis. And, again, they play in the AL Central.

After a triumphant series against the Cubs, the San Francisco Giants arrive at Target Field with a lot of confidence — at least, I would hope they do. That was a gut check of a series where they overcame a shaky Ryan Walker and a Cubs lineup that threatened a big inning nearly every time. The bird’s eye view might see a hot team taking on a flopping team, but that’s simply not the case, and you don’t even need the “well, you know, you can’t predict baseball” qualifier attached to it.

The Twins are 11-5 in their last 16 games and their previously dull lineup has come to life with a .761 OPS (119 wRC+ — 8th in MLB). Indeed, their lineup has been exactly as good as the Cubs (77 runs scored compared to Chicago’s 78; same wRC+) — though, it’s worth pointing out that the last couple of games saw the Cubs’ lineup hit a wall called Giants Pitching. Still, it’s evidence of a turnaround of late, the exact sort of thing that happens with teams all the time: a slow start followed by the talent getting into a rhythm and sustaining good results over a longer stretch. But don’t take my word for it:

Byron Buxton, last 65 PA: .305/.354/.610 — 5 HR, 15 RBI 3 SB
Ryan Jeffers, last 52 PA: .313/.365/.521 — 2 HR, 10 RBI
Ty France, last 67 PA: .333/.388/.467 — 1 HR, 5 2B, 11 RBI
Trevor Larnach, last 69 PA: .258/.324/.468 — 4 HR, 12 RBI
Brooks Lee, last 59 PA: .304/.339/.429 — 1 HR, 4 2B

The Twins’ pitching has been just as formidable as the Giants’, and all season long, too. By straight up Wins Above Replacement, their team fWAR of 5.6 is 3rd in MLB behind the Mets and Phillies, but 1st in the American League. Their team ERA of 3.42 is just slightly better than the Giants’ 3.45 (team fWAR: +4.7). Over this most recent 16-game stretch, they have a 2.58 team ERA and have been the most valuable pitching staff in baseball. They’re doing it by striking “everybody” out (sport-leading 10.0 K/9) and walking very few (2.5 BB/9). They’re also not allowing many home runs.

The Giants don’t pale in comparison, however. They’re 4th in value over this same stretch and they’re walking hitters at the same relatively low rate (2.75 BB/9). The Giants have also allowed the second-fewest home runs in the game (0.54 HR/9). So, while the Twins’ lineup has been soaring of late, we’ve already seen Giants pitching put the brakes on such entities.

Can the Giants hit their way to a series win in Minnesota is the question. Our favorite squadron has been perfectly fine on the road. The Twins, meanwhile, have been great at home, and they already have dominant pitching to throw at what has devolved into a barely league average body for the Giants. Do the Giants have more road magic in them or have they run into an immovable object at the end of this road trip?


Series overview​


Who: San Francisco Giants at Minnesota Twins
Where: Target Field | Minneapolis, Minnesota
When: Friday at 5:10pm PT, Saturday at 4:15pm PT, Sunday at 11:10am PT
National broadcasts: Apple TV+ (Friday), FOX (Saturday)

Projected starters

Friday: Jordan Hicks (RHP 1-3, 6.03 ERA) vs. Chris Paddack (RHP 0-3, 5.57 ERA)
Saturday: Logan Webb (RHP 4-2, 2.61 ERA) vs. Joe Ryan (RHP 2-2, 2.93 ERA)
Sunday: Landen Roupp (RHP 2-3, 4.89 ERA) vs. Pablo Lopez (RHP 3-2, 2.18 ERA)


Where they stand​

Giants, 24-14 (3rd in NL West), 183 RS / 144 RA | Last 10: 6-4
Twins, 18-20 (4th in AL Central), 152 RS / 137 RA | Last 10: 6-4​


Twins to watch​


Carlos Correa: Giants fans should be saying “bullet dodged” every time Correa’s name comes up. This would be year 3 of that 13-year, $350 million deal the Giants offered him, and while year 2 of it looked pretty okay (4.3 fWAR), it’s absolutely the case that between year 1 (1.8 fWAR) and the start of this season (.221/.262/.324), the BUST vibes would be intense right now. What Correa has maintained throughout all the shaky hitting is good defense. According to FanGraphs, he’s already at +5.4 Defensive Runs Above Average just 37 games into his 2025. He’s +10.9 for 2023 & 2024 combined, so for the moment, he’s trending in the direction of his elite defensive years of 2019 & 2021 (+10.9 Def & +16.2 Def, respectively). According to Statcast, he already has 6 Outs Above Average at shortstop. He had 6 total 2023 & 2024 combined. Here’s a fun example from just the other day:

This player and this team will always be connected. And Correa has had a nice career line against the Giants. In 15 games (65 PA), .322/.385/.424, so there’s a chance he could get his season back on track at the plate against a team he might still have some enmity towards and who are playing on his home turf where he and his teammates play very well. But, if his bat struggles, he’s almost certain to terrorize Bob Melvin’s players with superlative defense.

Chris Paddack: He is Minnesota’s worst starter by far (5.57 ERA / 5.52 FIP in 32.1 IP) which makes his start the most important of the series. While it’s true that anything can happen, Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez have been so good that it seems like “blowing out the bad pitcher and hope to get lucky against one of the other two” is the most successful strategy from a probability standpoint. He features a very basic four-seam, changeup, curveball, and slider arsenal, and there’s nothing all that impressive about his pitches from a Statcast perspective. What works is the pitch mix. He’s basically a fastball-changeup guy who keeps hitters even more off balance with a sprinkling of curveballs and changeups.

Regrettably, I must report that the Giants are bad against the four-seamer: a combined -14 Run Value against the pitch from their 10 primary hitters. -3 Run Value against the changeup. They are decent against sliders and curveballs, so, it’s plausible that Paddack’s stuff on those other two pitches don’t keep some of the Giants hitters off that much balance that he’ll try to sneak these secondary pitches by them and get blasted.

Byron Buxton: Dude is just good — when healthy. And right now, he’s healthy.


Giants to watch​


LaMonte Wade Jr.: Sure, I wrote about him the other day and concluded that he’s fast approaching the make-or-break moment of his season, but I’m putting him here because this is a player going up against a former team — indeed, the team that drafted him and eventually dumped him. He’s played just 8 games against them since the Giants acquired him and has just a .573 OPS against them (33 PA), BUT! In 24 games at Target Field, he’s slashing .296/.449/.444 in 69 PA (5-for-21 as a Giant playing there). He was 3-for-9 with a double in that Cubs series; let’s see if this one wakes him up some more.

Logan Webb: At Oracle Park? Logan Webb is an ace (0.44 ERA in 20.1 IP). On the road? He’s closer to a 4th or 5th starter (4.18 ERA in 28 IP). This will be the first time he’s ever faced the Twins and, obviously, pitch in Target Field.

Matt Chapman: He ended April on a weak note (.198/.356/.377), but he’s getting hot here in May: .308/.379/.577 with a pair of homers and a double. In 17 games at Target Field (72 PA), he’s slashing .281/.347/.500 with 4 home runs. Good timing?


Prediction time​


Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ay-2025-logan-webb-first-time-pitching-target
 
Saturday BP: Who do you think was the Player of the Week?

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Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

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

Good morning, baseball fans!

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

Personally, I’ve got to go with Willy Adames and his two home runs in Sunday’s 9-3 win over the Colorado Rockies. First of all, multiple home runs in the same game is pretty much always going to get my vote. Second of all, the game wasn’t even at Coors Field, so they were real home runs! Take a look below:

Who do you think was the Player of the Week?​


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