Their 63rd win, by way of a 461-foot moonshot from Bryce Eldridge, ensured the Giants will not lose 100 games for the second time in franchise history. While some, including the franchise shortstop, expressed indifference over losing 100, I think it matters. A lot.

Your resume sticks with you.

Make an All Star team, you’re forever an All Star. Win a World Series? Forever a champion. Take an at-bat or pitch an inning? Forever a major leaguer.

The stench of 100 losses sticks with you, especially if you’re Buster Posey and Tony Vitello. Not something they couldn’t recover from, but not something that would disappear from memory, either.

Instead the season will go down as an aberration, right alongside 2017. A pothole on the road to a better place. Hopefully it’s even closer than it appears.

Up next: Baseball and eggs. It’ll be Anthony Molina (3-1, 5.24 ERA) against Matthew Liberatore (5-14, 5.53 ERA) in the series finale at 10:15 am.

From our seats down the left-field line, we marveled at the batting stance of a man who will make more than $350 million for his ability to hit the baseball.

He settles into the left-handed batter’s box holding a bat high above his head, like an axe he’s about to drop on a log. His feet stand a world apart, his back foot toeing the chalk line while his front foot gets a head start toward first base.

As the pitch barrels down, the front foot comes up. Bat finds ball, even as it comes in at his ankles.

And that’s how Rafael Devers rocketed a grand slam into the arcade at 102 mph.

A game that was lost felt like a game that was won—or at least could be won. And in a season like this, that’s a win.

Up next: The Giants need only one win to stave off 100 losses. Perhaps it’ll come Saturday, when Cesar Perdomo (0-0, 0.90 ERA) squares off with Michael King (10-9, 3.00 ERA) at 1:05 pm. Kruk and Kuip on the call.

No, he wasn’t motioning for a pinch-runner like I initially thought. (We know how he feels about that.)

He was singling out Bryce Eldridge, as if the 21-year-rookie needed a reminder the game rested on his shoulders.

Devers, apparently, is carrying surreal power not only in his bat, but in his point. Eldridge hit a missile.

One-hundred eight miles per hour off the bat, scorching the sod in center field and tying the game in the 10th.

Devers pointed again at his protégé, who finally shot a look back his direction. Let’s f***ing go.

If the Giants are going to be anything in 2027 and beyond, it’s this. Eldridge and Devers. Devers and Eldridge. The rising tide to lift seven other boats.

Shay Whitcomb and Nate Furman won the game, but Eldridge and Devers saved it.

Up next: Landen Roupp (8-13, 4.17 ERA) and Quinn Matthews (1-2, 4.38 ERA) square off in Game 2 of the series. First pitch at 6:45 pm.

Two decades came and went (so did three parades). After all that time and all that talk, I thought finally having that 30-homer hitter would feel like the something. Like it would lend some kind of legitimacy to the Giants, or unlock a level of greatness they hadn’t yet achieved.

Now they’ve done it in back to back seasons. Willy Adames reached the mountaintop in Game 162 last year, and Rafael Devers did it before August ended. He blasted No. 30 on Monday evening in Atlanta.

Turns out 30 homers is no secret ingredient at all.

Like anyone who watched those title teams, I knew this. But now I know it.

The grass isn’t always greener. We always want what we can’t have. Thirty is just a number.

But hey, if they could just pair 30 homers with a 20-game winner, not seen since 1993, everything would be different. Promise.

Up next: Fun one on tap Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. It’ll be Logan Webb (8-8, 3.72 ERA) against Paul Skenes (9-11, 3.79 ERA). The baseball world has no idea what Shay Whitcomb, Turner Hill, and Nate Furman are about to unleash on Skenes. First pitch at 3:40 pm.

No, really.

Because every team has their biggest blown ninth-inning lead in franchise history.

Wouldn’t you want it to come now?

Imagine if it happened in Game 162 in 2010. Or 2021.

Imagine if Salvador Perez got ahold of one of Madison Bumgarner’s high fastballs.

Or if the Cardinals put up a 10 spot through the downpour in Game 7 of the 2012 NLCS.

None of those things happened. Because they were normal baseball games. Played by a normal baseball team.

There’s nothing normal about these Giants, whose performances are better suited for a circus tent than the shores of McCovey Cove.

With 29 shows to go, I hope they can pack in as many unsavory achievements as possible. Lose a game by 34. Strike out 28 times. Give up 11 runs in the ninth.

Get it all out now. Because it’s time to put the tents away.

Up next: The show must go on. The Diamondbacks are coming to town. There’s a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday. How about that? First, Landen Roupp (7-13, 4.34 ERA) takes the mound at 6:45 pm.

Take a moment to sit with this lineup. Soak it in. Swish it around. Read it.

Who do you know? Who’s unfamiliar? Who sounds like a guy you heard about in a spy movie or detective novel?

If I told you in March that the Giants would roll out this lineup for a real game—not a Scottsdale split squad—you’d think one of two things:

1- The Giants won the National League West and the starters are still nursing their hangovers.

2- Something went wrong. Very very very wrong.

I won’t spoil which is the right answer. But this lineup, among the many forgettable ones of late, paints a picture of where the Giants are. They’re injured. They’re experimenting. And they’re not just young, they’re packing the lineup with summer interns.

Subtract Devers and Lee, and Monday’s hitters combined for 447 career games, roughly 64 per batter. Not even one half-season to go around.

The Opening Night lineup, subtracting Devers and Lee for comparison’s sake, combined for 4,844 career games.

The difference between the two lineups is about 27 seasons’ worth of games.

What does all that inexperience get you? One of cleanest wins of the year.

Up next: The Giants are one win away from that elusive series win. It’ll be Adrian Houser (4-7, 4.08 ERA), who’s been excellent of late, against former top prospect Brady Singer (5-11, 4.72 ERA). First pitch at 6:45 pm.

You see him? There he is, right between BALL and STRIKE.

This man, a resident of the Green Monster, watched as Victor Bericoto waited. And waited. And finally, as the ball crashed down to earth, perilously close to the most famous wall in sports, Bericoto jabbed his glove high into the air and caught it. Inning over. Or so it seemed.

You could hear the clank of metal on the TV broadcast. The sound Giants fans know to mean home run when the ball hits the tin roof in right field at Oracle Park. The sound Green Monster Man knows to mean hit.

While officials on the field and in New York questioned what happened, not to mention hundreds of thousands of fans and viewers, one man knew. (And it wasn’t Bericoto. He had his eyes closed.) But the Mayor of the Monster? His eyes gave him a view no camera could.

He had to know the coming result: Double.

I wonder, too, if he knew what happens when the 2026 Giants give their opponent an inch. They usually take a win.

Up next: The Giants haven’t won a series in almost a month. They’ll try to do it against Chase Burns (14-2, 2.51 ERA) and the Reds over these next few days. First pitch on Monday at 6:45 pm.

It was the mildest wild pitch you’ve ever seen, coupled with daring baserunning you hardly see anymore. The Rockies never looked back Sunday, and they might not the rest of the season—at least at the Giants.

Only one game separates the two teams in the standings. Colorado won its first series at Oracle Park in five years, and took the season series for the first time since 2018.

The Rockies have been a laughing stock for a long time. Yet they weren’t the ones that issued 10 walks on Sunday. They weren’t the ones who allowed 13 runs on nine hits.

For as bad as this season has been, you could still look at the Giants and say, hey, at least they aren’t the Rockies.

That’s true. After Sunday’s game, Tony Vitello compared the Giants’ play to something far worse: junior college.

Up next: The Giants hit the road for Cleveland, starting a road trip that will also bring Rafael Devers back to Boston. Carson Whisenhunt (3-3, 6.11 ERA) will face Foster Griffin (13-4, 3.25 ERA) at 3:40 pm.

Podcast:

Joshua Báez in Chicago, Turner Hill in San Francisco.

Báez, a top prospect for the Cardinals, blasted the first pitch of his career for a home run.

Hill, who doesn’t even have a headshot on his MLB.com page, rolled a ground ball to second base.

Báez went on to hit two more home runs, becoming the first player ever to hit three homers in his first game.

Hill didn’t make history to anyone but himself. He finished Saturday hitless but put the Giants ahead with a sac fly.

His final line: 0 for 3, RBI, K

Baez’s line: 3 for 4, 3 HR, 5 RBI

Buster Posey also went 0 for 3 in his first start. And the three-homer club this year is full of luminaries like Ryan O’Hearn and Colt Keith.

Debuts mean everything, unless they mean nothing.

Up next: Blade Tidwell continues his audition to make next year’s rotation. Last game of the season against the Rockies. First pitch at 1:05 pm.

Podcast: Kerry and I swap Mike Krukow memories and moments as he winds down his time in the booth. We also dive into takeaways from The Athletic’s big Buster Posey story and, as always, walk down memory lane to the Wall of Fame. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else.

Here’s my advice, should you ever find yourself in this situation:

• If you can’t be the guy giving a foul ball to a kid, be near the guy giving a foul ball to a kid.

• Smile at the child and clap to properly conceal your jealousy that you’ve never received a foul ball in three decades of going to games.

• Don’t chew sunflower seeds. You’ll get caught awkwardly reaching your hands to your mouth.

• Wear your dad’s old Starter jacket so people take your fandom seriously. That thing’s seen Candlestick, you know.

• Brag about the accomplishment to your newsletter readers, who definitely didn’t think anything of the guy near, but definitely not a part of, this delightful moment.

Up next: The Giants go for the series win against the Astros, who are a game over .500 and somehow sitting in first place. The American League is something else this year. First pitch at 12:45 pm.

Twice in the ninth inning Drew Gilbert was exactly where he needed to be.

He ran down the first out, a ball with an expected batting average of .540, only because the Giants nearly had him positioned as a second left fielder.

The second out came in Gregor Blanco country. Gilbert, shaded toward right-center this time, tracked down a ball that would’ve been a home run in 19 other yards.

Phew. One out to go.

Here it comes, on a routine ground ball to second base ... and nobody’s there.

Osleivis Basabe started the play behind second base, leaving a Grand Canyon-sized gap between him and Rafael Devers at first. That’s exactly where Cam Smith hit it. Right place, right time.

And for Basabe and the Giants, one strike from winning: wrong place, wrong time, wrong season.

Up next: Bleh, a Tuesday night game against the Astros? I really wanted to point out that Matt Cain threw his perfect game on a Tuesday night against the Astros. Unfortunately it fell on a Wednesday. Even more unfortunate, if anyone’s throwing a perfect game Tuesday, it’s much more likely to be Astros ace Hunter Brown (3-1, 3.53 ERA). First pitch at 6:45 pm.

And how do you, fellow reader, feel about Buster Posey?

I’ve been wrestling with those questions for almost two years, never more so than Saturday.

Thousands gathered at Oracle Park for a walk down memory lane. Highlights rolled, speeches rang out, and the Giants enshrined Posey and four of his championship teammates into the Wall of Fame.

It was not a day just about Posey. But so many of them have been since October 1, 2024.

The day after he took the Giants’ top job, I wondered: Why put a franchise icon in this position—a job that almost always ends in failure?

The question was rooted in self-defense. Me, the fan whose formative years were stamped by Posey’s title teams, wanting to protect his legacy.

A legacy that, for now, is mixed. Can you separate his brilliance as a player from his blunders as an executive?

Can he?

Can I?

I don’t know yet.

Up next: The 2012 World Series rematch comes to a close. Logan Webb (7-7, 3.74 ERA) will take the mound on a Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park. What more could you want? First pitch at 1:05 pm.

The highlights on SportsCenter would roll and I’d punctuate home runs with OUTTA HERE! and plays at the plate with GOT ‘EM! Duane Kuiper’s baseball vocabulary became my own.

Between the big moments, though, Mike Krukow taught me how to watch baseball.

To notice if a starter was throwing about 15 pitches per inning. To see when a pickoff throw was called from the bench. To understand if a breaking ball was coming through the front door or the back.

Yeah, yeah, there’s the catcher in the SQUAAAAT and GRAB SOME PINE, MEAT.

But in a moment of celebration I might say “thankyouverynice.” Or in a less celebratory moment I might be “hacked off.”

Point is, nobody taught me more about the game than he did.

I’m a proud student of the Mike Krukow School of Baseball. And while we’ll all be graduating a bit sooner than expected, I’ve loved every moment of it.

Thank you, Kruk.

The 2026 Giants were not a good baseball team. The 2030 Giants? Their future looks a little brighter after Monday.

Posey’s front office acquired eight players whose significance we won’t know for years. What we do know is that the Giants took their biggest, most pronounced step in building for the future. Monday felt like a public admission that the 2027 and 2028 Giants, as currently constructed, were not going to win.

You can debate whether they should’ve traded Heliot Ramos and Erik Miller with years of team control. But if you’re not winning with them now, why wait?

Still, this isn’t a rebuild—and I’m OK with that. The Giants’ payroll will likely approach $200 million next season. They’ll probably win a few more games. And a year from now we’ll wonder again who should stay and who should go.

Posey didn’t do everything he could’ve on Monday, but he did a lot. If you’re frustrated and just want to watch winning baseball, I have some advice.

Turn on the Eugene Emeralds.

Podcast: Kerry and I discuss all the deals in depth, plus a detour to examine the never-ending circus involving Harrison Bader, Tony V calling BS on a broadcaster’s comments, and more. Listen on Spotify, Apple, everywhere else.

Judge vs. Skenes

Trout vs. Ohtani

Ohtani vs. Misiorowski

And you could keep dreaming up matchups for the rest of your life. Only then would get to Osleivis Basabe vs. Mason Miller.

The most anonymous Giant vs. the game’s greatest reliever.

Miller’s fastball lives in the 100s. His slider skydives out of the strike zone.

As for Basabe? He hasn’t been in the majors in three years. The Giants DFA’d him last season.

And you can’t spell his last name without B-A-B-E.

That’s about the only way you can explain Basabe pulling (!) a 103 mph fastball down the line for a bases-loaded, game-tying double in the eighth. It was only the second extra-base hit allowed by Miller this season.

If only for a night, Basabe was the best bat in the Giants’ lineup. By the time he had his moment of magic against Miller, Basabe had already crushed a two-run homer earlier.

So with the go-ahead run on base in the ninth and Willy Adames at the plate, you couldn’t blame Duane Kuiper for saying what we were all thinking.

When does Basabe hit again?

Up next: The Tarik Skubal era begins for the Dodgers. Say what you will about all the money they spend on free agents, the arch rivals always have the prospects to trade for the game’s best available players. Machado. Mookie. Scherzer. The list goes on. Giants-Padres begins at 1:10 pm. Enjoy.

He collected four more hits in Wednesday’s blowout—his 41st multi-hit game of the year—raising his MLB-best average to .331.

Arraez has been everything the Giants hoped he would be, and so much more.

Defensively, it’s obvious. Offensively, when’s the last time you were this excited to watch someone hit at Oracle Park?

The Giants knew they signed a .300 hitter. I don’t think they knew they signed someone who would hit .361 with an .856 OPS on the shores of McCovey Cove. Even Melky Cabrera didn’t touch those numbers in his magical, PED-fueled 2012 season.

Arraez is a throwback in the best possible way.

The strikeout-proof bat. The spray of foul balls. The dunks and doinks and ducksnorts.

He’s baseball’s version of a classic rock station: hit after hit after hit.

And I’ll miss watching him.

Up next: The Giants head to San Diego to face a Padres team that’s won five in a row. They’re fighting for their wild card lives and will be at the center of the trade deadline buzz. Unfortunately for the G’s, Mason Miller is still down in that San Diego bullpen. First pitch at 6:40 pm.

I’ve been there.

Sun blinding your eyes. Hat tugged down. Shades pressed against your face.

The same thought circling your mind: Don’t hit it to me. Don’t hit it to me. Don’t hit it to me.

Then it happens, because of course it does.

The sun swallows the ball whole, spitting it out at the last possible moment.

Your eyes finally catch up to it. Now for the glove to do it’s job. You jab it into the air.

Here comes the ball.

Oh no. There goes the ball.

Jake Bauers, the outfielders of the world salute you. I salute you.

Thank you for your service.

Up next: The Giants’ climb to .500 might be too steep to navigate, but not Landen Roupp’s (7-8 3.93 ERA) climb. He’s been terrific of late, and he’ll face Logan Henderson (4-1, 3.05 ERA) at 6:45 pm.

There’s no question Hunter Wendelstedt took the bat out of Heliot Ramos’s hands. But the Giants can only blame themselves for letting the umpire pants them in the game’s biggest moment.

Grant McCray burned the Giants’ first challenge in the fifth inning, tapping his helmet on a 1-0 pitch. He shook his head as the ABS graphic loaded up, a knowing gesture that the world was about to see what he did. Wrong.

“New rule: You should have to have a batting average before you’re allowed to challenge,” said a brilliant fan behind me.

Willy Adames wasted the final challenge in the ninth on a 3-0 pitch. Yes, if he was right it would’ve brought up the tying run. But when you’re that far ahead in the count you have to be sure. He was. And he was wrong.

Giants hitters have been OK with the ABS system. The numbers are dense and laid out here. But using—and losing—both challenges in no-strike counts? It’s a bad look.

Almost as bad as Ramos furiously tapping his helmet after strike three should’ve been ball three.

Up next: The Giants say this is the first time since 1956 they’ve gone at least 105 games without sweeping a three-game series. Luckily they have plans to change that against the first-place Brewers. It’ll be Tyler Mahle (2-9, 5.31 ERA) against Brandon Sproat (3-5, 5.09 ERA) at 6:45 pm.

He readied himself to throw before the ball landed in his glove, shoulders turning toward his target. In one fluid motion the ball went from glove to hand to soaring through the air at 94 mph.

Oswald Peraza, sprinting from second to third with his life on the line, is fast. Fast enough, you would think, to travel 90 feet quicker than a baseball could cover 340 feet.

McCray’s throw was precise in its direction but too weak to reach Casey Schmitt’s glove on the fly. The Giants needed to get lucky, and they did.

The ball bounced off the infield dirt at the perfect height to land into Schmitt’s glove as it sat atop the sliding Peraza.

Ball in glove. Glove on neck. Inning over.

(And a few minutes later, game over.)

Up next: Robbie Ray (8-6, 3.33 ERA) makes his last (?) start in a Giants uniform before the trade deadline. Probably. He’ll face Ryan Johnson (2-4, 6.10 ERA) at 1:05 pm. The Tip Your Cap committee will yet again have representatives in attendance.

Podcast: Kerry and I get into why the Phillies and Red Sox revived their seasons but the Giants can’t. I make the case against a rebuild, and we launch This Week In 2021 to relive some happier times. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else.

He dropped a tag on Vinny Pasquantino and second base umpire Mike Estabrook saw it as a shove.

Everyone who saw it then and sees it now knows it was the wrong call. Unfortunately for the Giants, perception is reality.

Such was the case in the seventh inning Wednesday, and such has been the case all season.

Estabrook’s bizarre ruling meant the Giants couldn’t review the play, and even if they could have, it probably wouldn’t have changed.

Only in this Murphy’s Law kind of season can a seemingly innocent, isolated play snowball into a five-run rally.

Bunts were thrown away. Walks were issued. Homers were homered. A 3-0 lead flipped to a 5-3 deficit in a blink.

So no, it wasn’t Adames’s fault. It wasn’t Estabrook’s fault. It was the fault of a team whose sum is as bad as its parts. A team on pace to lose 95 games. A team that might be even worse than you perceive.

Up next: The Giants are giving everyone a break Thursday before coming home to start a weekend series against the Angels, who also stink. It’ll be Logan Webb (5 - 7, 3.87 ERA) against former top prospect Grayson Rodriguez (3-3, 8.23 ERA). With that kind of ERA, representatives from the Tip Your Cap committee will be in attendance. First pitch at 7:15 pm.