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.

He signed the richest free agent contract in franchise history as much for what he does off the field as for what he does on it.

The smiles, the handshakes, the Powerade cooler. His vibes are as high as his pop-ups.

And yet, too often we’re left to reconcile the good with the bad.

One moment Adames is swatting a game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth. The next he’s inexplicably standing in front of second base when the catcher’s throwing to him on a bunt play.

He’s 3 for 16 since the All Star break. All three hits are home runs.

Bad, good. Good, bad.

Every player is a mixture of the two, and Adames is no different. Except I can’t remember a player so easy to root for and maddening to watch all at once.

Up next: Tyler Mahle (2 - 8, 5.31 ERA) faces Luinder Avila (4 - 3, 5.08 ERA) at 4:40 pm. We’re officially less than two weeks from the trade deadline.

1. Randy Johnson: I love that Randy Johnson was a Giant. Dave Righetti told Marty Lurie he thinks Johnson had a lot to do with the Giants’ pitching success in 2010. The other day I looked to see if there were any autographed baseball cards with Johnson in a Giants jersey. No luck. There has to be one somewhere.

2. Randy Winn: Before he started running the Giants farm system, he was an unbelievable trade acquisition from Seattle. He hit .359 with an OPS over 1.000 to close out the 2005 season. Then he hit over .300 across two awful Giants seasons in 2007-08. Luis Arraez 🤝 Randy Winn?

3. Randy Messenger: I was so excited the Giants traded away Armando Benitez I didn’t care who came in return. It was another Randy, and he was actually worse than Benitez in ‘07. Never let facts get in the way of your feelings, though.

4. David Bell: He hit over .300 in the 2002 postseason but will be remembered only for one beautiful bellyflop.

5. Curt Casali: Maybe my favorite stat from 2021 is that the team went 42-13 when Casali, the backup catcher, started. In other words, they won about 75% of the games Buster Posey didn’t start. Remarkable. Casali joined Posey’s front office this year as an advisor.

Up next: The Giants head to Kansas City, where it’s hard to believe a dozen years has gone by since the game we all think of when we think Giants-Royals. It’ll be Trevor McDonald (3-7, 5.02 ERA) against Michael Wacha (5-7, 3.77 ERA) at 4:40 pm. You remember Wacha, don’t you?

I smiled reading this Tony Vitello quote. The Giants already had an Opening Night and Opening Day months ago, much to the chagrin of friends who argued there could only be one Opening game.

Call Friday night’s game in Seattle whatever you want. Opening Night II. Opening Day III. Game 97. Whatever it was, it definitely felt like a fresh start.

Rafael Devers gave an insightful interview. Bryce Eldridge and Willy Adames launched home runs. Landen Roupp shoved for seven innings.

It was the kind of game the Giants drew up on Opening Day, and every day after. So much for that.

They can’t make up for the games already lost. But if they want to treat the next two months like a 65-game season, I’m here for it.

Happy Opening Day.

Up next: Logan Webb (5-7, 3.86 ERA) faces Bryan Woo (7-6, 4.23 ERA), an Oakland native who grew up a Giants fan. I’ll always wonder what that feels like, facing the favorite team of your childhood. Maybe it’s not that hard to be partial to your paychecks? First pitch at 5:08 pm.

You watch enough ball throughout a season, sometimes you just get a feeling. It’s one Schmitt has warranted.

He’s on pace for 32 home runs with an OPS north of .800, numbers that even proud owners of his No. 10 jersey couldn’t have seen coming.

Still, I did ask myself: Is Casey Schmitt Tyler Fitzgerald-ing us right now? Two years ago Fitzgerald blasted through July with eight home runs, spiked his OPS over 1.000, and joined Barry Bonds in the record books. Now he’s a minor leaguer with the Dodgers.

It’s too soon to know if Schmitt’s ascendance is real or sustainable or anything at all. But in a season full of surprises, Schmitt is the best one.

Up next: It’s SpongeBob Day at the ballpark, something I only know from hearing how excited Duane Kuiper was to stop reading the promos about it. It’ll be Trevir McDonald (3 - 7, 5.46 ERA) vs. Michael Lorenzen (3 - 9, 6.46 ERA) to wrap up the first half. Motion to rename McCovey Cove to Bikini Bottom for the day?

With a 3-0 count, Dave Flemming said over the KNBR airwaves that it was drumroll time.

No team has taken fewer walks this season than the Giants. Consider Schmitt the ringleader.

His last base on balls came May 24, almost 50 days ago. The World Cup was still weeks away from starting. Taylor and Travis were still engaged. Gas was under $3.00. (No it wasn’t.)

Schmitt met the moment with grace and poise. After 173 plate appearance without a free pass—the longest streak by a Giants position player in 62 years, per Andrew Baggarly—he watched a changeup float by.

Ball four.

Ninety feet never felt so good.

Up next: Robbie Ray (8-6, 3.45 ERA) takes the mound at Oracle Park, and who knows, it could be for the last time before he puts on another uniform. He’ll face Tanner Gordon (0-2, 6.95 ERA) at 7:15 pm.

Eight times this season the Giants have scored 10 or more runs, including Monday night. That’s where the fun has stopped. They’re 3-5 in the games after those games, scoring three runs or fewer in all five losses.A little too much truth in those “save some runs for tomorrow” jokes.

Strip away all the qualifiers and criteria, and you’re still left with a team that hasn’t won more than three games in a row. Every last-place team in baseball has managed to do better than that.

Momentum might be vibe-based and nebulous and hard to quantify. But it’s clear these Giants have never had it.

Up next: It’s a good day for some afternoon ball. Dylan Cease (5-4, 2.79 ERA) and Logan Webb (5-6, 3.66 ERA) will go at it to decide the series. There will be strikeouts. First pitch at 12:45 p.m.

Monday night it was for the Giants, and he looked as good as ever. The box score says two homers and a triple. I say three homers with a 🤪 emoji in the footnotes (for Little League home run, obviously).

He was the catalyst in a blowout win that didn’t count for much in the standings, but certainly did in the mind of Buster Posey.

Ramos presents an interesting case as the trade deadline draws near.

He’s under team control for three more seasons. Posey showed last year he’s unafraid to trade players like that if he can get major league-ready talent in return. And if you’re new here, the Giants need as much pitching as they can get.

In Ramos’s place the Giants have Drew Gilbert, Victor Bericoto, and Jonah Cox—at least until Bo Davidson arrives.

It’s not a perfect situation, but nothing about the Giants’ roster is. They need to build the next winning core, and while Ramos was all of it Monday night, I suspect he won’t be for long.

Up next: Trevor McDonald (3-6, 4.42 ERA) starts for the Giants, who welcomed old friend Tyler Rogers with a tribute video. For as much as I like to joke about the Wall of Fame, I was dismayed to realize Rogers isn’t eligible for it. He never made an All Star team (never mind his 1.39 ERA at the break last year). Maybe he’ll come back to the Giants and win three World Series instead.

If I handed you these morsels on March 6, I’d love to know where you think the Giants would be standing on July 6:

• Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt are both on pace for 30+ home runs.

• Luis Arraez and Logan Webb are All Stars.

• Jung Hoo Lee’s batting .315, and Bryce Eldridge has an .841 OPS.

• The Giants have the sixth best attendance in baseball, up more than 1,000 fans per game from last year.

The story of the season cannot be told through cherry-picked nuggets like these. But jeez, if I handed you these cherries, I think you’d be thinking 52-37—not 37-52.

The cherries are good. The tree is rotten.

Up next: The defending AL champs are coming to San Francisco, and an old friend is taking the hill Monday night. It’ll be Landen Roupp (5-8, 4.55 ERA) against Kevin Gausman (4-7, 4.19 ERA), who represents an interesting What If? for the Giants in this mediocre decade.

Gausman was excellent in 2021 and reportedly wanted to come back. Fresh off 107 wins, the team let him go to Toronto on a five-year deal. Gausman has a 3.57 ERA in that time, which the Giants would, um, take.

Yeah, yeah. Break out the tiny violin.

That text captures 15 years of feelings about the NL West.

The Dodgers getting Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. The DBacks getting Zack Greinke. The Dodgers getting Greinke. The Padres getting Juan Soto. The Dodgers getting Manny Machado. The Padres getting Machado. The Dodgers getting Trea Turner. The Padres getting Josh Hader and Mason Miller. The Dodgers getting Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, and the list goes on and on.

That text also captures (almost) 15 years of feelings about Nolan Arenado.

After a five-year sabbatical in St. Louis, why wouldn’t he return to the NL West? They always do.

He’s 35 now. Nolan Arenado is starting to look a lot more like nolan arenado. But against the Giants? Nolan Arenado.

Entering Monday he hadn’t hit a home run in four weeks. Only once in the last six weeks had he collected multiple hits. He’s tracking toward his worst-ever full season at the plate.

No matter. We’ve seen this movie before and we’ll see it again.

It’s always the NL West. And it’s always Nolan Arenado.

Up next: Landen Roupp (5-7, 4.07 ERA) takes the hill as the Giants try to beat the DBacks once. Just once. They’re 0-7 so far. First pitch at 6:40 pm.

🎧 Podcast: Come for the mess, stay for the end when Kerry and I discuss the best (and worst) we’ve seen from the Giants in the last week. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else.

If it were that easy, Opening Night against the Yankees would’ve come with a three-headed bobble of Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames.

If it were that easy, they’d give out reliever bobbleheads every game. Haven’t you always wanted JT Brubaker on your mantle?

It’s not that easy, but Devers made it look that way with two homers on his bobblehead night.

Having a big game on your giveaway day has long been one of my favorite Baseball Things. Saturday night was a bright spot in what’s been a dark week (month? season?) for the Giants.

Still, it’s going to take a lot more bobblehead nights to turn the season around.

Up next: Series finale should be a good one. Robbie Ray (6-6, 3.70 ERA) squares off with (future Hall of Famer?) Chris Sale (8-5, 2.14 ERA) at 1:05 pm.

🎧 Podcast: Kerry and I dive head-first into the mess. Buster Posey, Rafael Devers, and Tony V delivered a series of unbelievable press conferences in one day. The only thing missing was accountability. You might say it’s been missing all year. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else.

Watching the most exciting play in baseball. Jung Hoo Lee’s bases-loaded triple sent runners flying, the defense scrambling, and my arm windmilling around like a maniac.

Hearing PA announcer Carolyn McArdle say Lee’s name a little faster than everyone else’s. Just right cadence to begin the JUNG-HOO-LEE chant.

Every single “Let’s go Oakland” chant. The way it ought to be.

Rafael Devers giving Ron Washington a hug before stepping onto the field.

Having a wow-I-could-never-do-that moment as Victor Bericoto uncorked a 94 mph throw to nail Tyler Soderstrom at second. Watching an outfield assist unfold always gets me juiced.

Willy Adames using a broken bat to initiate a sword fight with the A’s batboy, who sprinted onto the field to recover it.

Bericoto crushing a no-doubt home run for the second straight game—hitting it exactly as far (445 feet) and as fast (108.7 mph) as his last one.

A foul ball bouncing off the ivory tower that is the suite level, down into the hands of a young fan who caught it on the fly. Ovation earned.

Listening to the crowd’s anticipation as Adames’s fourth-inning fly ball went from can of corn to over the wall. An Oracle Park afternoon special.

Faintly hearing Dave Flemming and Duane Kuiper call the game from the KNBR booth behind me.

The chatter of season ticket holders who have sat in the same seats for nearly my entire life.

Standing with 33,000 of my closest friends as competing chants rang around the ballpark between A’s and Giants fans. There were two outs in the ninth inning, and that’s where this diary ends.

Up next: The Braves come to town after the Padres swept them out of San Diego. It’ll be Trevor McDonald against Reynaldo Lopez (3-1 3.50 ERA) at 7:15 pm. Welcome back, Mike Yastrzemski. Don’t let the brick wall hit you on the way out, Mauricio Dubon.

The pitch was a hanging slider’s favorite hanging slider.

The swing was an all-or-nothing rip through the strike zone.

The bat toss was almost as big of a show as the 445-foot blast to win the game.

Some guys wait their whole career for a walk-off home run. (Brandon Belt never hit one.) Bericoto needed only 22 at-bats.

Not bad for his first start in two weeks.

Up next: The Giants go for a sweep of the A’s with Landen Roupp (5-7, 4.15 ERA) up against Jeffrey Springs (3-7, 5.55 ERA). First pitch at 12:45 pm.

I long for the days when all I could do was watch the games. Because the Giants beating the A’s Tuesday night was about the eighth most relevant story about the local baseball team.

Duane Kuiper went on KNBR last week and said all the negativity around the franchise is wearing him out.

I think the negativity is warranted—and it’s wearing me out too.

Up next: Tyler Mahle (1-7, 6.04 ERA) returns from the injured list to face Gage Jump (3-1, 2.37 ERA). First pitch at 6:45 pm.

Mike Mussina famously told Joe Torre to stay in the dugout, a celebrated act of toughness and competitiveness between Hall of Famers (on a Yankees team that won 97 games).

This moment, though, is not that moment.

Devers refusing a pinch-runner, in the context of this awful season, is a bad look for him, Tony Vitello, and the whole organization.

The narrative of toughness and competitiveness takes a backseat to Devers, the underperforming star of the underperforming team, telling the rookie manager to stay out of his way.

For all of Vitello’s peculiar decisions, this was not one of them. Sending a runner in for Devers, three outs from being swept by the Marlins, required no justification.

Vitello tried minimizing what happened after the game. Devers wouldn’t comment, but it was too late. He’d already said plenty.

Up next: The Giants are off Monday before the A’s come to town. Time to dig that green and gold hat out of the closet.