After one bullpen blowup Tuesday and nearly another Wednesday, your instinct may be to look back.
The Giants traded two of their best relievers in July as their season swirled down the drain. It made complete sense at the time. Now it feels a lot less sensible.
The Giants' depleted bullpen has cost them games this month that, you could argue, will cost them a playoff spot. But those losses count just the same as the ones that came in June and July as a better version of this team spun its tires on the road to nowhere.
Buster Posey traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval with the best information he had at the time: 13 losses in 16 games. Now, two months later, as Bob Melvin builds a bridge to 27 outs with popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue, it's fair to wonder what to make of it all.
The trades are both justified and regrettable. Maybe the Giants would’ve won a few extra games in September that allowed them to squeak past the Mets. But the Giants should’ve won those games months ago—in lost series against the Marlins, White Sox, and Pirates—to keep this conversation from ever happening.
Up next: Here we go again. The Giants head to L.A. for four games with their season on the brink. It’ll be Logan Webb (14-10, 3.34 ERA) against Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.66 ERA). If nothing else, Giants-Dodgers in September feels right,
Playoff race: The Giants picked up a game on the Mets—but so did the Reds. And the DBacks sit in front of both of them. Ten games to go, and long odds ahead.
