Giants crush A’s to stay in the hunt
When San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and new manager Gabe Kapler arrived at the winter meetings in San Diego in December, the team’s leaders refused to use the word “rebuild.”
After three consecutive losing seasons, the Giants were making significant changes to the organization and clearly eager to rely on younger and inexperienced talent in the year ahead, but Zaidi and Kapler never shied away from their desire to remain as competitive as possible.
With exactly one week remaining in the regular season, the Giants still have a chance to sneak into the postseason.
Following a resounding 14-2 victory over the A’s on Sunday in which shortstop Brandon Crawford, left fielder Darin Ruf and catcher Chadwick Tromp all enjoyed some of their best games of the season, the club is 26-26 and within striking distance of a playoff berth in an expanded postseason field.
“It’s really an exciting time and to know that pretty comfortably our destiny is in our hands —we’re going to be responsible for the outcome of this season— is a really good feeling,” Kapler said Sunday. “I think players always feel that.”
Under normal circumstances, a team in transition such as the Giants would likely be a year or two away from competing for a wildcard spot and potentially two to three seasons from challenging
the Dodgers atop the National League West.
2020, however, hasn’t unfolded the way anyone expected.
“I think we all have a pretty good idea that nobody expected us to be in this position,” Crawford said. “But I don’t think anybody really expected us to be in the position in the years that we won either. We go out with an attitude that we’re going to win every night and we’re going to battle until the final out.”
The Giants return home to Oracle Park on Monday for a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies and currently trail the 27-26 Philadelphia Phillies and 27-27 Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card standings, yet one strong week could land the team in the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
“We can all taste it man,” Tromp said. “We’ve got a lot of veteran guys on the ball club that tell all the young guys how awesome
it is to be in the playoffs.”
Major League Baseball’s decision to expand the playoff field has helped change the perception of the Giants’ season as the team has had legitimate postseason hopes throughout September. A .500 record typically isn’t cause for celebration, but the Giants have exceeded nearly every external expectation and remained relevant and entertaining in a year that’s provided no shortage of obstacles.
Third baseman Evan Longoria said Saturday the club knows it can’t “limp into the playoffs,” and given the jumbled nature of the wild card standings, watching the scoreboard at this time of the season requires a lot of time and an intricate knowledge of MLB’s postseason tiebreakers.
The Reds, Phillies and Brewers all currently hold a tiebreaker over the Giants because they have better records against their own division, but Kapler’s club finishes with eight straight games against NL West teams and will need to win anyway to remain in
contention for a wild-card berth. The teams vying for those spots can also change rapidly as the Phillies have a chance to catch the second-place Miami Marlins in the NL East while the Reds and Brewers are both chasing the Cardinals in the NL Central, so the Giants are determined to keep their focus on the games scheduled to take place at Oracle Park.
“We know that we haven’t faced our last test this season,” Kapler said. “I imagine we’re going to have several more tough moments before this is all said and done. We’re prepared for it. Not going to get too high or too low.”
Coming home for the final week of the season is a bonus for a Giants team that’s won 13 of their past 16 games at China Basin, including two against the Mariners that were moved from Seattle to San Francisco due to poor air conditions. The Giants will be the home team for seven of their last eight games, but will bat first and be the “road” club for the second game of a Friday doubleheader
against the Padres.
The Giants’ .281 home batting average ranks second in the majors while their .854 OPS at home is fifth, so the 2020 club is a bit different than Giants teams of the last decade that relied so heavily on pitching and defense. The team still needs starters Johnny Cueto, Drew Smyly and Kevin Gausman to lead a rotation that’s been inconsistent at times this year, but the Giants have also proven their resilience and demonstrated an ability to overcome a rough day from a pitcher.
With Rockies star Nolan Arenado questionable to play in this week’s four-game series due to a shoulder injury, the Giants could potentially catch a major break. Regardless of whether Colorado has its best player available and regardless of how the wild card contenders in the Central and East divisions fare this week, the Giants are confident they’ll be able to finish what they started.
“It’s also an even year,” Tromp said Sunday. “Come on, now.”