Giants are contenders in this year’s NL West
The Giants have a friend in the NL West standings. It’s there for reassurance in times of broken bones, concussions and baserunners left stranded. And it didn’t flinch Wednesday at AT&T Park, when the essence of a complex ballgame was a guy named Scooter.
This was a 6-3 loss that left ample room for postgame regret. A better pitch here, a bolder strategy there, maybe the Giants wind up with a three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds. But those are the minutiae that vanish within hours, with a new task at hand.
What didn’t change Wednesday was the Giants’ 3½-game deficit behind first-place Arizona. What’s likely to remain
constant is the Giants’ undeniably firm position in this race. It’s looking like that kind of year, as opposed to 2017, and for that everyone should be thankful.
Last year at this time, the Giants felt prematurely doomed. No self-respecting team falls out of contention in early May, but that was the Giants’ fate — and they looked the part. They confronted a ton of bad luck and doubled down with some terrible play on the field.
Nobody’s calling this year’s team a World Series contender, but the standings are observation free. They merely present the facts. They show an Arizona team that broke a six-game losing streak with a victory Tuesday, then cascaded back to mediocrity (8-2 loss to Milwaukee) after learning that their All-Star-caliber center fielder, A.J. Pollock, would be lost for up to two months with a fractured thumb.
These standings show a second-place Colorado team that hasn’t been hitting — something about as implausible as the Warriors averaging 80 points a game. They show the fourth-place Dodgers in absolute free fall, something perhaps even the slugging Justin Turner (back from a broken wrist) cannot fix.
The Dodgers haven’t hit, pitched, fielded or run the bases to anyone’s satisfaction. They recently got swept by the Reds in a four-game series at home. “Our fate obviously looks bleak right now,” said manager Dave Roberts. “This is testing every bit of fight you have. This is a stretch that a lot of these guys haven’t gone through.”
Especially after going all the way to last year’s World Series. In an acerbic tweet, Los Angeles Times beat writer Andy McCullough noted, “The good news is that if the Dodgers can play .600 ball the rest of the way, they’ll win 88 games.”
As for the Giants, who looked entirely capable of coming back from a 4-0 deficit pinned on starter Andrew Suarez, Wednesday’s game was pretty much stolen by Ryan Joseph (Scooter) Gennett, a second baseman of considerable talent.
In the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, two out and the Giants trailing 5-3, Gorkys Hernandez hit a lazy pop-up down the right-field line. Racing halfway across China Basin to the scene, and in grave danger of being trampled by right fielder Scott Schebler, Gennett somehow made a lunging catch in fair territory to stun the crowd and prevent a tie game.
Then Gennett showed why his 2017 power surge (27 homers) was no fluke, drilling a Cory Gearrin pitch into the right-field arcade for a seventhinning homer and a 6-3 lead that felt — and indeed was — secure.
Adding to the torment, exGiant Adam Duvall made a huge impression with his three-run homer off Suarez in the first inning. And when the Giants didn’t test Duvall’s arm in the second — Miguel Gomez held third base with one out on Gregor Blanco’s flyball to shallow left — the decision looked particularly embarrassing when Duvall made a hilariously bad throw to the plate, not only weak but at least 20 feet offline.
There isn’t much chatter in the postgame clubhouse in the wake of defeat, but again, the reminder: This isn’t last year. Those division standings remain loyal to the Giants’ cause. And in Bochy’s words, it’s “refreshing” to know that.
“Especially after that skid we hit there (losing six straight on the road),” he said. “We didn’t fall back. It’s really too early to be talking about that, but still, these games are important. And this isn’t about trying to hold ground. We’re trying to make ground, and the guys are doing a good job, they really are. We’re gonna hit our ups and downs. What’s gonna be important is that we’re resilient.”
Perhaps there’s some perspective in this: When Madison Bumgarner returned from his dirt-bike injury last year, the season seemed irretrievably lost. Whenever that moment arrives this year — and it won’t be long — the Giants figure to be relevant, competitive, even dangerous. It just might be an event.
“We’re gonna hit our ups and downs. What’s gonna be important is that we’re resilient.” Bruce Bochy, Giants manager