There. That exact game. The San Francisco Giants’ 5-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday afternoon. How do the Giants prevent that exact game from being played next season?
This particular example extended a five-game losing streak and swept the Giants out of Kansas City, but it blends in with so many games before it that it’s hard to keep track. It was the quintessential 2026 Giants game on so many levels, which means it was also a profoundly unessential 2026 Giants game. They all are. You really don’t need this right now.
If you don’t believe me that there’s a bit of a “Groundhog Day,” some of the familiar rhythms and melodies from the series finale included …
A starting pitcher who does almost enough to win, but gets into trouble at the end of the outing
Sometimes the wounds are self-inflicted. Sometimes the problems begin when the starter gets to face a lineup for the third time. Either way, it’s a familiar tune. A quality start without a win, or a would-be quality start that was ruined deep into what was a fine outing.
Earlier in the road trip, it was Logan Webb who accepted blame he didn’t deserve. On Wednesday, the would-be hero was Landen Roupp, who was cruising along in one of the cleanest outings of his career so far, striking out seven in six innings. It was his first start without issuing a walk since the middle of May, and it was just his second walk-free start of the last calendar year.
In three pitches, the career-best start became just another quality start. Roupp’s 89th pitch was hit for a double that perhaps shouldn’t have been (more below). His 90th was a strike, and his 91st and final pitch was a sinker down the middle. It was thrown to a hitter who will swing at breaking balls that bounce in front of the first base coach. So it goes for the 2026 Giants, the least rewarding team to watch in recent memory. They seem good for one of these outings every series.
One or two hitters in the lineup reminding you why they’re on the team, but rarely in the same inning
It’s typically different hitters from day to day, too. You need flashcards before every game. Let’s see, Rafael Devers is “hot” but Jung Hoo Lee is “cold,” unless he’s snapping out of it, and Bryce Eldridge is “scorching hot,” except for when he has to face Seth Lugo, for some reason.
Changing the lineup for the next game won’t make a difference. That, too, will be the exact worst mathematical permutation possible. It doesn’t matter who’s hot or who’s not. It changes from game to game, and the only thing that will remain the same is them going 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position
Something screwy that’s at least partly responsible for the loss
This one got the manager tossed, too. Here’s the leadoff double that Roupp allowed in the seventh inning:
The argument from second base umpire Mike Estabrook was that Willy Adames pushed the runner off with his tag, which is usually the kind of argument that you see when a fielder holds the tag for an extended period. It was honestly one of the stranger calls in recent memory, an umpire seeing something that absolutely nobody else would have even thought of. The specifics of why the runner was safe meant that the Giants couldn’t challenge the call.
It feels like weenie-ball to root for a player popping off the bag on a well-struck double, of course — at least when it comes to this team. The problem with the team isn’t that the umps are out to get them.
It just makes everything stink that much more when they are.
A bullpen that, uh, builds character
And that character is Wesley Crusher.
Ha ha, but seriously folks, it’s a bad bullpen.
The weird part is that some of the numbers look OK on the surface. Sam Hentges allowed two runs to push his ERA to 2.66, and Keaton Winn added one to move his ERA to 3.21. Those are normal bullpen ERAs. They’re good numbers, even.
In practice, though, all of the earned runs are maximally timed to drive you mad. It’s uncanny. Up and down the Giants bullpen, relievers are besting their FIP by a fair amount. According to FanGraphs, there aren’t a lot of Giants relievers among the very worst in Clutch, a statistic that tries to measure the timing of a reliever’s best and worst outings.
Except even though there aren’t a lot of individual relievers among the worst in Clutch, a common thread is that almost all of the Giants’ relievers aren’t good at it, either. They take turns messing up games in a remarkably egalitarian way. Now it’s time for Hengtes and Winn to throw three or four scoreless outings in games that either aren’t as close, or in games that will be blown by the next reliever in line.
You’ve seen this game before. You saw an example on this very road trip. So go back to the original question: How do the 2027 Giants avoid a similar fate?
Start with the first one: The starting pitchers need to be more consistent, and there need to be more effective ones. At least two more.
Move to the second one: The lineup needs to be more consistent, and there are definitely improvements to be found with individual hitters or positions.
Then to the third one: The cloud will go away when a utility infielder from the 1990s is thrown into a volcano. One of the small ones. I mean, one of the small utility infielders, not one of the small volcanoes. The volcano should be quite large. Email me for additional details.
Now the fourth one, which is the one about the bullpen: Here you go. This is the Manhattan Project of the offseason. It’s the easiest way to improve the fortunes of a team that should be much better.
Base Runs is a statistic that takes all of the baseball events of a team’s season and estimates how many runs they “should have” scored and allowed. According to this, the Giants aren’t just the unluckiest team in baseball, but they’re the unluckiest by a decent margin. They should be 51-51 and right in the thick of the National League wild-card race, at least according to the baseball-events smoothie spit out by this one stat.
It feels like a plausible explanation. All of the bad things at the worst times, none of the good things at the best times. There’s nothing like it. Except now there’s actual data to support that position. All this team needs to improve greatly is to a) have better luck, b) get a starting pitcher who can prevent runs, and c) build a bullpen that’s good at holding leads. And maybe all sorts of changes to the coaching staff and front office.
Focus on the roster part, though.
That’s what’s standing between the Giants and their goal of not making you hate baseball. Their goal of making you like it, even. If you can imagine such a thing.
Until then, here was a Giants loss that looked like a lot of the other ones, in a series that looked a lot like the other ones, in a season that looks like nothing you’ve ever watched. There are a lot of major leaguers on the Giants’ roster who deserve to be there, and that should be true next year, with any luck. It seems so close. Until you watch an entire series like the one against the Royals, when it starts to seem so impossibly far away.