{"id":398303,"date":"2026-07-14T20:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398303\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:05:15","slug":"the-five-worst-moments-from-the-giants-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398303\/","title":{"rendered":"The five worst moments from the Giants\u2019 first \u201chalf\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday<\/a>, I cobbled together five of what a San Francisco Giants fan might consider to be some of the team\u2019s best moments from the first part of their 2026 season, so let\u2019s look at five of the worst moments.<\/p>\n

5. Swept by the Yankees (March 25th-28th)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less the sweep and more the way that it happened. Outscored 13-1 in one of the rare times the team has opened a season at Oracle Park and simply outmatched in every facet of the game. It was the worst case scenario imagined by all the skeptics and considered by all the reasonable people out there after Buster Posey installed an inexperienced coaching staff to run a veteran roster with expectations.<\/p>\n

The Giants had a nice spring and that plus their offseason had certainly built up this Opening Night on Netflix as something that would be worthwhile. Instead, the Giants revealed to their fans and the world that they\u2019re a big steaming pile of losers who stink. Bad start to a season, worst start to a managerial career. Given the way the rest of this season has gone, the Giants might never live it down.<\/p>\n

4. Doubleheader sweep via walk-off in Philadelphia (April 30th)<\/p>\n

This is what a lot of the Giants media points to as the low point of the season. After clawing back to a not-terrible 13-15 record, the Giants proceeded to pee, poop, and vomit all over themselves before stumbling headfirst into an overflowing garbage can, then going vertical with their clown shoes swishing frantically as they struggled to free themselves, only to cause the garbage can to roll down a hill and onto a manure scow which would soon run aground on Diarrhea Island.<\/p>\n

Ryan Walker threw 20 sinkers in 21 pitches to blow game one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bailey would be traded 10 days later. It was at this point that everyone suspected that the stink lines coming off the team weren\u2019t the result of some bad luck or small sample size or all the new people getting their sea legs. There was a rot on the surface. We now know that the Giants are rotten to the core, of course, but here\u2019s the moment in the season when it kicked into gear \u2014 what a way to end the first month of the season!<\/p>\n

3. Third base coach Hector Borg is reassigned (May 29th<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This is a bit of a heartbreaker in that, by all accounts, Hector Borg is well regarded within the San Francisco Giants organization and even by Tony Vitello. As Alex Pavlovic wrote back in February<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Vitello and members of the front office hopped on a Zoom call with Hector Borg in November as the longtime team employee was coaching in the Dominican Republic. Borg tried to convey what he has done in coaching and how passionate he is about helping young players. But mostly, he tried his best to be authentic with Vitello.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember getting off the Zoom and I don\u2019t even know if it was five seconds and Tony was like, \u2018Can we hire that guy?\u2019\u201d general manager Zack Minasian said recently, laughing.<\/p>\n

If you spend about five seconds talking to or observing Borg, it\u2019s not hard to see what intrigued Vitello. Borg, 40, is overflowing with energy and passion and is known within the organization as a tireless worker. He has been tied to Ron Washington all spring, and the two very much appear to be built the same way.<\/p>\n

As for the job of third base coach itself? Well\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an aggressive third base coach,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway, was Borg a scapegoat<\/a>? Possibly. But he also seemed to be the outcome of a flawed process run by relative neophytes. The common person is convinced that Buster Posey\u2019s time as a Hall of Fame-bound catcher means it\u2019s no problem for him to transition into a management position, as though President of Baseball Operations is the same type of manager as the kind the common person loathes or simply distrusts.<\/p>\n

But the Giants once again solved their problem by oversteering, replacing the 40-year old Borg with 68-year old Garry Pettis. Has the move worked out? Sure. The Giants were tied with the Angels for the worst Baserunning value (-4.2 runs) while Borg was with the team, according to FanGraphs. Since Pettis has been with the team, the Giants are just -1.5 runs in 32 games\u2026 25th in MLB.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just another example of the team feeling like amateur hour or watching Baby\u2019s First Team.<\/p>\n

2. Tony Vitello knifes Keaton Winn & Matt Gage, asks Logan Webb to pitch the 9th then rescinds the request, gets shouted at by Rafael Devers when he sends a pinch runner (four-way tie)<\/p>\n

Speaking of amateur hour, here\u2019s a list of on-field incidents that can be chalked up to a dude feeling his way through his first year as a manager at a whole new level of play and without any sort of meaningful guidance, as his overseers are just as inexperienced.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably not embarrassing that Tony Vitello threw the injury-riddled Keaton Winn three days in a row, but the outcome was predictable. It\u2019s probably not embarrassing that Tony Vitello pushed Matt Gage to throw a career-high 51 pitches because it was an early blowout in Colorado and they needed the innings. But the outcome was predictable. It\u2019s probably not embarrassing for the manager that one of the team\u2019s star players refuses to be pinch ran for and makes an obvious stink about it, but the manager\u2019s stature in the clubhouse can be reasonably called into question no matter the public sentiment towards the player.<\/p>\n

Did Tony Vitello want to pinch run for Rafael Devers in that situation because he wanted a faster runner at third base or was Tony Vitello concerned that Devers\u2019 previous comment about soreness would impact his ability to run the bases late in the game? Or is Rafael Devers just a jerk? For some reason, when the smoke cleared, it was Devers speaking to Bay Area media and, effectively, accepting responsibility, but let\u2019s be clear: this isn\u2019t the first time that there\u2019s been murky intent when it comes to the manager\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

There was this moment from June 8th when Logan Webb saw his teammates blow a 3-1 lead in the 9th\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Webb would go eight innings and throw 99 pitches, striking out seven batters, allowing one run and five hits, as manager Tony Vitello<\/a> got criticized for taking the pitcher out in the ninth inning. However, Webb revealed the conversation of Vitello asking him if he\u2019s able to go back in the ninth, with the 29-year-old saying \u201cit\u2019s up to you,\u201d<\/a> leading to the change and the blown win in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cTony asked if you\u2019re good, and I said \u2018It\u2019s up to you,\u2019\u201d Webb said, according to KNBR. \u201c\u2018It\u2019s your decision.\u2019 He came back to me (bottom of the 8th), and he was like \u2018we\u2019re gonna make a change.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret that decision at all,\u201d Webb continued.<\/p>\n

That blown save just so happened to be the third consecutive game Keaton Winn pitched and would be his last one until July 10th. So\u2026 it\u2019s all connected? But also, did Tony Vitello want to send Logan Webb back out there or did he defer to \u201cIt\u2019s up to you\u201d as a sign that he wasn\u2019t good to go?<\/p>\n

But then again, if it sounds like I\u2019m pinning all of this on the rookie manager who usually sounds confused and often manages in a way that often reinforces how it sounds, I\u2019ll admit that veterans taking advantage of a new guy with no experience or track record and few relationships is just as plausible. What could Tony Vitello do to them, ultimately? He hasn\u2019t earned their respect or trust. As professionals, they should probably just be professionals on the field. But that doesn\u2019t appear to be what\u2019s happening here\u2026 for whatever reason, whether it\u2019s Tony & his staff\u2019s approach or the players\u2019 POV.<\/p>\n

And so this season-long discord has to be one of the team\u2019s worst moments from part one.<\/p>\n

Though, it\u2019s worth adding: Rafael Devers is hitting .299\/.392\/.687 in 19 G (79 PA) since the pinch running incident; and, Logan Webb was the Pitcher of the Month in June. And, some of this was also a downstream consequence of Zack & Buster\u2019s questionable bullpen planning during the offseason. That has certainly contributed to many memorably bad moments this season.<\/p>\n

1. The Giants come out as bigots (June 12th)<\/p>\n

The obvious pick and it\u2019s one of these episodes where it spilled from the field into off-field matters, where a lot of fans like to declare as OFF LIMITS for real baseball talk. It\u2019s almost certainly true that there are more bigoted baseball fans than there are non-bigots (or, at least, open-hearted and open-minded fans) and so the Giants have calculated that they can win in the long run despite this affront to the surrounding community. After all, they\u2019re on pace to draw 3 million fans this season. The Giants got what they needed from the City of San Francisco and now that Mission Rock is up and running, they can commune with the people they prefer.<\/p>\n

For those fans, the Giants would seem like a revelation. A new ally in the culture war. A firm that has finally seen the light! For the rest of us, it\u2019s heartbreak<\/a>. And for some of us, a sad final chapter<\/a> of a relationship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The notion that the Giants aren\u2019t bigots is disproved by the definition of bigot: \u201ca narrow-minded person who obstinately adheres to their own opinions and prejudices.\u201d People invoke the Holy Bible to justify all sorts of beliefs and practices and at the end of the day, if the only idea that people want to pull from it is hatred, then it it\u2019s definitionally bigotry. You don\u2019t scribble on your hat or proclaim \u201cRead the Bible!\u201d without some emotion behind it. Spite? Hatred? It\u2019s certainly not coming from a place of love. Wanting to be a bigot in everything but the word itself is on the level of losers. Own it!<\/p>\n

The public protest on top of the awful pitching was the real clincher in all this. Some real Boaters for Trump vibes.<\/p>\n

But the theme of this season has been the Giants either revealing or realizing that they are not who any of us thought they were or had hoped to be. The preseason projections saw them as an average team. The fans saw an average team with maybe some magic afoot if Bryce Eldridge panned out. Instead, the Giants are losers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s loser level to hate LGBTQ+ people. It\u2019s loser level to deface one\u2019s work uniform as a protest of LGBTQ+ people. It\u2019s loser level to sign with a team as a free agent so you can fire & brimstone their fans after a game. It\u2019s loser level to hold a press conference like the one Buster Posey did, or do what Larry Baer did on KNBR the day after \u2014 but, admittedly, those were \u201coff the field,\u201d and shouldn\u2019t be a part of this article. So, I\u2019ll conclude instead with the ultimate loser level: being Ryan Walker. He has a 9.90 ERA in just 10 innings since the protest.<\/p>\n

Now, does this mean you can draw a straight line from Pride Night to their 41-55 record? No. The anti-Pride Night protest and the ensuing farts from the front office are symptoms of a larger, perhaps diseased body operating as the San Francisco Giants. This is a team that has kept Larry Baer in a public-facing role despite a very public episode that caused him to lose a position within the organization. A team that dumped their public address announcer because of her political beliefs (hypocrites!) after ownership\u2019s political beliefs and political contributions came out and clearly conflicted with the region, the team\u2019s purported values, and some general human decency, but hired Glen Kuiper\u2026 because everyone deserves a third or fourth chance to drop the n-word on a broadcast, I suppose?<\/p>\n

After a very nice run of success for the franchise, stretching all the way back to the late 80s, in fact, watching them unmask as sort of bog standard bigots and losers has been tough. To be absolutely fair, though, they are 13-13 since the anti-Pride Night protest, so, maybe the clubhouse has unified behind a shared belief? And, perhaps most importantly, despite offending a segment of their audience, the team has been consistent in one way: they oppose dudes humping no matter the circumstances.<\/p>\n

In the past, it\u2019s been nonsensical to link personal character with win-loss results because there are hundreds \u2014 maybe even thousands \u2014 of examples of bad people being great athletes and champions; but, then you get a team like the 2026 Giants a team so bad that, beyond the obvious talent gap, makes you wonder just how much character counts\u2026 because it surely can\u2019t be zero.<\/p>\n

Anyway, don\u2019t let me be the final word on this. What are some other worst moments from the first part of the 2026 season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday, I cobbled together five of what a San Francisco Giants fan might consider to be some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,112796,105996,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-398303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants-analysis","tag-san-francisco-giants-discussion","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}