Welp. Pretty much everything I wrote about last Monday turned to mush this week in what has to go down as the most disappointing stretches of the season:
- The Giants were terrible in Miami, needing 16 innings on getaway day just to salvage a game. Not surprisingly, the bats were very quiet in LA until Sunday when they manage to avoid getting swept again on the final day of a series.
- The Giants bench is still good, but it gets stretched a bit now that Evan Longoria will miss extended time with a fractured hand.
- Which means that the offense may never be at full strength this season. By the time Longoria returns, who knows who will be out then.
- Brandon Belt is back, and so is Cory Gearrin. Not only is he not out of the organization he’s still on the major league team! Groans abound.
- Madison Bumgarner is back but he’s not in dominant form yet. I was excited for the quick return, but I guess we should not be surprised that he’s still shaking the rust off. I do expect much better from him soon.
- Brandon Crawford is still amazing and great, but he has cooled off a bit, and now will be gone for three days to attend the birth of his fourth child.
- Finally, the road issues continue as the Giants now fall to 16-26 away from AT&T.
There are reasons for hope. Somehow the Giants are still in it. They are only 4.5 games out of first in the NL West.
Finally, I’ve written in nearly every post about the weird schedule this year. Well, for the first time that weirdness tilts in the Giants favor. The Giants have 10 straight games at home (including a chance at redemption against the Marlins!). Then they go on the road for 6 games. Three of those are against the first place Arizona Diamondbacks. Then they go to Colorado, who, amazingly, has a terrible home record. That’s 6 in-division road games (i.e. no east coast swing, and games that directly impact the NL West standings). That is followed by a nine game home stand.
To summarize: 19 of the next 25 games are at home!
The Giants play just six games on the road in the next five weeks. If they have a run in them, now is the time: https://t.co/W90Gzn11og
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) June 18, 2018
Now is the time!
In other news:
#2 overall pick Joey Bart signs with the Giants for a record bonus https://t.co/xtd7XXsqlj
— McCovey Chronicles (@McCoveyChron) June 17, 2018
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