Giants' reduced roster wins a tight one post-deadline: ‘We've not given up on you guys'

New York Times

a day ago

NEW YORK — The energy pulsated through Citi Field in the ninth inning Friday night.
Ryan Helsley, the former St. Louis Cardinals closer and most dominant reliever in the National League last season, jogged to the mound to AC/DC's 'Hells Bells' while making his debut with a new team. The New York Mets are using him as a set-up man. More cheers and more energy followed in the bottom of the ninth when Cedric Mullins, a one-time All-Star and Silver Slugger with the Baltimore Orioles, made his debut as a pinch hitter. Here in Queens, he'll be a bench bat.
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The Mets were like most contending clubs, loading up prior to Thursday night's trade deadline. They got stronger on paper. Just as significantly, they got stronger in their own minds. There is no underselling the importance of a vote of confidence from management, especially when that confidence is expressed in actions and not merely in words. Almost every NL contender received that vote of confidence in one form or another, welcoming a wave of roster reinforcements. Several of the biggest acquisitions were in the bullpen. The Mets got Helsley. The San Diego Padres added former A's closer and strikeout machine Mason Miller to an already daunting collection of relief arms. The Philadelphia Phillies gave up two top prospects to get Jhoan Duran and his 100 mph splinker from the Minnesota Twins.
Up till 48 hours before the trade deadline, the San Francisco Giants could make a statistical claim that their bullpen was the best in the league. It was the only part of their roster that merited superlatives. Not anymore. Fed up with their inattentive and sloppy play, which culminated in their first 0-6 homestand since 1896, Giants president Buster Posey pivoted into a selling posture. He subtracted longtime setup man Tyler Rogers on Wednesday. Closer Camilo Doval followed him out the door on Thursday. When the Giants arrived at Citi Field to begin a three-game series Friday night, they endured the odd sight of Rogers, who generates the softest contact from the most fearsome swings, warming up in the other bullpen.
All of this put Giants manager Bob Melvin in an awkward position with two months of baseball to play. How do you instill confidence in the clubhouse when the front office's actions indicate otherwise? How do you harden the resolve of an underachieving team forced to listen when their opponents introduce new additions to their cheering fans? How do you reset the paradigm when the losses keep piling up? How do you keep an unimproved team from punching the clock and playing out the string?
In a pregame meeting, Melvin's remarks were brief. He encouraged his players to look around the room.
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'The message team is not, 'We've given up on you guys,'' Melvin said. 'It's not at all. Our big core pieces are still here.'
So a team with Matt Chapman and Willy Adames and Rafael Devers and Jung Hoo Lee took the mound behind All-Star left-hander Robbie Ray Friday night. They played clean baseball and took a two-run lead in the eighth inning. When an especially unlucky bounce allowed the Mets to tie the score in the eighth, the game turned into a duel between bullpens. And the Giants, with reduced personnel and a freshly minted closer, prevailed.
The Giants scored their automatic runner on Dom Smith's single in the top of the 10th, then Randy Rodríguez struck out pinch hitter Ronny Mauricio to strand the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning. The Giants' 4-3 victory didn't put them back on the path to contention, but it allowed them to reset their record at .500 and put mental distance between themselves and the winless homestand that forced management to reconsider their trade deadline strategy.
Randy Rodriguez tosses 💯 to close it out 🔥 pic.twitter.com/v1l00Jorcg
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 2, 2025
It didn't make any sense that the Giants fell into a tailspin after the mid-June blockbuster trade that brought Devers from the Boston Red Sox. Who knows? Maybe it won't make any sense for a reduced roster to storm its way back into postseason relevance in August.
'We know we have to be better and play more games like that,' said Adames, who speared a hard grounder to start a double play behind Ray in the third inning. 'And I feel today was a big game to get in a different mood. It's been tough. The boys are feeling it. They knew that tonight, we had to make an adjustment and win that game no matter how. And it went our way. I mean … it almost didn't. But we found a way to be on top.'
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The Mets tied it in the eighth against left-hander Joey Lucchesi, who has elevated himself from non-roster fungibility to a prime relief role. But the Mets received a huge break when Juan Soto's ground ball up the middle clipped Lucchesi's leg and caromed away from Adames for an RBI single.
'It was coming straight at me,' Adames said. ' That's why we were like, 'What the heck is going on?' That was an easy double play. He didn't hit it hard and I was right there. I would've done it myself.'
It was the kind of break that's been going against the Giants in recent weeks. They had to endure another with two outs in the 10th when umpires ruled that Pete Alonso checked his swing with a full count. Rodríguez had no margin for error with the bases loaded and threw four consecutive fastballs to Ronny Mauricio, striking him out with a 100.1 mph four-seamer at the knees.
'Look, we had to work hard to get it,' Melvin said. 'The check swing call was ridiculous on Alonso. (Rodríguez) had to go through another guy. But, you know, (facing the) top of the order, man on second to start the inning, that was pretty spectacular for Randy to leave everyone out there.
'We're going through a lot of stuff right now and that one felt like, 'What else can go wrong?' But to battle through and get a win is huge.'
The Giants didn't move the needle on their playoff odds Friday. The Padres, now with more fangs in their Cerberus of a bullpen, also won to maintain a six-game lead over the Giants for the final wild-card spot. As much as Melvin stressed that the Giants retained their core pieces, including Ray, who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, there is plenty of important value to be found on the margins of a roster, too. The 2021 team, an ensemble cast, can present its 107 regular-season victories as evidence.
While other contenders added seasoned role players to their roster margins, the Giants called up outfielder Grant McCray and infielder Christian Koss and they will hand the baseball on Saturday to Kai-Wei Teng, a right-hander they designated for assignment a year ago. Teng has made major strides this season at Triple-A Sacramento. He's the best hope they have right now.
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Perhaps soon, the Giants will introduce right-hander Blade Tidwell or outfielder Drew Gilbert, whom they obtained from the Mets for Rogers. They'll have no reason not to take a look at Jesus Rodríguez, the contact-hitting catcher who headlined the New York Yankees' otherwise underwhelming four-player prospect package to acquire Doval. If McCray can't stick, then Gilbert looms as a potential 24-year-old version of Mike Yastrzemski.
There is still a chance for the Giants to make something positive out of a frustrating season. It'd help, of course, if Devers didn't strike out in each of his first four at-bats, as he did Friday. Or if Lee can turn more of his soft contact outs into sharply hit singles and doubles. The Giants players who remain understand this much: if it's not working, Posey will step in to make changes.
'Making moves like that showed the players that, hey, look, we're going to do something a little bit different,' Melvin said. 'And maybe that's the case now. Maybe that's part of the message to these guys: We've gotta do things a little differently.'
(Photo of catcher Patrick Bailey and Rodríguez celebrating the win: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)