Giants reach midpoint of season in good position but not in good head space

New York Times

7 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants reached the halfway point of their season with a stock portfolio in the green.
They have a winning record (44-37) and a positive run differential (plus-34). They have a new franchise hitter, Rafael Devers, who promises greater returns in the middle of their lineup. They are relevant in the National League standings — 6 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West but just a half-game out of the third wild-card spot and three wins removed from leading the pack.
Advertisement
They are settling into a soft pocket in their schedule, too. They wore matching gray sweatsuits and jetted off Thursday afternoon for a 10-game road trip that will begin with a series against the last-place Chicago White Sox and conclude in Sacramento with a series against the last-place Athletics.
Their attire was airplane casual. But their countenances did not match.
Soft pockets aren't much help when there are too many holes in your game. And getting swept at home by a losing club, the Miami Marlins, would make anyone a tad irritable and hypersensitive. Wilmer Flores appeared ready to fight the entire Marlins dugout in the latter stages of Thursday's 12-5 loss when he reacted to someone's comment following his strikeout on a checked swing appeal. Both benches and bullpens emptied in the seventh inning, and Jung Hoo Lee dragged Flores away from the front line before the situation escalated.
not to be dramatic but… everyone has a hit and we just hit our season-high 12 runs. pic.twitter.com/iagoYePTbS
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) June 26, 2025
The two teams were already playing under a warning from the umpiring crew after Hayden Birdsong hit Otto López with a fastball in the first inning — a pitch that dripped with so much obvious motivation that Miami manager Clayton McCullough drew an ejection for arguing that the umpires let the Giants off too easy.
Flores, who also exchanged words with Boston Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman last Friday, did not stick around long enough to explain the source of his consternation in the seventh inning. He double-timed it from his locker to the bus and did not slow down when reporters attempted to ask him a question. Rolling a piece of luggage in each hand and cradling another bag under an arm, he appeared determined not to make a second trip.
Advertisement
'Wilmer was gesturing to the (first-base) umpire and maybe their pitcher took exception to that, is my guess,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said. 'I don't know. Maybe he said something to him. I haven't talked to him. But it's frustrating to get swept, especially here at home, coming off a pretty good series against the Red Sox.'
A night earlier, Giants right-hander Logan Webb said he hoped the team would take the field with a little edge after the Marlins became the latest opponent to take a pound of flesh with inside pitches. Webb's language was thinly coded: A Giants pitcher would throw a retaliatory pitch Thursday to show their hitters that they had their backs. Birdsong's apparent beanball came in the exact time and place that the unwritten rules prescribe: two outs, bases empty, first pitch. Birdsong did not headhunt, either. The fastball hit López below the belt, not above it.
But then Agustín Ramírez hit a double. Kyle Stowers hit a homer. The Marlins took a quick 3-0 lead, and from there, Birdsong looked very much like a green 23-year-old — either distracted or disinterested, but obviously off his game.
'His velo was kind of all over the place,' Melvin said.
Maybe the Giants felt they had to send a message both to opposing teams and their own clubhouse. Maybe it'll help them be a more cohesive group over the coming weeks and months. But it came at a price Thursday. Playing angry sure as heck didn't make them play any better.
The Giants hadn't been swept at home all season. They hadn't been swept at home by the Marlins since 2017. In that context, it might have been difficult to appreciate that Devers slugged his second home run as a Giant — a 438-foot blast to center that ranked as the longest hit by a Giant at home in more than four years. (Austin Slater hit a 456-foot shot in 2021.)
4️⃣3️⃣8️⃣ feet pic.twitter.com/Lvqx6gQjU2
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 26, 2025
'Yeah, it's hard to feel good about today,' Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski said. 'It's not hard to feel good about where we are. If you were to tell us in February that at the halfway point, we'd be seven games over .500 and in the thick of things, with a guy (Devers) we didn't expect to have, I think we'd take that. He swung the bat really well today, Willy (Adames) has been swinging great. We couldn't put it together as a team, but to see those guys having those at-bats is a real positive sign.'
Advertisement
At least the Giants received good news on third baseman Casey Schmitt, whose apparently unintentional plunking in the ninth inning Wednesday night was viewed as the last straw by Webb and others in the clubhouse. Schmitt underwent a CT scan that ruled out a hand fracture. He said he couldn't swing a bat Thursday and the hand was swollen, but he held out hopes of returning to the lineup Friday night on the South Side of Chicago.
By the tail end of this road trip, there's a chance the Giants will have Matt Chapman at third base, Schmitt at second and Devers at first. Purpose pitches and anger management aside, what the Giants most need in the second half is a lineup with more depth and danger.
'It's tough to have perspective from the beginning of the year to where we are right now,' Melvin said. 'We are who we are, and we feel we're a lot better than we played the last three games. So we're not in a horrible position. Yet we feel like we're a better team than what our record is right now.'
(Photo of Wilmer Flores: Eakin Howard / Imagn Images)