Randy Arozarena's solo homer (8)
Chapman's two-run homer gives Giants' offense hope in comeback win
On 'Giants Postgame Live,' NBC Sports Bay Area's Laura Britt and Shawn Estes break down Matt Chapman's two-run homer in San Francisco's 6-5 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday at Oracle Park.Chapman's two-run homer gives Giants' offense hope in comeback win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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New York Times
33 minutes ago
- New York Times
Casey Schmitt contributes as Giants' win streak reaches seven games
DENVER — Tristan Beck received the most thankless assignment you can give to a major-league reliever: enter a game at Coors Field trailing by a run and try to keep it close. Three batters in, Beck was already pitching from his heels. He had allowed one run and only recorded a second out because the Colorado Rockies ran their way into it. When he threw a breaking ball that actually moved according to its designs, the Rockies' Keston Hiura snuck his barrel to it and hit a hard grounder that hugged the third-base line. Beck whirled around, saw the ball skipping over the bag and assumed his inning was becoming a war of attrition. Advertisement That's when third baseman Casey Schmitt made a lunging grab while staying on his feet. As his momentum carried him into foul territory, he flung a throw across his body that arrived true, in time and without so much as a hop to first baseman Jerar Encarnacion. 'I gotta admit it,' Beck said. 'I had to double-check who that was back there.' It will be no easy feat for the Giants to replace any element of Matt Chapman's game while he recovers from a sprained right hand. He's one of the league's smartest and tidiest baserunners. He is their leading home run hitter. And, of course, he's a five-time Gold Glove winner whose defensive skills annually account for a significant portion of his Wins Above Replacement. Chapman's defense should be the most irreplaceable aspect of his game. Instead, it might be the area where the Giants have the most coverage. Schmitt, a gifted defender, turned heads with his sparkling play in the fifth inning. Then he made contributions to a pair of late rallies as the Giants scored four runs in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth while storming to a 10-7 victory over the Rockies Wednesday night. It was the Giants' 20th come-from-behind win of the season. 'notha comeback in Colorado! — SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 12, 2025 Schmitt drew an eight-pitch walk in the eighth that set up Mike Yastrzemski's tying, two-run double. Then Schmitt scored the tiebreaking run following a replay reversal when he sprinted home on Tyler Fitzgerald's safety squeeze and slid a hand across the plate barely ahead of the tag. At that point, the Giants were set up to win their seventh consecutive game by a one-run margin, which would have matched the 1927 Chicago Cubs for the longest streak in major-league history. But it's a good thing they didn't stop there. They scored three more in the ninth and Schmitt knocked in one of them with a single up the middle. Advertisement Camilo Doval needed the extra cushion in the bottom of the ninth. He served up a solo home run to Hunter Goodman and the Rockies brought the tying run to the plate before Orlando Arcia tapped to the mound to end it. The streak of one-run victories might be over, but the winning habit continues. The Giants are a season-best 12 games over .500, just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, and they will have a theoretical chance to dislodge their archrivals when they arrive at Chavez Ravine this weekend to begin a three-game series. The three-run victory didn't release much pressure, though. 'Well, it still came down to the last pitch,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said. 'So I won't necessarily say this was a laugher.' Every pitch seems to matter more at Coors Field, where attrition is a way of life. Schmitt's defensive play had the underrated impact of saving Beck from throwing more pitches in the fifth inning, which otherwise might have prevented him from completing the sixth and seventh. The Giants dealt with the opposite effect earlier in the game when a missed-catch error on Encarnacion compounded a labor-intensive third inning for Robbie Ray, in which the left-hander was charged with four runs (two earned) and threw 34 pitches. 'It just drains you,' said Ray, who was lifted after throwing 93 pitches in four innings. 'More than at normal altitude. Any time you have to throw that many pitches in an inning, regardless of where you are, it's tough. But when you're here, it just takes more out of you.' So when a defensive gem like Schmitt's ends an inning here and allows everyone to get back to the dugout? 'Oh, a hundred percent, it's huge,' Beck said. 'Any pitcher will tell you what it's like here. Any chance you get to have a ball fielded and make a play like that, it's so important. That's one of the better plays I've seen behind me in my career. We all knew Casey could do that. Obviously, we're a little used to it with Chappy over there on the regular. But we know Casey can, too.' What a play by Casey Schmitt 🤯 — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025 Schmitt became the best defensive infielder in the Giants' farm system from the moment the club took him in the second round of the 2020 draft out of San Diego State. But every avenue to playing time on the left side of the infield appeared impassable at the end of last year when the Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension with Chapman and then signed shortstop Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million free-agent contract. Both Chapman and Adames pride themselves on playing 150-plus games and have to be cajoled into taking a day off. When spring training began, it was unclear what future Schmitt might have in the organization. Advertisement Schmitt made the opening day roster anyway, in a utility role. Then he added to his value when he turned himself into an above-average first baseman seemingly overnight. Now he's expected to receive an extended run of playing time while Chapman recovers — a process that is likely to extend into July. Even though Schmitt acknowledged that he is merely holding down the fort at third base, there's plenty more at stake for him. It's not impossible to envision Schmitt parlaying this opportunity into unseating Fitzgerald, who is in the midst of an inconsistent season at the plate and ran into another out on the basepaths on Wednesday. While Fitzgerald has played a credible second base, he cannot match Schmitt's arm strength or tagging skills, either. If Schmitt can combine better situational at-bats with his defense, then the Giants will be tempted to find a way to keep him in the lineup even after Chapman returns. 'That was huge, (fouling off) breaking ball after breaking ball and taking a fastball on the last pitch,' said Melvin, describing Schmitt's walk against right-hander Tyler Kinley in the eighth. 'It's a great opportunity for him. He's got a real opportunity to do some good things while Chappy is out. We're lucky to have him.' Does it help Schmitt to relax knowing he'll be in the lineup virtually every day for at least a couple weeks? 'I guess so, but I know my role,' he said. 'We all can't wait for (Chapman) to come back to doing his thing here. We're counting down the days.' The Giants also have been counting the days until Adames began to make an impact at the plate following two slow and challenging months. Perhaps these first two games in Denver will be the start of something. Adames hit a home run for the second consecutive game and finished a triple short of the cycle, singling to ignite the four-run rally in the eighth and doubling to help set up the three-run ninth. Advertisement His two-run home run gave the Giants a quick lead in the first inning. He also contributed a sacrifice fly. Arcia took away a potential fourth hit at third base in the fifth. Whether the margin of victory was one run or three, the Giants continued to do just enough to cover up their mistakes. Encarnacion's error in the third might have been the most glaring, but the coaching staff also blundered when Melvin failed to signal in time for a replay challenge on a blown call that ended the seventh inning. It was the second mea culpa of the series for Melvin, who acknowledged on Tuesday that he shouldn't have sent reliever Spencer Bivens out for a third inning. Maybe it didn't feel like the Giants had breathing room when Doval recorded the final out, but the three-run margin meant that the Giants would not equal the all-time one-run margin of victory record. The Cubs set that mark in a season in which they added a new upper deck above the third base stands at Wrigley Field (one year after the name had been changed from Cubs Park) and became the first National League team to draw 1 million fans. The seventh of those one-run triumphs came June 12, 1927, against the New York Giants when Charlie Root retired Rogers Hornsby to seal a 7-6 victory and delight an overflow crowd that spilled onto the grass and required the use of a boundary rope in the outfield. How long ago did the Cubs fashion that streak? The headline in the New York Times the next morning was: 'New York in Holiday Mood Greets Lindbergh Today' It astounded the nation when Charles Lindbergh climbed into the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis and crossed the Atlantic. Bet he couldn't throw a scoreless relief inning at Coors Field, though.
NBC Sports
41 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Giants at Rockies prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for June 12
Its Thursday, June 12 and the Giants (40-28) are in Denver to take on the Rockies (12-55). Hayden Birdsong is slated to take the mound for San Francisco against Antonio Senzatela for Colorado. The Giants won their second in a row against the Rockies and seventh in a row overall last night rallying for seven runs in the final two innings to come from behind and knock off the Rockies, 10-7 Wednesday night. Willy Adames went 3-3 at the plate and drove in three runs to pace the attack. Lets dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two. We've got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts. Follow Rotoworld Player News for the latest fantasy and betting player news and analysis all season long. Game details & how to watch Giants at Rockies Date: Thursday, June 12, 2025 Time: 3:10PM EST Site: Coors Field City: Denver, CO Network/Streaming: NBCSBA, COLR Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out. Odds for the Giants at the Rockies The latest odds as of Thursday: Moneyline: Giants (-219), Rockies (+179) Spread: Giants -1.5 Total: 11.0 runs Probable starting pitchers for Giants at Rockies Pitching matchup for June 12, 2025: Hayden Birdsong vs. Antonio Senzatela Giants: Hayden Birdsong (3-1, 2.55 ERA) Last outing: 6/6 vs. Atlanta - 4.1IP, 2ER, 2H, 5BB, 5Ks Rockies: Antonio Senzatela (1-10, 6.68 ERA) Last outing: 6/6 vs. Mets - 4IP, 0ER, 3H, 4BB, 2Ks Giants: Hayden Birdsong (3-1, 2.55 ERA) Last outing: 6/6 vs. Atlanta - 4.1IP, 2ER, 2H, 5BB, 5Ks Rockies: Antonio Senzatela (1-10, 6.68 ERA) Last outing: 6/6 vs. Mets - 4IP, 0ER, 3H, 4BB, 2Ks Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type! Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Giants at Rockies The Giants have won their last 3 road games, while the Rockies have lost 5 straight overall In his last 5 starts, Antonio Senzatela has an ERA of 10.00 After a dismal start to June (1-22) Willy Adames is 4-7 over his last 2 games Mike Yastrzemski is riding a modest 3-game hitting streak (4-9) Hunter Goodman has hit in 8 straight games (15-35) If you're looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports! Expert picks & predictions for today's game between the Giants and the Rockies Please bet responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700. Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts. Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager. Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Thursday's game between the Giants and the Rockies: Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the San Francisco Giants on the Moneyline. Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Colorado Rockies at +1.5. Total: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play on the under on the Game Total of 11.0. Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff: Jay Croucher (@croucherJD) Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper) Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports) Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
MLB trade deadline Urgency Index 1.0: Who needs what? Who needs it most?
We're less than 50 days to Major League Baseball's trade deadline — so there are less than 50 days for front offices to determine how much they like what they see, how much needs to change and how to value that change in acquisition cost. This far out from July 31, it's easier to pinpoint what team needs exist (or might arise in the next seven weeks) than to hammer down what players might be available as solutions, let alone the proper ones. So this week, The Athletic is introducing the first installment of its Urgency Index — a ranking of which teams are likely to need starting pitching, offensive help and relief pitching by July 31. It's a mix of obvious needs in the here and now, projecting what can change over the next several weeks, and analyzing how valuable even small improvements might be for teams straddling playoff contention. This week, it's Eno Sarris on starters, Tim Britton on bats and Aaron Gleeman on relievers. The Giants already shook up the offensive mix last week, designating LaMonte Wade Jr. and bringing aboard Dominic Smith. The bigger move for San Francisco's first-base issues might have been the one behind that one: Bryce Eldridge's promotion to Triple A after a solid six weeks at Double-A Richmond coming back from a spring wrist injury. Advertisement On the plus side, Eldridge's numbers in the Eastern League compare pretty well with those of fellow 6-foot-7 slugger Aaron Judge, and Eldridge posted them at 20 years old and not 23. On the minus side, Judge didn't break out in the majors until two years after he posted those numbers in Double A, and so it might not be wise for the Giants to bank on Eldridge saving them at first base down the stretch this season. No, this is a spot where a rental bat could be pivotal to the Giants' hopes of sticking with the Dodgers in the West or locking down a wild-card berth in the highly competitive National League. San Francisco's pitching staff, especially its bullpen, has helped it start the season this strong. Its offense ranks in the bottom half of the league, however, and FanGraphs projects only marginal improvement. The presence of Wilmer Flores permits San Francisco some latitude in positional fit: He can play first if needed, though he hasn't done so much this season as the Giants aim to keep him healthy. But adding one 1B/DH bat here could prove the difference between a postseason berth or another quiet October by the Bay. Sometimes a need arises out of the blue because of injury or unexpected underperformance. And sometimes a team enters the season with questions about its outfield's ability to produce, and it spends the first few months of the season justifying that skepticism. To the Royals' credit, they're very much in the postseason hunt in the American League, despite receiving the worst outfield production in the majors in 2025. Think of it this way: The Dodgers' Michael Conforto has been one of the most disappointing hitters in baseball all season, and he still owns a better wRC+ than Kansas City's collective outfield. (On the other hand, Toronto's Anthony Santander, whom KC pursued in free agency, would have actually made the outfield worse to this point.) Advertisement The Royals have already optioned MJ Melendez and released Hunter Renfroe. They've called up Jac Caglianone and tried out Maikel Garcia in center last week. They're trying. But the answer here should come from outside the organization. Get at least one more solid outfielder — and it doesn't have to be a superstar to be a marked improvement — and the Royals can compete in an American League without runaway wild-card contenders. The Royals are 30th in offensive production from their outfielders this season. The Guardians are 27th — a remarkable achievement considering how good Steven Kwan is in left field. 'Kwan has more hits this season than every other Cleveland outfielder' is a stat that isn't quite true but is close enough to make you do the math to be sure. Outfielders not named Kwan have more than 550 plate appearances this season and an OPS that is lower than that number of plate appearances. Nolan Jones, Angel Martínez, Jhonkensy Noel and, now back from injury, Lane Thomas have all struggled significantly. And none of them have provided the kind of defensive value that allows you to mitigate those struggles. Thomas was an imperfect trade deadline acquisition last season — though one postseason swing was, indeed, perfect — and Cleveland will have to get back on the outfield market if it wants to stick in that tough AL Central the rest of the way. Look, there are dozens of stats to express how disappointing the Rangers' offense has been this season. My favorite is this one: Texas' designated hitters — the players designated to hit — are batting .120 on the season. The worst batting average a team's DHs have ever compiled over a 162-game season is .174 by the 2022 Athletics — a team that lost 102 games and was pretty actively attempting to lose more. And these Rangers are 50 points worse! (Fair fair, batting average is out, slugging is more in vogue: There, Texas' .218 slugging percentage from its DHs is 60 points worse than the 1981 split-season Twins at the position.) Advertisement Of course, Joc Pederson will be better than this going forward and maybe even a well-above-average hitter from here on out. But the Rangers have underperformance at so many different positions that one of those 'of course this guy will be better' won't come to fruition enough to prevent Texas from needing some outside help — if it's even in position to add at the deadline. Only the Yankees and Red Sox have scored more runs per game than the Tigers this season in the American League. So yes, Detroit is an odd and somewhat contrarian pick here, based on projections that are less bullish on the offense moving forward. There's also this: With their outstanding start to the season, the Tigers should shift their ambition from building a potential division winner to building a potential pennant or World Series winner. And if that's what they're thinking about, there are possible avenues to improve, especially on the left side of the infield. Detroit is in the bottom five in baseball in offensive production out of shortstop, and your optimism for improvement there probably relies on Javier Báez continuing a rebound from three miserable seasons. Zach McKinstry has been terrific; his career OPS entering this season was .643, and compiling seven good months is harder than compiling two. Right now, no, Detroit doesn't need another bat. In 50ish days? We wouldn't be surprised. Honorable mentions: Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres Jordan Romano has been a bust thus far, and José Alvarado is suspended through mid-August and then ineligible for the postseason, making it clear the Phillies will need to shop for late-inning bullpen help if they're going to make another playoff run this October. That's nothing new for a Dave Dombrowski-led front office. Philadelphia switched up its bullpen at last year's deadline, bringing in Carlos Estévez and Tanner Banks while sending out Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez. And multiple moves might be required again to solidify a unit that ranks 25th in ERA. Something resembling, say, a Jeff Hoffman replacement would work. Advertisement Atlanta isn't short on major problems, but the bullpen's issues can be summed up by the Craig Kimbrel debacle. Overall, the Braves' relievers have an average-ish ERA, but that number is trending in the wrong direction and repeated late-inning blowups have led to ranking 24th in Win Probability Added (WPA). For now, at least, this seems like too talented of a roster to give up on. But even if other areas of the team start meeting preseason expectations, the patched-together bullpen remains an obvious weakness. Braves relievers have taken an NL-high 15 losses while recording an NL-low 10 saves. Arizona has had the worst bullpen of any contender, by far, ranking 27th in ERA and dead last in WPA, but a sub-.500 start combined with Corbin Burnes' elbow injury makes it unclear if the Diamondbacks are actually contenders anyway. If they are going to stay in the playoff picture, relief reinforcements are a must. It wasn't always like this. Arizona had a functional bullpen through mid-April, but things unraveled after A.J. Puk went down with an elbow injury on April 17. Since then, Diamondbacks relievers have an ERA over 6.00 and their league-worst WPA is 50 percent worse than the No. 29 bullpen. And now Justin Martinez is out again. Andrés Muñoz has been amazing enough to carry the entire bullpen, but Seattle's non-Muñoz relievers have combined for a 4.17 ERA and sizably negative WPA. At minimum, the Mariners could use a reliable veteran setup man to help get leads to Muñoz intact. And the eighth inning, in particular, has too often been a problem. Brewers starting pitchers have been very good at preventing runs and very bad at eating innings, so the bullpen has been forced to carry tons of weight. Milwaukee's relievers have thrown MLB's second-most innings and haven't been very effective, ranking 24th in ERA and 23rd in WPA. Without help, this bullpen could crumble down the stretch. Honorable mentions: Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds It's not just that the Cubs' rotation has been mediocre this far into the season — their starters have been below-average whether you use Wins Above Replacement, ERA or strikeout rate to rank them. What's more worrisome is what their rotation is likely to do going forward. Over at FanGraphs, even with 81 more innings penciled in for Shota Imanaga, Chicago's rotation is projected at 23rd. And this isn't the case where a back-end arm is all the Cubs need: their top three starters are also bottom 10 in the league. With the Cubs' offense coalescing (they're second in the league in runs), and Kyle Tucker on an expiring deal, there's increasing pressure on this front office to get an impact arm at the deadline. Who that guy is might be a mystery until more sellers identify themselves in coming weeks, but this team needs that impact arm more than any other. Advertisement The Blue Jays' rotation has been worse than the Cubs'. Ranked 28th in starting pitcher WAR, Toronto's starters are 24th in ERA, 21st in strikeout rate, 14th in walk rate and 29th in home runs allowed per nine innings. Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt have been decent so far, but the projections think the latter two will add about a run to their ERAs – they're 17th going forward in projections, and even that top three is only 14th in the league among top threes. The Cubs do probably have their playoff starters, no matter what projections think of the big three in the T-dot. They might be able to spend less to get an arm that will get them there, rather than absolutely needing that player to start a playoff game. But if they want to be real postseason contenders, a top quality starter would go a long way. Cleveland has long been considered a pitching factory, but the gears are grinding a little bit these days. Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee are quality arms, but they're working through some of the adjustments that separate the young from the established. Ben Lively keeps getting decent results with poor peripherals and a fastball that barely cracks 90 mph, and the back end has been a problem no matter what numbers you look at. The Guardians' rotation ranks in the bottom 10 in the league in: WAR, ERA, strikeout rate, walk rate, home run rate, Stuff+, Location+, innings and wins. The Guardians are projected to have the 21st-best rotation going forward, and their top three isn't liked any better by the numbers. This team urgently needs a starter — will it go get one? The Yankees rotation has been better than it might have seemed when Luis Gil and Gerrit Cole went down in the spring. As a unit, it has floated between 12th and seventh in pitching WAR to this point in the season, as Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren have been indeed good enough to power the back end of the rotation on a team with a strong offense. The Yankees don't have to make a move here if everyone stays healthy. Theirs should be a top 10 unit going forward. But the temptation, especially for a team trying to get back to the mountaintop, has to be high to see if it can't get a Game 3 starter who can push the younger guys into support roles. This might be surprising to many: the Dodgers are projected to have the fourth-best rotation in baseball going forward. At a time when it seems like they don't know who will start their next game, this might seem ridiculous. But they have so many pitchers on the injured list that projections just shrug, give them all a little bit of innings because that seems most probable, and out spits a good rotation built on 60 innings each from Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, Tony Gonsolin and Roki Sasaki. Advertisement Betting the under on those numbers? You wouldn't be alone. But it does point to how much this team has invested in this rotation, and how its young replacements have been good enough to power this team to another strong record. They won't get better on the market than their injured top-end options, and their kids are doing OK and, hey, the projections say they'll be fine. You can never count out the Dodgers from improving at the deadline, though, and if those injuries lag further, you can almost expect to see Los Angeles get a starter. Honorable mentions: Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Top photos: Ezra Shaw, Greg Fiume, Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
