Good morning, baseball fans!
Forgive the “old news” status of this post, unfortunately I have to write these morning posts before the previous day’s game is played in most cases. So this is the Wednesday afternoon version of me having my reaction to Monday & Tuesday’s games on Thursday.
The San Francisco Giants started this week off with a worrying trend. Two extra inning games in a row in which they could not score their extra base runner. Against the Atlanta Braves, a team they desperately needed to get wins against if they’re going to stay in the hunt for the playoffs, let alone hope to be competitive if they get there.
This continues an ongoing trend of the Giants not hitting particularly great with runners in scoring position in general. So much so that it’s become a meme on social media. “Bases loaded, no outs. How will the Giants avoid scoring this time?” is a common sentiment from fans online.
The majority of the Giants’ starting lineup are below league average in terms of knocking in a runner on third with less than two outs. (League average is about 50%, by the way.) I get that this is a very specific situation, but it’s still concerning that they are that bad at it!
At the end of the day, it’s two games. But this is the part of the season where teams that are going to find success in October begin winning these kinds of toss-up games. And the Giants are going to need to find a way to improve the timeliness of their hitting, especially with free runners in scoring position, if they hope to be one of them.
What time do the Giants play today?
The Giants wrap up this series against the Braves this afternoon at 12:45 p.m. PT from Oracle Park.