SAN FRANCISCO -- On the first day of spring training, Giants manager Bob Melvin showed up early to his first session with reporters. He informed them that he would be early most of the time, and that has held true.
But Melvin took much longer than he usually does to sit down at the podium after Saturday's 8-0 loss to the San Diego Padres, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. The Giants played sloppy and discouraging baseball while falling to 12-18 over their past 30 games. It was the type of unacceptable effort that led Melvin to address his roster.
"It almost feels like it's cratering here," he said. "We're only a couple of weeks left in the season and we've got too much at stake and we've accomplished too much, even though it's been disappointing as a whole, but we've accomplished too much to just start playing baseball like this. As a staff we have to try and do something about that."
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"No excuses. It's unacceptable."
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 15, 2024
Bob Melvin addresses the Giants' poor play, particularly on defensive relays pic.twitter.com/Kiqvc6HFXR
That will start Sunday, Melvin said. The Giants will go over their relays, which is something that usually is settled in spring training. There was an ugly one Saturday, and it was just the start of what was a hard game to watch for the 31,243 who showed up at Oracle Park -- or at least the segment that was rooting for the home team. For most of the night, it seemed like Giants fielders were trying to chase down baseballs.
With a runner on first and two outs in the first, Manny Machado launched a double off the center field wall. It was hit so hard that Jurickson Profar had no chance of scoring, but the Giants helped him out. Both middle infielders -- Brett Wisely and Marco Luciano -- ended up on the outfield grass, and the throw found neither of them. Profar cruised home as Machado took second, with first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. coming over to scoop up the relay.
"It's the big leagues," Melvin said. "It looks like instructional league at times."
San Francisco Giants
That is somewhat by design. The Giants have gone young in September. Luciano is learning second base on the fly at the big league level. Wisely is primarily a second baseman but is at shortstop because of Tyler Fitzgerald's tight back.
Scouts who watch the Giants see multiple young guys playing out of position. Just about the entire industry expects the Giants to eventually have to move Luciano to left field, and Fitzgerald is likely a second baseman in the future. On Saturday, in desperate need of offense, Melvin had Ramos in center and Mark Canha in right. It didn't work.
The Giants were shut out for a third straight game for the first time since 1992. As ugly as the at-bats have been, that's a difficult ship to turn in-season. The Giants have a lack of talent in the batter's box right now, and there are no easy answers.
Defensive lapses, though, are fixable. The mistakes have been basic ones, coming on relays and grounders and double-play balls. How many times this season have the Giants picked a runner off first and somehow failed to get the throw down to second in time? How many times have they failed to hold the runner, period?
They are failing at the little things, which is a bad look for the new coaching staff that was brought in so that there would be more accountability in the clubhouse and on the field. At this point, the only real question is how deep the cuts go this offseason. Last September's collapse cost Gabe Kapler his job, but a year later the Giants are 72-76, and given that they have the worst record in the NL over the past month and have a tough nine-game trip coming up, the odds are good that they finish well short of even 80 wins.
The 2024 Giants gave up on their MLB playoff hopes weeks ago, but they had planned to use September as a launching pad. Instead, they're playing their worst baseball of the year, and seem to be heading further and further in the wrong direction.
"We only made one error but it didn't look like it," Melvin said. "We're out of position too much, we didn't get good breaks on balls. Yeah, it's sloppy."
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