Giants' inconsistent offense leaves team with little room for error

Even after a 6-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday at Great American Ball Park, the most optimistic of Giants fans will still say there’s time left for the Orange and Black to get it together and make it into the MLB playoffs.

They have some evidence to back up those positive thoughts, too.

With 50 games remaining in the regular season, the Giants possess a 55-57 record that has them well behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. And while it would take nothing short of a miracle to make San Francisco a contender in the division, the wild card remains a viable option.

There’s also a good chance for the Giants to make up some ground in the next few weeks.

Among the teams on San Francisco’s schedule over the next month are the Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins. All five are sub-.500 teams and are all series that the Giants can and should win.

San Francisco also will square off against heavyweights like the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves, not to mention division rivals like the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres, both of which are ahead of the Giants in the NL West.

So while the task ahead will indeed be an uphill climb, history suggests it’s not impossible.

At this stage of the season in 2012, the Giants were sitting at 61-51, six games better than their current record. Yet San Francisco caught fire, made a nice run down the stretch and won the World Series.

Likewise, in 2014 the Giants also were 61-51 through 112 games before making a late surge to capture their third World Series championship in five years.

Those championship teams were anchored by a dominant pitching staff surrounded with a quality level and consistent offense.

This year’s Giants team also is anchored by a dominant pitching staff, one so good that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi deemed it the best rotation in baseball.

As shown Saturday, however, the 2024 Giants don’t necessarily have the type of offense to match, leaving San Francisco with little, if any, margin for error when the pitching breaks down.

Coming on the heels of two absolutely dynamic complete game shutouts from ace Logan Webb and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (who pitched his first career no-hitter Friday), Kyle Harrison took the mound at Great American Ball Park looking to keep the extended stretch of strong pitching going but failed to even make it through four innings.

The Reds pounded out four home runs off Harrison, who still is the franchise’s top pitching prospect despite a mostly up-and-down season.

While Cincinnati’s hitters jumped on basically everything that Harrison threw, San Francisco’s own hitters were muted by Reds starter Hunter Greene.

Greene owned the Giants the entire time he was on the mound, and it wasn’t until his night ended after six innings that San Francisco was able to generate much of anything at the plate.

Michael Conforto, Jerar Encarnación and Matt Chapman all homered over the final three innings. By then, it was too little, too late.

As long as San Francisco’s pitching is on point, the offense doesn’t have to produce much in order to get a win.

That’s one of the primary reasons Zaidi didn’t want to deal away any of his starters before the trade deadline. They can be that good.

When the pitching is not there, as was the case Saturday, the offense has to be able to pick up the slack.

In order for the Giants to be taken seriously as potential playoff contenders, they simply have to get much more out of the offense.

So while Zaidi maybe did the right thing in holding onto key starting pitchers, right now it’s looking like his inability to add a big bat to the lineup was a big whiff.

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