Well, that could have gone better.
The Giants’ longest road trip of the season — a 10-game, 10-day stretch in Boston, Philadelphia, and Denver — felt downright interminable.
Only winning three games in 10 chances will do that.
Not great, Bob (Melvin)!
Yes, the worst road trip to watch since the 2012 Seth Rogan, Barbra Streisand feature “The Guilt Trip” was, in all, a deeply inauspicious stretch for the black and orange — one that raises serious questions about this team’s chances to compete for the postseason, and all that preseason optimism.
But it wasn’t all bad.
Here are three ups, and, of course, three downs, from the Giants’ road trip to forget:
UP: Ryan Walker and the bullpen
I used to believe that bullpens win divisions.
Clearly, that’s not the case, because the Giants have a pretty good bullpen — maybe the best in the National League West — and they’re not going to sniff the division lead this season.
Maybe bullpens win Wild Cards?
We know who is closing. We know one of the Rogers twins is going to come in when it’s a high-leverage situation.
But the Giants have their fireman in the pen. His name is Ryan Walker.
Over his last 10 innings of action — 10 games — Walker, a herky-jerky righty with a cross-body delivery, has allowed only three hits and no runs, while striking out 18.
He’s cooking, and if the Giants find themselves in a position to win a game after even five innings, they have to like their chances of finishing off the game.
And, one quick note: Randy Rodriguez, who saw his first big-league action on this trip, looks like he stands a chance of being an impact arm for the Giants. Sure, 99 miles per hour is par for the course in baseball these days, but I’m still impressed.
DOWN: The Giants’ good health
At least when it came to position players, the Giants were in good health heading into this 10-game road trip.
That is no longer the case. Jorge Soler is on the injured list, as are both of their catchers, and Nick Ahmed and Jung Hoo Lee both picked up knocks in Colorado.
The Giants’ lineup depth is being tested and it will continue to be tested.
Perhaps that’s a good thing, given this team’s offensive struggles — it’s a forced mix-up.
Or perhaps a bad offense is about to become worse, as not-everyday players are thrust into those roles.
UP: Thairo Estrada
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The Giants second baseman had a brutal start to the season, but he’s back to being himself, and that’s a damn fine baseball player.
Estrada slashed .282/.333/.410 on the 10-game road trip, playing every day and hitting two doubles and a homer, driving in seven runs.
On an offense with few bright spots these days, he’s unquestionably a positive at the moment.
But what has most impressed me with Estrada as of late is his glove. He’s really flashing the leather at second.
The eye test is flattering. The tracking data is enviable. Estrada is third in baseball with five outs above average at second base.
And while, yes, he did lead all second basemen in that category last year, the combination of that glove with the Giants’ left side of the infield seems like a huge advantage over the competition.
With Nick Ahmed (baseball’s second-best defensive shortstop this season, per Fielding Run-Value), the incomparable Matt Chapman, and Estrada all playing Gold Glove-level defense, the Giants should be begging their pitchers to induce ground balls all game.
If nothing else, that would get this all over with sooner.
DOWN: Keaton Winn
The young starter has the stuff to be a big-league pitcher.
But when he isn’t locating, things escalate in a hurry. (And not in a good way for the Giants.)
You want to give the 26-year-old the benefit of the doubt for what happened in Philadelphia — he was under the weather for the game he couldn’t escape the first inning, allowing five runs. Anything less than your best against the Phillies will be burned.
And sure, Coors Field is a tough place to pitch, but the Rockies are not a lineup to be feared. Yet after the first time through the order, Colorado jumped on Winn early in the count and tagged him for seven runs on eight hits.
The Giants aren’t in a position to knock Winn out of the rotation right now, but he’ll probably have one more start to prove he deserves to be in it. After that Blake Snell is likely to return and Mason Black will have a second big-league start under his belt.
That start is likely to come next Tuesday against the… Dodgers.
At least it’s at home?
UP: Michael Conforto
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He still can’t play a lick of defense, but his red-hot bat requires him to be in the lineup daily. Strangely, that makes Soler’s injury a win for San Francisco — manager Bob Melvin can stash Conforto in the DH spot, where he truly belongs.
I say “can” because Melvin decided to play Conforto in left on Thursday, with Lee on the bench, and hit Blake Sabol in the DH spot.
Regardless, Conforto is raking. On the road trip, he slashed .303/.395/.576 with two homers.
Conforto is never going to be the player he was for the Mets in 2020, when he was 54 percent better than a league-average hitter, but he’s been roughly 30 percent better this season. For an offense starved for, well, offense, the front office’s belief in the 31-year-old is looking wise.
Now, if only teams could stop hitting it to him in left field.
DOWN: The Giants’ season outlook
It’s too early to win anything of worth.
But it’s not too early to lose it.
The 3-7 road trip has put the Giants in a hole. It’s hardly an insurmountable one — the Giants were somehow only 2.5 games back of a Wild Card spot after Thursday’s loss — but it’s still a hole.
It’s hard to imagine that anything less than 85 wins will be enough to make the playoffs.
That means the Giants need to go 68-55 the rest of the way.
Can they? Yes.
But there’s no reason to confidently say they will.
