The Giants get their 81st win and thus avoid a losing season. It's not a winning season, of course. But it's not a losing season, either! That's something at least.
Willy Adames gave the home crowd a thrill with a leadoff homer. Nice move by BoMel to put him in the first slot. The home run was his 30th and that breaks the infamous team-wide 30-homer drought. Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004 and that's the last time a Giants player has cracked the 30 mark. Brandon Belt had 29 in 97 games in 2021. Matt Chapman had 27 last year.
Logan Webb started but was pulled after 5-1/3 innings. The team hung on to complete the shutout and Webb got his 15th win for the season. That matches his career high from 2022. Webb finishes with 207 IP, the most in MLB (Garret Crochet had 205-1/3). He also has the most starts (34) and is tied with Crochet and Christopher Sánchez for the most Quality Starts (22). He struck out a career-high 224 which trails only Crochet (255) and Tarik Skubal (241) for the MLB lead (it's the most in the NL).
Spencer Bivens earned the save with two hitless innings. He gave up a walk in the 8th but struck out the side in the 9th. He entered with a 2-0 lead and the Giants got two more in the 9th. That's two saves this weekend for Bivens and 53 appearances (79 IP) overall. He's got some gnarly-looking stuff and it looks like he'll be in the mix for a high-leverage role in 2026.
Here are the Giants W-L records for the last four seasons (since they won 107 and the West in 2021): 81-81 in 2022, 79-83 in 2023, 80-82 last year, and 81-81 this year. I think that is the very definition of "mediocrity." At least they aren't the Rockies! Anyway, it would be nice to see this group win some games next season. There's enough talent to compete with teams like the Reds, the Mets, the Cardinals, and the Diamondbacks. The five-way scrum for the final Wild Card ended up with the Giants on the bottom! They were a better team than that and should have finished strong with a real shot at the post-season.
There will be plenty to talk about in the off-season, of course. We'll get around to it, I'm sure. In the meantime I will root for Milwaukee to go all the way. How can you not root for a club called the BREWERS? If not them then someone like Cleveland or Seattle.
Thanks for reading along,
--M.C.
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