SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Giants’ series finale Wednesday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates, manager Bob Melvin suggested that Heliot Ramos was trying too hard, and that could explain some of his recent miscues.
Melvin suggested that Ramos, and the other Giants who were trying too hard, should instead “try easier.”
At this point, the Giants will try anything.
With Thursday’s MLB trade deadline looming, San Francisco played a competitive game with Pittsburgh that extended into extra innings. In the extra frame, it was the Pirates who scored automatic runner Oneil Cruz, while the Giants stranded runners at second and third to lose 2-1 in 10 innings.
Patrick Bailey and Ramos could have played the hero for San Francisco, but they were struck out back-to-back by Pittsburgh reliever Isaac Mattson to end the game.
Wednesday’s loss secured the Giants’ first winless homestand of six or more games since 1896, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They are under .500 for the first time this season at 54-55. Pittsburgh improved to 47-62.
After yet another close, disappointing defeat, their fifth in five days by two runs or less, the Giants were once again asked if they were trying too hard.
They didn’t know the answer.
“It’s hard to say,” third baseman Matt Chapman said. “I mean, sometimes yes, and then sometimes it could be something else.”
Why are the Giants in this position?
“I don’t know,” starting pitcher Logan Webb said simply.
He later added, “If I had the answer, I think we would have figured it out by now.”
Webb, a 2025 All-Star who is now 9-8 with a 3.31 ERA this season, was a bright spot on an afternoon where the Giants’ offense once again failed to plate enough runs – or runs, plural – to get him a win. Webb struck out 10 batters in the first four innings and finished with 11 overall, navigating through traffic to finish 5 2/3 strong frames while throwing a season-high 109 pitches.
San Francisco Giants’ Logan Webb pitches to a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Melvin lifted Webb after Willy Adames made a nice play to his right to keep Liover Peguero off base. Reliever Spencer Bivens retired Isiah Kiner-Falefa on a soft ground ball to first, stranding Henry Davis at second and preserving Webb’s stellar line.
But it was another loss for the Giants, and one more where Webb had to be excellent to keep his team tied when he exited.
“I still think I could have thrown a little bit better,” Webb said. “I had four walks, still some hard contact. But in general, I’m a lot happier with that than my last couple starts, that’s for sure.”
The Giants couldn’t have gotten Webb a win in the 10th, but they were teed up for a feel-good walk-off. Casey Schmitt led off the bottom of the frame and popped up to left, but left fielder Jack Suwinski couldn’t find the ball in the hazy afternoon sky and it dropped in for a base hit.
Melvin called for a sacrifice bunt from Mike Yastremski, who obliged and advanced automatic runner Jung Hoo Lee and Schmitt into scoring position. That gave Bailey and Ramos two cracks at being the streak-buster.
Neither one was able to come through, and San Francisco instead made the kind of ignominious history that hasn’t been seen for over a century.
“We’re trying to score a run,” Melvin said of the decision to bunt. “I wasn’t gonna bunt with Schmitty there to try to tie a game. Especially with the bullpen, we didn’t have much left as far as guys that were available. But once it was first and second, we got a chance to get a base hit (with guys at) second and third.”
San Francisco scored its only run when Dominic Smith drove in Ramos with a two-out single to right field in the fourth inning. An opportunity to add on was snuffed out when Lee’s low line drive to left was caught on a dive by Suwinski, stranding Adames on third base.
Yastrzemski made a highlight catch in the eighth inning, lunging over the side wall and into the right-field netting to snag Suwinski’s foul pop fly. Yastrzemski then led off the bottom of the inning with a bunt single and advanced to third, but Rafael Devers flied out to left to end the inning.
After the game, Yastrzemski was left to try and explain what has happened with the Giants over the past month-plus. Since acquiring Devers via trade on June 15, the Giants are 13-24, the worst record in baseball.
They have gone from in the fight in the National League West and prime wild card position to 9 1/2 games back of the Dodgers and six games back of the final NL wild card spot.
“I don’t think there’s a guy in this room that’s quit on this season, and I don’t think they’re going to,” Yastrzemski said. “And so regardless of what happens, the effort and the care level is going to be there even if the results are not. I don’t think we’ve stopped believing, even though we’ve had a really rough start to the second half.”
Webb, the heartbeat of the Giants, was brutally honest in his postgame mood assessment.
“We’re not playing very good, plain and simple,” Webb said.
“It’s not like we’re trying to go out there and look like (expletive), but it’s a hard game. I know that’s not going to be a popular answer, but it’s just not good right now, which we all know that. You feel it, see it in the clubhouse. It’s not fun to be in here. But the only thing you can do is show up on Friday and try to beat the Mets.”
Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 3:32 AM PDT