SAN FRANCISCO — Bob Melvin is generally quick to answer questions, but when he was asked Sunday afternoon to sum up the first half, he paused for four seconds and took a deep breath.
“We’d like to have a few more wins,” Melvin said. “But we put ourselves in a position to have a good second half and get to the postseason.”
If the 2025 MLB postseason started Monday, the Giants would be watching from home. They went 52-45 in the first half, which is better than most expected, but still has them third in the NL West, a half-game behind the San Diego Padres and six behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants are currently half a game out of the final NL Wild Card spot.
Of those 52 wins, there have been some stunners. On this homestand, Patrick Bailey hit a walk-off inside-the-park homer, the ninth walk-off at Oracle Park this season. When Luis Matos shocked the Dodgers with a two-run blast in the ninth Sunday, the Giants were poised for a 10th.
LUIS MATOS TIES IT UP IN NINTH 🔥
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) July 13, 2025
But the Matos blast was San Francisco’s only notable offensive moment in a 5-2 loss on Sunday that fit in with much of the first half, and especially June and July. The Giants rank 24th in the league in OPS and 21st in runs. Even with Rafael Devers in the fold, this is a lineup that was a disappointment in the first half and didn’t adequately back one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.
On Sunday, All-Star Robbie Ray allowed two runs over six innings to give the Giants a chance for a series win, but they managed just three hits through eight. After Matos took Tanner Scott deep, they failed to score the automatic runner from second in the 10th and 11th innings.
There was some bad luck involved — James Outman chased down Devers’ liner to the track in the 10th — but the day was also filled with unproductive at-bats against Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a mediocre Dodgers bullpen. Before the Devers at-bat, Patrick Bailey failed to get a bunt down and then flew out softly to center. Afterward, Willy Adames grounded out to third.
Adames has been the team’s most dangerous hitter over the past month, but he finished the first half with a .680 OPS. The only Giant who heads into the break with an OPS above .800 is Devers, who did most of that lifting in Boston. He was at .905 before the trade but is at .656 in orange and black.
Matt Chapman had a solid first half and is on pace for a four-win season. Heliot Ramos has slumped in recent weeks, but he should generally be happy, too. His 117 wRC+ puts him right behind Chapman as the only Giants hitters who have been comfortably above league-average.
Mike Yastrzemski (.723 OPS), Jung Hoo Lee (.720) and Wilmer Flores (.696) all had their moments in the first half, but the overall numbers don’t stand out. Bailey’s flyout in extras gave him a .203 average at the break. Opening Day second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald played his way back to Triple-A, and Matos did so poorly against lefties before Sunday’s blast that a planned platoon of him and Yastrzemski was scrapped.
Melvin looks at all of those names and sees a solid everyday lineup on paper. He mostly stuck with the same group against the Dodgers, but the Giants managed just eight hits over the final two games of the series. Melvin said afterward that he still has plenty of faith.
“We’re going to be better offensively. I believe that,” he said. “We have some guys that are coming around a little bit, we have some guys that will come around a little bit more. We have some guys in the middle of the lineup that are going to do more damage. I do think our offense is going to be better in the second half.”
The team’s decision-makers see a group that should benefit from the four days off. Devers has been playing through groin and back tightness and Chapman had just one extra-base hit in eight games after rushing back from a hand injury. Others might simply need a couple of days on the lake to clear their heads, but it’s dangerous to just assume that the second half will bring fresh luck. The Giants were remarkably healthy throughout the first half, with Chapman being the only one of the team’s marquee hitters to miss real time.
That was an area where the Giants benefitted from plenty of good fortune. In extra innings Sunday, there was nothing but bad luck.
After the near-miss from Devers, the Dodgers took the lead on a pair of bloops and an infield single. There wasn’t much the Giants could complain about, though. For most of three hours at Oracle Park, they did very little to put themselves in position to win the game. It was the kind of day they have gotten used to, even while generally having a good first half.
“You pick yourself up,” Melvin said. “And you move on.”
Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast