{"id":659189,"date":"2026-04-02T17:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659189\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:19:14","slug":"3-up-3-down-as-the-sf-giants-win-series-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659189\/","title":{"rendered":"3 up, 3 down as the SF Giants win series in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants took two out of three in San Diego, and while the finale ended<\/a> on a partly cloudy note<\/a>, winning the series<\/a> is the only goal that matters. The Giants have 50 more series remaining. Win 30 of them, and you\u2019re making the playoffs. It\u2019s a complicated scenario, but a simple result.<\/p>\n

But enough of that. Let\u2019s get into the takes:<\/p>\n

UP: Keaton Winn, Future Closer
Mike Krukow doesn\u2019t put much sugar in his coffee compared to the other Giants announcers who hop on KNBR in the morning (this isn\u2019t to say that it isn\u2019t sweet), that the closer role \u2014 currently held by Ryan Walker \u2014 is an \u201cissue\u201d and is \u201cup for grabs,\u201d it grabbed my attention.<\/p>\n

Because I think that Keaton Winn is a bad man. The exact kind of pitcher you want in the ninth with a lead.<\/p>\n

That sinker he\u2019s throwing is a nasty, heavy medicine ball. Better yet, he has a true closer\u2019s temperament.<\/p>\n

Striking out the side and walking off the mound with the kind of swagger that says \u201ctold you so\u201d? That plays and we saw it on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Winn has \u201cgamer\u201d written all over him, and it would not shock me if he quickly becomes the ninth-inning guy.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s leash is essentially non-existent. One more rough outing \u2014 just one blown save \u2014 and I think Winn should get the chance to finish games.<\/p>\n

Plus: the marketing and game-ops scripts would practically write themselves.<\/p>\n

DOWN: Casey Schmitt\u2019s Glove at First Base<\/p>\n

Catch the bleeping ball.<\/p>\n

This grand experiment of trotting Casey Schmitt out as a starting first baseman has to end.<\/p>\n

Because there are two entirely different skill sets on the infield: fielding a grounder and fielding a throw. Schmitt is a left-side infielder who can moonlight at second. He can pick it up off the bat. He\u2019s not built for the stretch and the scoop.<\/p>\n

And the fact that he has been the team\u2019s everyday first baseman this season shows how flawed the team\u2019s overall roster construction was. There\u2019s not a single true first baseman on the roster.<\/p>\n

If only there was one \u2014 preferably a tall one with left-handed power (they could really use that) somewhere on the 40-man roster\u2026<\/p>\n

UP: Adrian Houser, No. 5 Starter
Five and a third innings, seven hits, one earned run, one walk, and four strikeouts on Wednesday. Sexy? Hardly. But is it exactly the kind of line you want from your fifth starter? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

The Giants are now through the rotation once, and the team\u2019s biggest issue on that cycle was their ace, Logan Webb, who gets the benefit of the doubt. Robbie Ray was dealing, Tyler Mahle was just fine, and Landen Roupp looked really good. Houser just needs to be solid, and you have a solid rotation. Who else in baseball can boast this kind of competency 1-5? A handful of teams at most.<\/p>\n

DOWN: Pagin Christian Koss<\/p>\n

Has anyone actually seen Christian Koss? The man made the major league roster, and the Giants apparently can\u2019t find a single use for him. And what about Jerar Encarnaci\u00f3n? He had one pinch-hit at-bat in the seventh inning with two outs. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

The front office jumped through hoops \u2014 cutting Luis Matos, sending down Bryce Eldridge \u2014 just to make sure Koss and Encarnaci\u00f3n were on this team. They shoehorned Jared Oliva onto the roster.<\/p>\n

Yet Koss is completely MIA, Encarnaci\u00f3n has one at bat, and Oliva has one pinch-running appearance. Backup catcher Daniel Susac can\u2019t even get an at-bat in a day game after a night game.<\/p>\n

I know no one liked Farhan Zaidi\u2019s Platoon Saloon, but this is an overcorrection and another sign of a roster built in a fundamentally flawed way.<\/p>\n

UP: Willy Adames Leading Off
I know, Willy Adames went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Wednesday. It wasn\u2019t pretty. But I actually like the concept of Adames as a leadoff hitter.<\/p>\n

Hitting first forces a player to be more conscientious at the plate. It makes him think about setting the table rather than just swinging out of his shoes, and I think the responsibility makes Adames a better hitter with a more buttoned-up approach at the plate. It saves him from his worst tendencies. It\u2019s an experiment worth continuing.<\/p>\n

DOWN: Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 and the \u201cB\u201d Bullpen
I feel pretty good with the Giants\u2019 A-bullpen \u2014 the group tasked with holding leads, thanks to the emergence of Winn.<\/p>\n

But the B-bullpen \u2014 the group asked to keep games tight when the Giants are losing \u2014 is not tenable. In fact, it\u2019s a complete mess, and Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 just threw it into further disarray.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see the severity of Butt\u00f3\u2019s arm\/elbow injury in the coming days, but in the meantime, forgive my skepticism that they found an injury excuse to pull him from a disastrous, game-losing bottom-of-the-eighth Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Giants are going to be in 50 to 60 close games this season, and a lot of them \u2014 if not the majority of them \u2014 will be games where they are trailing. That means the B-bullpen gets work, and no one has emerged as a viable option to go full Gandalf and say \u201cyou shall not pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be a great spot for a young reliever looking to cut his teeth in the big leagues or a veteran looking to prove he still has his stuff. Play the upside game when you trail. [I\u2019ve always said that. (Please don\u2019t actually check.)]\n<\/p>\n

Instead, I imagine the Giants will just call up Spencer Bivens \u2014 B-bullpen stalwart \u2014 from Triple-A, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants took two out of three in San Diego, and while the finale ended on a partly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,5774,5775,853,4,2093,378,66,22389,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-659189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-giants-hq","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-giants","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-sanfrancisco","19":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","20":"tag-sf","21":"tag-sf-giants","22":"tag-sfgiants","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-sports-columnists"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116336260962984584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}