pitching better than his results would indicate<\/a>, but still getting lit up with surprising and concerning regularity.<\/p>\nThe bullpen is suddenly trending toward some kind of equilibrium, with pitchers such as Keaton Winn, Caleb Kilian and Erik Miller stacking up more effective outings than lousy ones. However, it\u2019s still a bullpen that\u2019s going to have serious, extended growing pains. At best, they\u2019ll get out of the rest of the team\u2019s way and stay mostly anonymous, but they\u2019re not likely to be the key to the team\u2019s postseason fortunes.<\/p>\n
No, the team will need to slug its way there, even though it\u2019s effectively punting two lineup spots, at least in terms of stocking them with power hitters. Luis Arraez and Jung Hoo Lee are both having nice road trips, and they\u2019re still expected to be a part of whatever goes right with the Giants lineup, but they\u2019re not going to provide many home runs \u2014 or any, really; a couple here and there, at best. Patrick Bailey is also in that group, although Daniel Susac\u2019s start on Friday night \u2014 with Webb on the mound and a right-handed opposing starter \u2014 is more than a small hint that the Giants are willing to be creative behind the plate in the search for more offense.<\/p>\n
None of it works without Devers hitting long, hilarious home runs that clang off various structures, though. None of it works without Ramos or Chapman getting as hot as Willy Adames got when he pulled his numbers out of the gutter, or at least stringing together enough good weeks \u2014 with enough home runs \u2014 to get their numbers back to their career averages.<\/p>\n
There are other paths to success, but they quickly become fantastical. Bryce Eldridge is hitting for average and taking walks in Triple A, but he has also hit just two home runs. Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez and Nate Furman are off to a similar start, knocking singles and a few doubles all over the place. Drew Gilbert\u2019s home run on Friday night was his first in the majors this season, but he had one in Triple A, which means he\u2019s hit as many as any of his former River Cat teammates on the season. With, again, two home runs.<\/p>\n
Power probably isn\u2019t coming from the minors, in other words. Eldridge will hit for more power, but it\u2019s still unreasonable to expect him to shoulder a heavy burden in the 2026 Giants lineup. That\u2019s a \u201cnice to have,\u201d not a must-have. It can\u2019t be.<\/p>\n
The Giants need Chapman, Devers, Ramos and Adames to hit for power and plenty of it. There\u2019s no other plan, at least none worth talking about at the moment. After a slow start, Adames came around, and at least two of the others are showing signs, with Chapman going 3-for-5 and driving in three runs on Friday night and Ramos hitting a long home run to dead center after falling behind in the count. Devers\u2019 struggles will get their own article, but 40 percent of the time, he\u2019s not missing a pitch by a foot; he\u2019s hitting into a hard out. He\u2019ll come around, even if that mantra is sounding less and less convincing with each hitless game.<\/p>\n
On Friday night, the Giants got power and production out of the middle of the order, and they won comfortably. That\u2019s the entire plan, along with Webb and the rest of the rotation pitching as well as they\u2019re capable of. It\u2019s convincing when it works. It\u2019s just been far too rare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering Friday night\u2019s game against the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants were keeping ominous company. They\u2019d hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-678446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-francisco-giants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116426405550741604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678446","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=678446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}