Patrick Bailey walked off the Dodgers with a 10th inning grand slam that put the Giants within 1/2 game of the Mets.
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
Chad traveled down to Arizona to meet Eric for a couple of Giants games, but we wrapped up the last 10 games in a special live and in-person episode! We thank the Mets for their 8-games losing streak that enabled the Giants to get to within 1 1/2 games, despite the Giants going 4-5. And, our timing couldn’t be better because Bryce Eldridge has been called up and we should be seeing him the next two nights at Chase Field. Join us for a fun and rare episode!
Al Pacino can’t believe the Giants are drawing us back in…
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
…they pull us back in. Yes, we are all Al Pacino. The Giants have suddenly forgotten how to lose. In fact, they’ve only lost one of their last 11 games and suddenly find themselves two games above .500 and four games back of the Mets for the third wild card with 22 games to play. We are still in snowball’s-chance-in-hell territory, but it’s better than last week and the week before that. This remarkable surge has been powered by the long ball with the Giants homering in 17 straight games (and counting), breaking the SF record. The NY Giants record is 19. During that streak, they’ve hit 36 of their 150 homers which is 24%…in just over two weeks! Willie Adames hit four bombs this week and is only four away from 30 and would become the first Giant to do so since Barry Bonds. Devers hit five this week (including a HR trot that technically lasted an MLB-record 8+ minutes!) and has 30, 15 with each Boston and SF. Chad and Eric chat about this surge, talk about their realistic chances for making the playoffs, and reveal that they will be at Chase Field on September 15 and 16 to watch the Giants take on the Diamondbacks. We’ll even resurrect the bonusode!
Rafael Devers hits his second homerun of the night vs the Cubs on Wednesday night (Photo by Jeff Chui, AP)
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
Just when they had us down, they sweep us back into their arms. Well, maybe not quite yet, but the Giants have quietly put together a 4 game winning streak and are 3 games under .500. Their offense is finally clicking, and they’ve even homered in 10 straight games. Devers went off tonight in game 2 of their series against the Cubs, going 4-4 with 2 bombs, a double, and 5 RBI….right after I put in the notes about his poor splits in SF vs BOS. He raised his OPS by 50 points with the Giants in ONE game! Eric and Chad chat about the good week in Giants baseball, and look towards a favorable September schedule, where the Giants will play 6 games against the Dodgers, the only winning team in their last 29 games. Now, we’re not saying they are going to sneak back into playoff relevance, but we are saying if you were to line up the possibility, this would be the way to do it. We review who’s hot and not, injuries, and even talk about Big Dumper and the Freak for a spell.
Actual photo of Chad and Eric talking about the Giants.
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
We came up with this title at the end of this episode. If you’re brave enough to listen to the end, you’ll understand why. But seriously, the Giants have lost 15 of 17 at home and are no where close to orbiting the playoffs. They would have been if they had just played 7-10 in that stretch. They went 2-4 for the week and are now a solid 5 games under .500. So, what are we looking for? Good coaching, quality ABs, playing time for the younger players and prospects, less mental mistakes on the field, anything to give us a glimmer of hope for surging back to .500 and something to build upon for 2026. We also discuss the minor controversy of Heliot Ramos’ statement about fans, and wonder if players really tell the truth about things that happen out of the view of reporters and fans alike. One thing is clear, the players have Bob Melvin’s back, despite the ire that he has drawn from some of the fan base. We also talk about who’s hot, who’s not, and that we really don’t miss Camilo Doval, and you’re welcome, Yankees fans. Have fun with him!
Probably a photo of Heliot Ramos watching a video replay of his unexplainable throw into the left field grass at Oracle Park on Wednesday vs the Padres. (Darren Yamashita/Imagn Images)
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
The Giants may be a bad team after all. They followed up a historic winless six game homestand with a 4-2 roadtrip, and came right back home and lost five of six, meaning the Giants have lost 13 of their last 14 at home. They last time the franchise did that was 1940 in New York. They are below .500 for the season, on the road, and at home. Their only winning month is April. Their second half is atrocious, and they are 18-33 since being tied for first with the Dodgers on June 13. This is their fourth consecutive season of having a winning record in the first half, followed by a second half collapse. Visions of the postseason snatched away by ineptitude of the summer.
But why? What is happening? The players don’t know, BoMel doesn’t know, but we all know that they stink and they have for quite some time. Their hitting is near the league bottom, they can’t hit with runners in scoring position, and they are striking out at a prodigious rate. And don’t get us started on the physical and mental errors on the field and basepaths (we’re talking about you, Ramos!)
With 41 games left, the Giants’ postseason chances are essentially zero. What can we look forward to? An Eldrige call up? For Logan Webb to regain his composure? For Melvin to stop being so passive with his coaching and maybe light a fire under their collective asses? At least the anxiety of watching the Giants in the postseason won’t be a reality, but when we look back, we realize that we’ve only experienced that anxiety one time in the last nine seasons. Their glory days are far behind them and may not be getting any closer to rekindling them if management doesn’t find a solution soon.
Mike Yastrzemski homers in his first at bat with the Kansas City Royals after he was traded from the Giants. Photo by AP.
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
We last recorded in between trades, but we break down the Yaz and Doval trades from last week. All in all, the Giants received eight players for the three they traded away, and with Yaz and Rogers being free agents of the end of the year, it made sense to exchange rentals for potential future talent. But, it is weird seeing Yaz in Royal Blue, Rogers in the throwback Mets unis, and Doval in Yankee grey. Posey also played with all three, and he admitted it was tough making that phone call to his former teammates.
As far as their performance on the field, they followed up a horrible 0-6 homestand with a 4-2 road record against the same Mets and Pirates. With the focus on the future seasons, no one is holding their breath that the Giants will make a run at the wildcard, a position they solidly held for the entire season until a few weeks ago. That said, it will be a good opportunity to showcase new blood in the majors and minors. Bryce Eldridge is HOT in Sacramento, blasting four bombs in his last three games, but Posey said they aren’t rushing him up. And…the first female umpire in MLB history will be working the plate during the second game of a double header this Sunday in Atlanta. It’s crazy that this hasn’t happened sooner, especially with female officials in the NBA and NFL. We also ponder what happened to LaMonte Wade Jr’s ability to hit a baseball, as he was released by the Angels over the weekend. Late night LaMonte might have had his last day in the majors.
The Pirates celebrate their sweep over the Giants after a 2-1 victory in 10 innings on Wednesday, July 30. Photo by AP.
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
After the Giants defeated the Dodgers on June 13, they were tied for first place in the NL West with LA and held the 4th best record in baseball. Since that time, they have been the worst team in baseball (yes, even worse than the Colorado Rockies), going 13-26 and plummeting out of the playoff race. They had an 0-6 homestand, something the Giants haven’t done since 1898! They’ve lost 12 of 14. They are nine games out of the west and six behind in the wild card. They also have the worst record since the Devers trade. So, what went wrong? How did one of the best teams in baseball in mid-June suddenly implode? You can certainly point to situational hitting. The Giants went 0-22 with runners in scoring position during the Mets sweep at home. Untimely bullpen moves seems to be Melvin’s calling card, yet he was signed to a one year extension in the middle of this slump. Pitching has gotten worse with a 4.35 team ERA during this stretch, and they’ve been outscored 4.9 to 3.7 on average.
The silver lining to this is that the collapse happened so quickly, that Buster Posey could pivot from being buyers to sellers. They started the sale by trading fan-favorite Tyler Rogers to the Mets for three players. It’s a two-month rental for the Mets and there’s a good chance that the Giants re-sign Rogers for 2026. The deadline is this evening, so we’ll see if the Giants can fleece another desperate team for an arm and maybe this season won’t be a complete waste. The three of us break it down in this eulogy of the 2025 season.
Patrick Bailey is greeted by Casey Schmitt as he crosses home plate after his walk-off inside-the-park homerun against the Phillies on Tuesday night.
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
Patrick Bailey’s walk-off inside-the-park homerun on Tuesday night is something that will be burned into Giants’ lore for decades to come. Pagan’s similar feat happened 12 years ago, and we still talk about it. This one was better. We open the episode discussing Bailey’s round-tripper and how the Giants have picked themselves up after a horrific streak to end June. Getting swept at home by the Marlins and losing two of three to the lowly White Sox put them 9 games behind their rivals, but since then, they have won 6 of 8 and the Dodgers have lost 6 in a row, closing the gap to 5 games. Three Giants pitchers were selected to the All Star Game (Webb, Ray, Rodriguez) and the mid-summer classic will feature the ABS challenge system, which is eventually coming to the big leagues. Although Devers has been meddling in mediocrity since coming to SF (.225/2/9), Adames seems to be waking up, hitting .313 with a .910 OPS over the last 2 weeks. Justin Verlander is flummoxed, and although he isn’t having a great year, it’s not catastrophic. Even a pitcher with his stats (4.70 ERA, 1.41 WHIP) should have a couple of wins on a winning team. Yet, he is winless in 15 Giants starts. He’ll tie the MLB record if he doesn’t win his next start. However, the pen has blown 6 leads for him, and he has the second-worst run support of any starting pitcher in the bigs (26 runs in 15 starts). Heading into LA is big. The set up the rotation with Webb, Roupp, and Ray, but the Dodgers counter with May, Ohtani, and Yamamoto. They will be anywhere between 2 and 8 games back of the Dodgers after this series, a huge potential swing.
Buster Posey stands next to his shiny new slugger, Rafael Devers, after the Boston Red Sox traded him to the Giants for Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, and two prospects. (AP Photo/Jeff Chui)
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
In a truly stunning, out-of-left-field event, the Giants traded for slugger Rafael Devers. It really did come out of nowhere, but it’s genesis was the discontent that was brewing in Boston after Devers was not being treated like a franchise player, being promised third base, only to have Alex Bregman usurp it. The Giants gave up relatively little as a price for securing Devers for the next 8 1/2 years. This was not a rental, and often 2 month rentals end up costing teams a LOT more than what the Giants gave up. All told, the Giants traded away Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, and two prospects. Even the AAV for Devers is under what the market would bear now and certainly what it will bear in several years. Devers is in the prime of his career at age 28. Buster Posey made this happen, and he is the man right now. Eric, Willie, and Chad discuss this blockbuster and can’t find a comp to it in recent Giants history. We are all excited, but if the Giants would just actually perform on the field. After briefly tying the Dodgers for first place in the NL West over the weekend, they have lost 4 in a row and 5 of 6 overall. Let’s hope they snap out of it with the help of their new shiny star.
Mike Yastrzemski gestures to the dugout after he reached second base on an double that drove in two runs in the eighth inning at Colorado to help the Giants win streak reach a season-tying high 7. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
You can download the episode here, or stream it below!
It’s in the title. The Giants are on a 7-game winning streak, bookended with our recording of 315 during game 1 of the streak and tonight’s recording of 316 during the 7th game of the streak. They’re just 1/2 game back of LA and if they complete the sweep of the Rockies tomorrow, the Giants will go into Chavez Ravine tied for first. This incredible streak started with six consecutive one-run wins and eight consecutive one-run games overall, both franchise records. They haven’t lost since Buster Posey shook up the roster, DFA’ing LaMonte Wade Jr. and calling in some journeymen. Although the new guys haven’t contributed much statistically speaking, something has happened to their ability to come back and hold on to tight games, get knocks in clutch situations in between droughts of hits. Some may call it a lucky streak, but it also shows the strength of the pitching staff and their resolve. Either way, wins are wins, and the Giants are hot. Let’s hope it continues. Oh, and the pope was seen today wearing a White Sox hat, so that was cool.
The TortureCast 