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8/4 Gamethread: Giants @ Pirates

2025-08-04T14:04:35-07:00

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Justin Verlander vs. Johan Oviedo

The San Francisco Giants head to Pennsylvania today to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Justin Verlander, who enters today’s game with a 4.53 ERA, 4.29 FIP, with 77 strikeouts to 34 walks in 89.1 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 3-1 loss to the Pirates last Tuesday, in which he allowed one run on six hits with seven strikeouts and a walk in five innings.

He’ll be facing off against Pirates right-hander Johan Oviedo, who will be making his 2025 debut (and his first appearance since 2023). Oviedo has been recovering from Tommy John surgery, as well as a lat injury. He has had six rehab starts with the Pirates’ minor league affiliates, in which he had a 3.12 ERA with 21 strikeouts to four walks in 17.1 innings pitched. His most recent start was with Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday, in which he allowed one run on two hits with five strikeouts in five innings.

Game #113

Who: San Francisco Giants (56-56) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (48-64)

Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

When: 3:40 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Jerar Encarnación activated, Luis Matos optioned

2025-08-04T13:46:05-07:00

Photo by Geneva Heffernan/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Yet another roster move.

The San Francisco Giants arrived in Pennsylvania and were immediately met by a little extra oomph. Ahead of their series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants announced that outfielder and first baseman Jerar Encarnación had been activated off the 10-Day IL. He takes the place of outfielder Luis Matos, who was optioned to AAA Sacramento.

It’s been a funny year for Encarnación. He started Spring Training on absolute fire, then slowed down in March, before sustaining a serious injury at the very end of the preseason, which landed him on the 60-Day IL. He returned in early June, but played in just eight games before suffering an oblique injury. He finally started a rehab assignment around the All-Star break and, with his rehab about to expire, has returned to San Francisco.

The numbers in his short time in the Majors this year were quite poor, as he hit just 3-22 with a double and six strikeouts. Needless to say, they’ve been better during his recent stint in Sacramento, where he played 12 games and hit 13-44 with two home runs, two doubles, six walks, and 14 strikeouts. It seems safe to assume that Encarnación will split time between the corner outfield spots, first base, and designated hitter.

It’s a tough break for Matos, who looked primed to slide into an everyday role following the departure of Mike Yastrzemski. Instead, Matos played only half of Friday’s game, before ceding the rest of the weekend to the just-called-up Grant McCray. Matos has been having a poor season, but also had been playing sporadically. He’ll finally get a chance to play regularly again, though it will be in AAA, at least for now.

Giants-Pirates Series Preview: Revenge is a dish best served quickly

2025-08-04T10:00:00-07:00

Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

Not much has changed in the week since the last series preview for these two teams, except for one big question being answered. I went into it pitching the idea that the Giants were already a non-playoff team given their poor play for a month and a half; and, I spotlighted one player who could make my notion a reality.

I offered that Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham had “once slapped the playoffs out of the Giants’ mouths. Does he have the strength to do it again? He is 1-for-19 in his last two trips to Oracle Park (6 games, 20 PA).” It turns out he did still have the strength — and he used it. He was 5-for-8 in 2 of the 3 games with a double, an RBI, and 2 runs scored.

The San Francisco Giants were just 3 games out of the last Wild Card spot and 7 games behind division-leading Los Angeles; but then, the Pittsburgh Pirates swept them in Oracle Park and turned them from maybe-buyers at the trade deadline to sellers. Now, Pham isn’t the reason the Giants are unlikely to make the postseason, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t sweep the Pirates and make him look bad at the same time.

Revenge, of course, is very petty and probably disastrous for the one who seeks it. Besides, the Pirates already embarrassed the Giants into irrelevance with that sweep and they’re one of the worst teams in the sport. The Giants aren’t going to sweep them in return and simultaneously catapult themselves back into the third Wild Card chase while making the dreadful Pirates dreadful-er.

Unless?

No, the Giants woke up this morning to a 9-game division deficit and 6-game chasm between themselves and the third Wild Card. Even if we adjust the lower bound of wins it would take to sneak into the postseason (the most probable way in if it happens), they’d have to go 30-20 over these final 50 games to have a shot.

You’re probably thinking, “Well Bryan, you dingus, you absolute moron — who I hate — the Giants’ 19-12 record after the first month of the season was a 61% winning percentage, which is better than the 60% rate you say they can’t do. So... idiot... it’s possible.” And you might be right. I mean, the math and the history of baseball is heavily against your wild conclusion that they’re still in this thing, but it’s not impossible.

Depending on how you think about a trip to Coors Field to play an awful Rockies team, this three-game set in Pittsburgh may or may not be the last easy road series the Giants will have in 2025, so if they have any designs on making a move (while hoping 2-3 teams ahead of them completely collapse), they’ll need to win this series — a sweep would be better. After picking on an allegedly great Mets team, we should expect nothing less.

The Pirates have won 9 of 12 thanks in part to that sweep in Oracle, and they’re 31-25 at home this season, including an 11-4 record over their last 15. The Giants are 6-14 in their last 20 games, with 4 of those wins coming on the road. The Giants are just 28-30 on the road here in 2025, but they have a +22 run differential and, rather shockingly, they have scored the sixth-most runs on the road to this point.

Their 265 road runs trail the Brewers, Cubs, Mariners, Yankees, and Diamondbacks, and it works out to 4.56 runs per game, compared to just 3.70 runs at home. At the end of the Mets series preview, I offered this: “if they win any games in New York or Pittsburgh I encourage you, for your own sanity, to draw the conclusion that they simply don’t like playing in front of fans at Oracle Park.”

The Pirates traded away Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, their closer David Bednar, left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson, and their #3 starter Bailey Falter. Those who remain are the ones who cause all the trouble: Tommy Pham, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Andrew McCutchen, Joey Bart, Jack Suwinski, Spencer Horwitz, Liover Peguero; but also, Johan Oviedo returns from Tommy John surgery after missing all of 2024 to face a team he has done well against in his career. He has a 2.35 ERA in 15.1 IP (3 GS).

In essence, Pittsburgh got rid of the guys who could help the Pirates sustain a lead against the Giants. With those players out of the way, can the Giants limit the players who do the most damage?

Series overview

Who: San Francisco Giants at Pittsburgh Pirates
Where: PNC Park | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
When: Monday & Tuesday at 3:40pm PT, Wednesday at 9:35am PT
National broadcasts: None

Projected starters

Monday: Justin Verlander (RHP 1-8, 4.53 ERA) vs. Johan Oviedo (season debut)
Tuesday: Logan Webb (RHP 9-8, 3.31 ERA) vs. Mike Burrows (RHP 1-3, 3.88 ERA)
Wednesday: Robbie Ray (LHP 9-5, 2.85 ERA) vs. Andrew Heaney (LHP 5-9, 4.89 ERA)

Where they stand

Giants, 56-56 (3rd in NLW), 465 RS / 457 RA | Last 10: 3-7 | 6.0 GB WC3
Pirates, 48-64 (5th in NLC), 399 RS / 450 RA | Last 10: 7-3 | 14.0 GB WC3

Prediction time

Monday BP: Which series are you most interested in this week?

2025-08-04T05:00:00-07:00

Photo by Trinity Machan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Today begins a new week of Giants baseball, which means it’s time to take a look at the upcoming schedule and see what’s on deck.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are embarking on a new week of baseball today, so it’s time to take a look ahead at the schedule and see what’s on deck.

First up, the Giants continue their east coast road trip today, this time reuniting with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who they also played last week, for a three-game series. After a day off on Thursday, they will be back at Oracle Park to welcome the Washington Nationals to town for a three-game weekend series.

Personally, I don’t have a preference between either of these series. I feel roughly the same way about the Pirates as I do the Nationals. So I’m going to pick the Nationals series because it’s a home series. Which means that the games start at reasonable times for local fans. Yeah, that’s the bar for me this week.

What about you?

Which series are you most interested in this week?

Sunday Giants play like Saturday Mets in series finale

2025-08-03T15:16:53-07:00

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Quite the turnaround to take the series

The San Francisco Giants liked what they saw yesterday…

I mean, the Mets played some really good baseball against them. They were a nuisance, pills in the box, working long at-bats, rolling singles through gaps, capitalizing with runners on base. Walks and hits piled up to a dozen runs — the Giants saw that, and probably said Hey, they looked like they were having fun, we should do something like that.

Baseball is easy. Just manifest. Have fun. Hit the ball hard, hit it often, hit and run. Score early, score late. Don’t settle for one base, take two. Don’t settle for one 3-run homer, hit two. Give up 12 runs one day, score 12 the next.

That’s what the Giants did. 3-run bombs from Rafael Devers in the 3rd and Casey Schmitt in the 9th served as the slices of Dutch crunch, barely containing an impressively saucy rib-eye sandwich.

They went 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position. With 13 hits and 5 walks, they left just 5 on-base. Jung Hoo Lee reached base 5 times, recording his first 4-hit game of his MLB career (3 1B, 1 2B). Devers smoked 3 hits, drove in 4 while reaching base 4 times. He and Schmitt combined for 8 hard-hit balls between them. Dom Smith and Patrick Bailey bagged a pair of RBIs, and lead-off man Heliot Ramos collected two knocks and an RBI of his own.

All of this an excessive amount of support for Carson Whisenhunt who took home his first win in his second career big league start.

The crooked numbers came early against Mets starter Frankie Montas. The veteran right-hander retired the first 6 batters he faced before the line-up knocked him off his rails. The penny on the tracks: Lee’s lead-off single in the 3rd. The one with the seeing-eye — he rolled a 95 MPH fastball right back up the middle. That seemingly inconsequential hit turned into a trip around the bases with help from his aggressive base running. He stole second and without hesitation broke for third when the throw scooted under Lindor’s glove and rolled towards center. The ball didn’t even reach the outfield grass before Jeff McNeil picked it, but because he went in feet first, Lee saw the play develop in front of him and was primed to pop back up and motor on. Thanks to his speed and McNeil having to send a rushed and off-balance relay, Lee took third easily. Feet-first into second, head-first into third, then no-slide necessary into home on Patrick Bailey’s line-drive single.

You don’t have a pulse if good, aggressive base-running doesn’t get you hyped. Though at times these Giants have looked dead on their cleats, they still feel. Beauty still inspires, even on the wrong side of .500.

Lee manufactured a run the hard way, and with the blood pumping and juices flowing, Devers drove in three the easy way. Turn-and-burn. 106 MPH off the bat. He’d touch that mark two more times in the game. In the 7th, he smoked the ball so hard off the wall in left that it got him thrown out at second.

In the 4th, a hit-and-run by Schmitt and Lee set up another crooked number against Montas.

With runners at the corners and one-out, Patrick Bailey put the ball in play in a 2-strike count and good things happened. Pete Alonso fielded the ball from his knee and with a myriad of other better options, he chose to make a throw home. He double-clutched trying to grip the baseball, and his throw was well tardy. A very similar conundrum to a play Dom Smith made yesterday. Charging in on a firm bunt off the bat of Lindor, Smith’s play was in front of him, to the plate, but he hesitated, thought about going to second and trying to get two, but ended up getting zero. It’s possible Alonso had that play in the back of his head. He probably saw that from the dugout and asked himself what he would’ve done. Go home, of course. Given the opportunity, that’s what he did, and came up empty when he probably had a play at second, and, at the very least, the out at first.

An out would’ve softened the rally, instead it dragged gloriously on. After a sacrifice bunt from McCray moved two into scoring position, Ramos hustled in another run by legging out an 2-out infield single. Devers in a 2-strike count lunged at a decent Montas splitter below the zone and muscled it up the middle for an RBI single, giving the Giants a 7-1 lead.

By the end of the 3rd, they had forced Montas to throw 60 pitches. By the end of the 4th, he was at 87 and booed off the field, only to come out in the 5th, walk Chapman, be replaced and get booed again as he trudged back to the dugout.

The early lead was especially important against a team like the Mets. We saw it yesterday, with the talent in their bullpen, games aren’t drawn-out affairs, they’re sprints to the 5th or 6th inning. 7 runs through four frames kept New York from taking the reins and dictating the pace.

And that early lead stayed intact because of the efforts of Carson Whisenhunt. Adrenaline certainly got the best of him in his debut against Pittsburgh earlier this week. A pitcher needs to have a feel of the baseball if he wants to throw a decent offspeed, and it was clear the craziness of the moment had numbed Whisenhunt up. His signature pitch was too flat and stayed in the zone. The Pirates recorded four hits off of it, including a double and a homer.

Though he still had some mixed results against New York, it was clear the young lefty was more in touch with the offering. In the first at-bat of the game, he slung a pair of excellent changes down-and-in to Nimmo. Neither fetched a swing, but it’s infinitely better to miss down than up, and the offspeed set up a dotted knee-high sinker for a called strike-three.

Poor location got him facing Lindor. In a 2-strike count, he elevated an offspeed that hung out over the plate for him to lift up into the airstream blowing out to left.

That was really Whisenhunt’s one hiccup. He didn’t give up another hit until the 5th inning. He continued to play off the anticipation of his change-up with excellent command of the sinker. That pitch made the trip with him from San Francisco. After bagging 14 called strikes with the fastball against Pittsburgh, he stole 10 more on Sunday, fetching three of his four strikeouts. Though getting more swing-and-miss out of it would be nice, his use of his primary pitch has been really encouraging early on.

A turn-around 12-4 win to claim the series against the Mets, who were 38-17 at home. A nice and, to be honest, surprising response to the home sweep a week ago. Hopefully we’ll see something similar in Pittsburgh.

8/3 Gamethread: Giants @ Mets

2025-08-03T10:20:00-07:00

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Carson Whisenhunt vs. Frankie Montas.

The San Francisco Giants and New York Mets split the first two games of their series, with the Giants winning an extra-innings nail-biter on Friday, and the Mets a blowout on Saturday. Now it all comes down to some brunch baseball, with a series victory on the line for the two teams who have been going in opposite directions.

San Francisco is sending exciting lefty Carson Whisenhunt to the mound. Whisenhunt, ranked as a top 100 prospect by some publications, is making just the second appearance of his young career. In his first start, which came on Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he gave up four earned runs in five innings. In 18 starts this year with AAA Sacramento, the 2022 second-round pick has a 4.42 ERA and a 4.69 FIP, with 86 strikeouts against 28 walks in 97.2 innings.

He’s up against veteran right-handed pitcher Frankie Montas, who makes his seventh start of the year. Montas, a 10-year veteran who is playing for his sixth team, has been struggling so far this year, as he’s 3-1 with a 5.46 ERA, a 4.89 FIP, and 26 strikeouts against eight walks in 29.2 innings. He got rocked in his last outing, ceding five runs in 4.1 innings against the San Diego Padres.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Go Giants!

Game #112

Who: San Francisco Giants (55-56) vs. New York Mets (63-48)

Where: Citi Field, Flushing, NY

When: 10:40 a.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: MLB Network

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Sunday BP: What was your favorite highlight of the week?

2025-08-03T05:00:00-07:00

Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

The Giants are wrapping up another week of baseball today, so it’s time to take a look at Giants’ fans favorite highlights of the week!

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are wrapping up another week of baseball today, so it’s time to take a look back at the week that was and share our favorite highlights.

For me, it was an extremely easy decision this week. During Wednesday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mike Yastrzemski made one of the best catches of the year, hands down.

He also was promptly traded for his efforts, but it was still the best Giants highlight of the week in my book so I’m not changing it.

I did not get to watch the game live, but I started seeing pictures trickle through my social media feeds that made it look like Yastrzemski was mid-flight. It was jaw-dropping. And then I got to watch the play and it was even better.

There’s something about the way Yastrzemski holds his glove out triumphantly, and the call by the broadcasters, that really conveyed the absolute joy that is baseball. The “I GOT IT! I GOT IT!” feeling of making your first meaningful catch in the outfield. You’re so astounded you have to hold your glove out to show everyone. It was truly a highlight of the year, in my book. I’ll miss ya, dude.

What was your favorite highlight of the week?

Tyler Rogers pitches for winning team and winning team is not the Giants

2025-08-02T18:11:23-07:00

Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Bummer dude.

Well, San Francisco fans got what they wanted. Not that the Giants won Saturday’s game, or followed up Friday’s gritty bullpen performance with another well-pitched barn-burner — just that we got to see Tyler Rogers pitch again. Obviously not in the way we’d prefer to watch Rogers pitch — that is in a Giants uniform, protecting a Giants’ lead, making non-Giants hitters look silly — but I’ll take Rogers pitching in meaningful MLB games any way I can get him.

Though he warmed up twice in the bullpen yesterday, the game narrative never brought Rogers to the hill. But given a slim 5-4 lead in the bottom of the 4th inning, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza got to work lining up his new collection of arms. He had the luxury to pull a roughed-up Kodai Senga (4 ER, 4 IP) and replace him with Reed Garrett, who has made the vast majority of his appearances this year in the 7th inning or later. Garrett and his 2.60 ERA worked 1.1 scoreless innings, then handed the ball to lefty Gregory Soto, recently acquired from Baltimore, to work around a one-out single from Lee for a scoreless 6th. With a 3-run lead to protect in the 7th, the time had finally arrived for the marquee billing: Tyler Rogers, decked out in New York’s classic colors of concrete and Barney purple, facing off against the top of the San Francisco line-up.

Tyler Rogers is on for his Mets debut! pic.twitter.com/EatcIkIW8o
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 2, 2025

I admit, my stomach churned in confusion at the sight. I was pulled in opposing emotional directions, my desire for the Giants to win and Rogers to do well suddenly at odds. I caught myself hoping for Rafael Devers to foul a pitch into his face. I caught myself feeling that reflexive exasperation at seeing 83 MPH fastballs wreck such havoc on swings. I wanted to shout at the TV: Come on! He’s throwing wiffle balls, just hit it!

Proximity and familiarity apparently does not breed success. Giants hitters, despite playing behind him all season, were no better at hitting the submariner than perfect strangers. The inning was T. Rogers to a T. A ground ball kicked off first base for a lead-off single by Heliot Ramos that led to nothing. Three lightning-fast swings from Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman followed and produced plastic contact. A mighty Devers hack at 3-1 sinker managed to send the baseball a mere 300 feet, the fly out leaving his bat only slightly faster than Rogers’s sinker.

A scoreless 7th against his old team in a 12-6 rout — Rogers’ tenure in New York had begun.

Shawn Estes said it best in the post-game wrap: “This was a Mets team just tired of losing.” New York had been swept by the Padres before dropping Friday’s game. They had enough of their four-game skid, and the determination from the core players in their batting order to end the dubious streak was palpable. Pete Alonso set the tone with a 3-run homer in the 1st inning. Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor went 6 for 8 with 7 runs batted in. 8 of their starting 9 bagged a hit, and all of them spent the majority of their time at the plate grinding out long at-bats, spoiling good pitches, putting the ball in play, and/or finding holes in the defense.

That peskiness was on full display from the get-go when Lindor forced debut starter Kai-Wei Teng to throw 10 pitches in an eventual walk that preceded Alonso’s 250th career home run.

For a moment, after rebounding from Nimmo’s HBP and Lindor’s BB with a four pitch K of Juan Soto, Teng looked like he might’ve found a way out of the early jam. But in a 1-2 count, he served up a four-seam fastball that Alonso anticipated. The slugger had clearly picked-up on an early pattern by Teng. The young right-hander is a spinner. He likes to work backwards in counts by establishing his breaking pitches early. Curveballs, sweepers and sliders set-up and give his 94 MPH fastball a little more zip, and that’s exactly what Alonso got in a 1-2 count. Location wise, the offering wasn’t terrible. The pitch was up and a little inside, but with count leverage, the fastball needed to be further up and further in. A decent pitch punished by a welcome to the big leagues swing.

I’d argue Teng pitched better than his 5 ER over 3.1 IP pitching line though. With only 11 big league innings under his belt, and none as a starter, I think he did well getting ahead early in the count and mixing around his arsenal which generated a decent amount of whiffs (9) and called strikes (14). I’d agree with Hunter Pence’s praise of Teng’s body language on the mound. He didn’t seem to flinch after the 3-run homer punctuated a 29-pitch 1st, and followed it with a 12-pitch 2nd that included two strikeouts and an easy come-backer. In the 3rd, after Dom Smith erased New York’s early lead with a 2-run homer, Teng surrendered some all bark but no bite contact that stranded two runners for a shutdown frame.

Before the game, Bob Melvin expressed hope that a 60-70 pitch cap on the day would be enough for Teng to give them four or five complete innings, but after the long 1st inning that looked unlikely. The bottom of the line-up working another walk and one-out single in the 4th eventually got the best of him Melvin called it a day at 67, and called on lefty Matt Gage, who gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Nimmo and Lindor that swelled Teng’s earned run total to five.

The Giants bullpen just couldn’t hold the line. In a left-on-left advantage, Gage got beat by Nimmo, whose RBI single knotted the score at 4 runs apiece, and set up Lindor’s cheeky bunt single that reclaimed the lead for good. Spencer Bivens got picked and pecked for two runs on a walk and three singles in the 6th, before Tristen Beck gave up 5 over the final two innings.

Overall, New York worked five walks and two HBPs while striking out only 6 times. They went 8 for 17 with runners in scoring position. 10 of the Mets 13 hits were singles, and until Lindor’s double in the 7th, their only extra-base hit was Alonso’s 1st inning homer.

Disregarding the final score, there were some positives on the offensive side for the Giants as well. Their approach against Senga and his 9 Run Value “ghost fork” worked well…as in, they did well avoiding the pitch all together and punishing his other offerings. Four of their five hits against him went for extra bases. Dom Smith followed Friday’s game-winning pinch hit knock with a game-tying rope — his third homer of the season.

Casey Schmitt flipped Senga’s infamous offspeed down the opposite field line for a lead-off single in the 2nd and later scored in a two-hit afternoon. Jung Hoo Lee also collected two hits, including a leadoff double in the 4th and a single against the same-sided Gregory Soto in the 6th. In his first start of the year, Grant McCray bagged his first two knocks of 2025. He smoked an 108 MPH RBI single over Juan Soto’s head to give the Giants their only lead in the 4th and a triple in the 9th, (though his impatience in the 2nd led to a rally-killing double play in the 2nd).

A day after recapturing some of the spirit that fueled their early success in 2025, San Francisco found themselves flattened by a bus. The Mets are on a mission. They have direction and momentum. Their line-up, bullpen and manager are rehearsing for the postseason, while the Giants have found themselves at a bleak and familiar intersection.

Bob Melvin, last 3 seasons: 8/5/23 with Padres: 55-56 8/2/24 with Giants: 55-56 8/2/25 with Giants: 55-56
— Bryan Murphy (@bryanmurphy.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T00:00:02.755Z