Locked On Giants – Daily Podcast On The San Francisco Giants

On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants' much-needed win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night. Drew Smyly was on the mound for the Giants and he pitched great once again. Smyly and Kevin Gausman, the two major-league free agent signings by Farhan Zaidi last offseason, have been excellent. They've given the Giants a good chance to win each and every game they pitch. Especially considering how well the offense has performed this year. Austin Slater hit a leadoff home run, and Gabe Kapler pushed all of the right buttons once Luis Basabe had the leave the game with a hamstring injury.

Crawford replaced Basabe and moved to shortstop. Daniel Robertson, who started as shortstop, moved to left field. Darin Ruf, who started in left, moved to right. The moves by Kapler paid off in two ways. Robertson made a great play in left field, throwing out the potential tying run at second base to lead off the seventh inning. In the bottom of the seventh, with the score tied, Kapler pinch hit for the righty Robertson against a right-handed reliever with the lefty Alex Dickerson. Kapler still had Dickerson available to pinch hit because he did not make the obvious substitution with Dickerson for Basabe when Basabe was injured. Dickerson rewarded Kapler with a go-ahead pinch-hit home run. Later in the inning, Brandon Belt pinch hit for Wilmer Flores with two runners on, and Belt hit a two-run double.

Kapler's moves have worked beautifully this year for the most part, and the Giants moved closer to playoff position with the win. With a win tonight, the Giants will move back into playoff position with five games remaining. FanGrpahs lists their playoff odds at 51% entering play tonight.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants' 7-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies and what it means for the Giants' postseason chances. Johnny Cueto started for the Giants and struggled out of the chute. He allowed two runs in the first inning, and ended up allowing seven earned runs in 5.1 innings, the most runs he has ever allowed in his Giants career. Despite the loss, the Giants were fortunate that pretty much all of the teams they're competing with for the wild card spots also lost, with the exception of the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants are just 0.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the eighth and final NL wild card spot. The Phillies play a double header today against the Washington Nationals that could swing the race dramatically one way or the other.

Also on today's show, Ben talks about Joey Bart's struggles as a major leaguer so far. He wasn't supposed to start last night's game, but Chadwick Tromp aggravated his shoulder in Sunday's win against the A's and wasn't able to start on Monday. Bart has struggled mightily at the plate, consistently swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, and he has also struggled defensively, routinely dropping catchable pitches and often failing to get on the same page as his pitchers. His rapport with Cueto has been especially poor. If Tromp is healthy enough to start tonight, expect him to be in the lineup against the lefty Kyle Freeland. Ben also previews tonight's matchup between Drew Smyly, who is one of the Giants' best pitchers right now, and Freeland, whom the Giants match up well against because they hit lefties well.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants' weekend series against the A's, and how they enter the season's final week on the cusp of playoff position. The Giants were dominated in the first two games of the series, but they bounced back on Sunday with a resounding 14-2 victory. After losing two out of three and seeing some of their rivals in the NL wild card race have good weekends, the Giants fell out of playoff position but have the same .500 winning percentage as the Reds and Brewers. The Reds, however, have captured the final NL playoff spot because they have the best intradivision record of the three teams, and that is the first tiebreaker. All eight of the Giants' remaining games will be against intradivision foes, and so the Giants have a chance to improve that record and increase their chances of winning a tiebreaker.

On today's show, Ben breaks down each rival's remaining schedule, and how it compares to the Giants' four games against the Rockies and four against the Padres. The Rockies come into town with one of the worst offenses in MLB (contrary to popular opinion), and they're missing their best player in Nolan Arenado, who has a shoulder injury. Arenado may not play in the series. The Rockies do have a couple of good starting pitchers going on Monday and Tuesday, so the Giants could have their hands full with those two. Ben forecasts that the Giants will need to finish at least 30-30 to make the postseason, so they'll need to go 4-4 or better in these final eight games.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants' come-from-behind "road" win over the Mariners in San Francisco. This was supposed to be a two-game series in Seattle, but it was moved to SF because of poor air quality in the Seattle region. The Giants seemed to take advantage, winning both games in the short series. San Francisco overcame an early 4-1 deficit with runs in the 6th and 7th innings to win 6-4. Mike Yastrzemski had to leave the game in the early innings due to calf tightness. In his place, rookie Luis Basabe ended up playing a huge role in the Giants' comeback. Basabe singled for his first major league hit and scored a run in the 6th. In the 7th, he drew a two-out walk that preceded Wilmer Flores' huge two-run triple that gave the Giants the lead.

Giants starter Tyler Anderson was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the third inning. Wandy Peralta stepped up with three scoreless innings in relief to keep the Giants in the game, and the bullpen battled through some dicey moments to hold on the rest of the way. In the aftermath of this win, the Giants find themselves in strong playoff position, taking over the No. 7 seed. They have a tough road ahead, with three games against the A's and four games against the Padres remaining on the schedule. They will also await the results of Yastrzemski's MRI on his calf. They can't afford to lose their MVP for too many games, as he's been a force all season long and the options to take his place would be a huge downgrade.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants' 9-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. This was a make-up game from Tuesday's postponement in Seattle. The two-game series was moved to San Francisco due to poor air quality in the Seattle area. The Giants took advantage of their home ballpark, scoring runs in each of the first four innings. Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria, and Brandon Crawford crushed home runs, and Donovan Solano and Alex Dickerson contributed with multiple hits of their own.

On the mound, Drew Smyly was as dominant as he's been all season. He had to miss over a month with an index finger strain, but when he's been on the mound for the Giants this year he has been nearly unhittable. Last night he struck out eight batters in 3.2 innings, featuring a wicked curveball that the Mariners could do nothing with. At one point Smyly had seven strikeouts, all on curveballs, and all swinging. He was just bouncing the pitch in the dirt with two strikes and the M's just could not lay off.

The win brought the Giants back to .500 at 24-24. They're holding onto the NL's No. 8 seed, the final postseason spot, by the slimmest of margins. They have a 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals, with many other teams not far behind. The Giants control their own destiny down the stretch, but they must take advantage of teams like the Mariners and Rockies in their final 12 games, because they also have to face two of the best teams in baseball in the A's and Padres. The Giants play the last of this two-game series with the Mariners this afternoon.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the Giants' two-game series in Seattle being shifted to San Francisco because of poor air quality in the Seattle area. Tuesday's game against the Mariners was postponed a few hours before it was scheduled to begin because of air quality concerns, and it was quickly announced that the teams would travel to San Francisco to make up the game. Both teams had a scheduled off day on Thursday, so instead of playing on Tuesday and Wednesday, they'll now play on Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco, with the Mariners being the home team. Air quality in the Bay Area had been poor all week prior to the last few days, but thankfully it's gotten better recently, and on Wednesday the air quality was pristine for the first time in almost a month. Hopefully it stays that way, because the Giants are scheduled to play the remainder of their season (13 games) in the Bay Area, both at home and against the Oakland A's.

In other news, the MRI on Kevin Gausman's elbow came back clean, which is huge for the Giants' postseason aspirations. The team's playoff odds have slipped in recent days as their opponents put together key victories, so the Giants need all the help they can get down the stretch. Gausman has been one of the Giants' best starters this season, so having him for two or three games in the season's final week and a half could have a big impact. Also discussed on today's show is Madison Bumgarner's season in Arizona. Many Giants fans were furious when the team did not re-sign the San Francisco legend, but Bumgarner has had a disastrous season in the desert and has been by most metrics the worst starting pitcher in baseball. He allowed eight runs on 12 hits and two home runs in his start last night.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick provides updates about the San Francisco Giants' place in the National League wild card standings, and answers questions from listeners. Among the questions asked and answered are: Do you believe Zaidi can identify potentially top tier pitching talent eventually? Part of me worries that he is just significantly better at identifying talent in position players; What do you imagine is the front office's long term strategy for improving our farm system's pitching depth? Do you think they believe they currently have an ace-in-the-making in the farm, or do they plan to buy pitching like the 2015/2016 Cubs? If the Giants could control who they play against in the playoffs, what do you think is their most likely path to the World Series? Is Brandon Crawford back to being a good fielder? All that and more on today's Locked On Giants.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the Giants' wild weekend in San Diego. Alex Dickerson tested positive for Covid-19 prior to Friday's game, and the game was postponed minutes before it started. In the following days, however, it became clear that Dickerson's positive test was a false positive. Once the league was confident that no members of the Giants had the virus, a doubleheader was scheduled for Sunday. Prior to the doubleheader, Kevin Gausman was scratched from his start due to elbow discomfort. He received an MRI and the results are not yet known.

The Giants fell completely flat in Sunday's doubleheader. They were dominated by the newly acquired Mike Clevinger in the first game, and then Garrett Richards and the Padres bullpen held the Giants to just one run in the second game. Logan Webb pitched pretty well besides allowing a solo home run to Wil Myers. Sam Selman entered a tie game in the sixth inning and issues two walks to start the frame. Both runners ended up scoring after Evan Longoria booted a ground ball that could have been a double play. It's easy to say the Giants offense looked flat in this series, but the Padres pitching deserves most of the credit.

It's now scoreboard watching season for the Giants. The Brewers and Rockies trail San Francisco by just 1.5 games in the standings for the NL's final playoff spot, and the Reds and Mets are just two games back. The Brewers play a doubleheader with the Cardinals today, and the Reds play a doubleheader today with the Pirates. Those games could have a big impact on the standings. The Giants' remaining schedule features some winnable games and some tough series. Four of their remaining 13 games are against these extremely tough Padres.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the San Francisco Giants releasing the beloved Pablo Sandoval, adding Justin Smoak and Drew Smyly to the roster, and losing 6-1 to the San Diego Padres. Before the game, the Giants announced that they had placed Sandoval on unconditional release waivers and activated the recently signed Smoak. They also activated Drew Smyly off the injured list and optioned Rico Garcia to the Alternate Site in Sacramento. It's the end of an era with Sandoval being released. Sandoval left on not the greatest of terms following the 2014 championship season. He returned with his proverbial tail between his legs in 2017 after being released from the Red Sox, and reestablished his legacy and his relationship with the fans over the next few years. In Smoak, the Giants are gaining a player who struggled this year before being released by the Brewers, but has a strong track record of patience and power. He will represent a threat to draw a walk or hit a home run every time he steps to the plate.

The Giants were dominated by the Padres in last night's loss. Despite the loss, the Giants maintained a two-game lead over the Rockies for the NL's final playoff spot. Trevor Cahill was shaky in the start and the Giants' offense couldn't muster much against Padres pitching, but Smyly came out of the bullpen and was absolutely dominant over four innings. He struck out eight and walked one, and got a ton of swinging strikes. Smyly was dominant for the Giants before going on the injured list, so last night was just a continuation of how great Smyly has looked all year. The Giants figure to use him out of the rotation down the stretch, but could use him as a super reliever instead. Either way, the Giants are probably interested in keeping Smyly in their organization beyond 2020 based on how he's pitching. If he keeps this up, he could be in high demand in the offseason.

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On today's Locked On Giants, host Ben Kaspick converses with Locked On Padres host Javier Reyes about their two teams' upcoming four-game series in San Diego. The Padres are playing like one of the best teams in baseball, and very quietly the Giants have been a good team in their own right this year, despite low expectations from observers on the outside. Ben talks about what's driven the Giants' unexpected success, discusses the Giants' inactive trade deadline, and gives an assessment of the job new manager Gabe Kapler has done so far in San Francisco.

On the flip side, Javier talks about the Padres' excellent start to the season, their extremely busy trade deadline in which they acquired quality players like Mike Clevinger, Austin Nola, Mitch Moreland, and Trevor Rosenthal, all without giving up any of their top prospects, and what it would be like for the Padres to make the playoffs for the first time in a long time, and how he'd like their chances in a possible playoff matchup.

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