Monday BP, 7/30/18

The easy part of the schedule is officially over. Yes, yes, two games in San Diego against a bad Padres team would fall into the “easy” category, especially since Petco Park is almost a second home to the Giants, but the Padres have managed to play the Giants tough even when they’ve been unwatchable, and after these two days in San Diego, they go to Arizona for four games, host Houston for two, Pittsburgh for 4, go to LA for 3, Cincinnati for 3, and then New York for 4.

You can find great seats in San Diego and at AT&T Park for the next home stand thanks to our sponsor StubHub, which is important because Saturday is the Barry Bonds #25 retirement ceremony. There’s also cool stuff like Star Trek Night at the end of the month (okay — it’s only cool to me) and, again, if you’re in Southern California, you can get great seats at great prices for Petco. And, look, not to put too fine a point on it, but Dereck Rodriguez is scheduled to start Tuesday’s game and the Padres have setup Taco Tuesdays at Petco. $2.50 for a taco at a baseball stadium.

But that’s just to take experience the game of baseball because you love it, not because of any particular rooting interest. These are important games, sure, but let’s face it: the odds are not in the Giants’ favor. San Diego could be a split, they would be lucky to split in Arizona, they’ll lose both the Houston games, and maybe, if they’re lucky, Pittsburgh will finally be coming down to Earth a little bit (they’re 16-9 in July, including an 11-game winning streak) and they can salvage a split at home; but the Dodgers series in LA will be a rough one (Manny Machado and god knows whoever else they add in the next 36 hours!), the Giants haven’t fared well in Cincinnati (in the regular season, anyway) and the Reds are playing a lot better since they fired Bryan Price; and, 4 games in New York always causes some weirdness.

This morning, the Giants’ playoff odds are at 4.5%, and the math feels generous. The above paragraph suggests a 9-13 run, which would put them at 62-67 on August 24th. That would mean they’d need to go 20-13 to get to 82-80 or, to put it another way, 29-26 over the rest of the season. When you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem impossible. We’re all in agreement that we’re just rooting for above .500 at this point, right? Go Giants!