Giants at Cardinals, 9/23: The only good losing streak is a dead losing streak

Here we are... the last road game of the 2018 season. We’ve come a long way from hope to fear, but even though our feelings about the team, the individual players, and the entire franchise have changed over these past six months, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: the Giants are garbage on the road. Just terrible. Stinky. Useless. Pointless.

This is the last worthless road game that we’ll have to watch. Just gimme a chance to show you how to love baseball again (next season, when the Giants field lineups with no recognizable names and they’re managed by Ron Wotus).

Lineups:

Maybe Aramis Garcia isn’t the biggest surprise of the season, but he has a chance to follow-up his 4-for-4 game with some more hits. Maybe he can even draw his first major league walk. Dare to dream.

Hit a walk-off home run, get a sta— oh no! They’re saving Tyler O’Neill for another walk-off. Smart move, Cardinals.

Andrew Suarez (7-11, 4.34 FIP) could be making his final start of the season, depending on the state of the Dodgers come next weekend. If that’s a case, he’ll have had an admirable rookie season, with plenty more optimism than fear bundled into those final stats.

In the meantime, he’s gone at least 6 innings in his past five starts (and nearly 8 innings in his previous start), but he’s also walked 11 in those 33.2 innings pitched, which is a bummer because of how remarkably consistent he’d been for a good chunk of the season not walking hitters. The Cardinals are an aggressive bunch, so this will be an interesting matchup for him. A reminder: Suarez loses his fastball command at least 1-2 innings every start. So, be on the lookout for that.

Miles Mikolas (16-4, 3.36 FIP) has never faced the Giants before, just as Suarez has never faced the Cardinals. This will definitely tilt the meeting in his favor before he even throws a pitch. He was an All-Star this year, and although he’s only struck out 132 in 185.2 innings (6.4 strikeouts per 9 innings), he’s only walked a total of 29 batters (1.4 per 9 innings). GULP.

If the Giants lose today, it will make things more difficult for the Dodgers and Rockies.