May 27-June 2 look back

After we took a week off, because no one ever wants to think about that week of Giants baseball again, the weekly recap is back. What happened? Who stood out? What disappointing free agent signing am I going to harp on for this entire article? The answers are within!

Record: 3-3

The Giants played the two worst teams in baseball, unless you (like Bryan) think the Giants are one of the two worst teams in baseball, in which case they played two of the three worst teams in baseball. They came out of the week 3-3, and even though those three wins came in their last four games, it still feels like they had a bad week.

The Giants are a bad team. Any week when they’re not under .500, especially on the road, should feel like a victory. But they should still be less bad than the literal worst teams in the majors, and this week they weren’t. They were as bad as the literal worst teams. So this wasn’t a good week, and it wasn’t an okay week. It was a bad week, because the Giants played badly, even if, on the surface, the win-loss record was fine.

Most memorable thing that happened: Drew Pomeranz gave up six runs in the first inning after being staked to a 5-0 lead

Call me crazy, but I think he shouldn’t have done that.

Best win: May 30, 3-1 over the Marlins

The Giants were riding a 7-game losing streak in which they had spent exactly two games looking anything like a major league team. They were in danger of being swept by the Marlins, who, being the Marlins, naturally had traded away all of their talented players over the last couple of offseasons. They were starting Tyler Beede who, despite good stuff in Spring Training and an impressive start to the season in AAA, hadn’t gotten it going yet in the majors. The team was in a tailspin and they might not have had the right guy to get them out of it.

Then it turned out they had the right guy to get them out of it. Beede went 6 innings and only gave up one run, the offense came through with three late inning runs, and the bullpen shut Miami down the rest of the way. It wasn’t an inspiring win, exactly, but it was a nice counterpunch after the Giants had just spent seven rounds getting socked in the jaw.

I don’t watch boxing, so I really hope that metaphor made sense.

Worst loss: May 31, 9-6 to the Orioles

The Giants finally did it. They had a breakout first inning from their offense. They did everything right in the top of the inning. They pushed five runs across the plate by having the kind of inning they were designed to have all year: A couple walks, a few singles, a triple, and a sac fly, and they were in business.

Then it was the bottom of the inning and the Orioles were in business. Drew Pomeranz, fresh off his last start, a 2.2 inning, 5 run outing against the Diamondbacks, did himself one worse. He went 1.1 against the Orioles and gave up 8 runs, raising his ERA for the year to a heartbreaking 8.08. Not only did Pomeranz give up the lead, but he went on to salt the earth so that no Giants lead could ever grow there again. His May was an abject disaster, one that led to him being taken out of the rotation for the time being, and with the way he’s pitched, not even Pomeranz’s mom could complain about that.

It is fair to say that the Drew Pomeranz signing has not gone well so far.

MVP: Stephen Vogt

Vogt had a perfectly decent week with the bat, but that’s not why he’s here. With Vogt behind the plate, Tyler Beede and Shaun Anderson had the best starts of their young major league careers, and he did a nice job handling Jeff Samardzija yesterday too. The biggest Giants weakness over the last month has been starting pitching, and Vogt caught two excellent 6-inning starts and a strong 7-inning one to boot. His pitcher whispering made the Giants watchable this week, which they were not for pretty much the entire month of May.

LVP: Drew Pomeranz

All of the “Boy, this was bad” categories are Pomeranz-related this week, and that’s what happens when you get staked to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first and give that lead up in the bottom of the first. He had a terrible game to cap a terrible month, and at this point, even if he’s effective in June, he’s not going to have much trade value because teams are going to be worried that they’d be trading for ... this. Pomeranz couldn’t have had a worse month, and he couldn’t have had a worse game, and he couldn’t have been less worth watching.

Takeaway:

There were bright spots, the young pitching most especially, but in all, it was a disappointing week for a team that’s looking to prove it’s more than its terrible record over the last three years. And if you’re on Team Tank, then this still wasn’t that great of a week, because the Giants didn’t make up any ground on the awful teams who are currently in position to draft before them in 2020. It was just a nothing week. The Giants could have played worse, but they also sure could have played better.