After Willie Mays passed away, the Giants lost three straight games to the Cardinals, bringing their losing streak up to five.
It’s possible to start a weekly Giants review with a worse sentence than that. They could have lost four straight to the Cardinals, or they could have lost four straight to the Dodgers. It could have extended the losing streak to six, 10 or 17 games. None of it really compares to the loss of Mays, who was supposed to live forever. There are good weeks, and there are bad weeks. And then there are the worst weeks. The Giants had one of the worst weeks a franchise can have.
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So let’s relive it?
Dave Flemming — a pro’s pro
We’ll get into the grumbling and silliness that comes with a week like the Giants just had, but it wouldn’t feel right without remembering what actually mattered this week. What a gift to have a real-time reaction to the passing of Mays from someone who obviously cared so deeply about the person and the sport.
Dave Flemming was in the visitors' radio booth at Wrigley Field the moment the report of Willie Mays' passing was made public.
Here's what it sounded like on our airwaves as he passed on the news to Giants fans everywhere. pic.twitter.com/pf5lK921z9
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 19, 2024
It took me three hours to write my tribute to Mays, and nothing was prewritten or researched ahead of time. What’s on the page is what my brain was leaking down past my heart and through my fingers. But I still got to step back and think about word choices and turns of phrase. I got to read it and re-read it and make sure that it was what I wanted to say, trying out new things and erasing them without consequence.
Flemming didn’t have that luxury, but his reaction was still raw, pure and perfect. I know he would never want credit for that, but the call resonated with so, so many people, so he gets that credit. It’s hard to imagine a more honest reaction for an audience that didn’t need anything more.
Patrick Bailey gets mad
If you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll remember TV commercials for VHS cassettes that were “TOO HOT FOR TV,” offering uncensored clips of TV shows that were being held back by those scolds at the FCC. Kids will never understand what it was like for adults to think, “Gee, this is my best chance to see naughty stuff I wasn’t supposed to see.”
Well, get ready for Patrick Bailey, TOO HOT FOR TV:
GOSH DANG IT pic.twitter.com/xVi6O0h6GK
— LOLKNBR (@LOLKNBR) June 18, 2024
Buster Posey probably called his lawyer after hearing that. “Can he say that? Is it allowed?” It is 100 percent the spiciest thing that’s ever come out of a Giants starting catcher’s mouth since … sheesh, Eliézer Alfonzo? That’s just a guess, but the dude drank snake juice, so it’s fair to assume he’d drop a few curse words now and then. Before that was Bengie Molina, who was simply too nice. (Don’t correct me in the comments. Stephen Vogt has started for the Giants, but his day job was never as the starting catcher. We all know that Vogt probably has his own version of The Aristocrats joke.)
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Of course, it’s kind of fun until you realize what Bailey was so daggumned angry about. Trenton Brooks was about to get his second hitter pitch-clock violation of the game, which means he now leads the 2024 Giants in that category and just might for the rest of the season. His first came in what can comfortably be described as the worst at-bat I’ve ever, ever seen. No hyperbole. You save those kinds of descriptions for things like a two-strike strikeout with two outs and the bases loaded.
The first-second strike didn’t bounce, but almost did.
The second-third strike bounced.
That’s the roughest at-bat I’ve ever seen. Later in the game he struck out again with the bases loaded and two outs (albeit with a much better battle) and allowed a pop-up to fall that helped the Cubs to a huge rally. And the Giants still won. That was the first game of the week! If they could come back from that, is it not reasonable that they could simply win the rest of the games that week?
It was not reasonable. It’s also worth noting that as Sonny Gray cut through the Giants’ lineup like warm butter on Sunday, working a perfect game, Brooks saw two pitches all game. He was in the starting lineup, and he was pinch-hit for in the eighth inning, but I wonder how many batters have been in a starting lineup and seen only two pitches in a game (without being injured).
I’m not trying to pick on Brooks, and I hope he has a long career that gets him a nice arbitration award and makes the haters feel like doofuses. But it was a bad week.
It was the kind of week that could make Patrick Bailey use some of the most … vile … language at his disposal. We’ll see what next week has to offer for him.
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The Giants are historically terrible at stolen bases (both kinds)
The Giants cannot steal bases. This isn’t just because they’re the slowest team — they’re not, at least by most available metrics. But they sure are dead last in baseball in stolen bases, with just 25 on the season.
The Giants cannot prevent stolen bases. They allowed 13 of them last week, each one more embarrassing than the last. If you’re scoring at home, that’s Giants with 25 stolen bases (all season) and opponents with 13 stolen bases (last week).
Guess which catcher gets rid of the ball faster than almost any other playing the game today. That’s right, it’s Patrick Bailey, who’s behind only White Sox catcher Korey Lee for the fastest pop time in baseball. He has a strong arm, and it’s accurate. And teams aren’t scared to run on him.
So I looked at the 200 worst teams at allowing stolen bases since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, and I compared them to the 200 worst teams at stealing bases since then. There were seven teams that showed up on both lists, and I’ve included the 2024 Giants here for comparison.
Think of the ratio column as “For every base our team steals, the other team steals (x).” While the Giants aren’t competing with the Red Sox, the Red Sox and (checks) the Red Sox in that category, they’re at least keeping company with some of the worst to ever do it.
There’s still time for the Giants to adjust. As of right now, it’s not looking great.
Quick question about the 2021 NLDS
You know how the 2021 NLDS ended: on a blown check-swing call right before Wilmer Flores was going to hit the Coke bottle with a home run. There would have been a geyser of baseball Coke that erupted and saturated us all in high-fructose win juice. But it ended on the blown check-swing call, and it was painful.
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After watching a game like Saturday’s, in which Paul Goldschmidt hit (yet another) exquisitely well-timed home run for his team and Nolan Arenado made (yet another) exquisitely well-timed defensive play, it’s worth remembering that the Giants had two options for their 2o21 opponents. It was either going to be the Dodgers or the Cardinals.
So my question is this: Would it have been more painful for Goldschmidt, Arenado and the Cardinals to run roughshod over the Giants, bringing back memories of Lincecum-domination and tarp-related catches, than it was for the Dodgers to win because of umpire-related shenanigans? Remember that the Dodgers didn’t end up winning the World Series.
I’m pretty sure I know my answer, but I’m curious as to the general consensus.
Home Run of the Week
You’re not going to believe it, but there are a ton of candidates from this week.
There’s Thairo Estrada’s game winner on Monday, which was the only saving grace of the week.
There’s Heliot Ramos’ opposite-field blast at Rickwood Field, which was an exceptionally cool moment in an exceptionally cool park.
There’s Bailey breaking up a perfect game and making everyone feel juuuuust a little bit better. Then there’s him taking one off the scoreboard at Wrigley, which set up the Estrada home run. Look where the pitch was on the perfect game spoiler. I’m not sure how it happened, but bless it for happening.
I apologize for picking a homer that happened in a loss, then, but this is a celebration of the best home run of the week — aesthetically more than anything, although there will be some consideration given to the game situation. And even though the Giants lost this game, this was one of the funniest possible home runs for a team looking to get back into a game:
All you’re thinking in this situation is, “Man, if Jorge Soler murders this baseball, it’s a one-run game.” But there’s two strikes and two outs. Baseball has conditioned you to expect the unexpected, but also to expect the expected. C’mon, you know what’s gonna happen here.
And then he hits it, and it goes and goes and goes, and it’s just the funniest thing. I intentionally embedded the Cubs broadcast here because it’s extra funny. “Deep to left,” he says, shuffling his papers and disgustedly adjusting his glasses, “and we got a one-run game.”
Did the Giants win? Boy, did they not. But it’s always worth appreciating moments like that, even in the losses. Makes the sport seem less cruel, even though it isn’t.
(Photo of the Mays tribute at Rickwood Field behing home plate: John David Mercer / USA Today)