At last, the torture that has been the San Francisco Giants' 2017 season has finally come to an end. Finishing the month of September as well as the final game of the season on October 1 with a record of 11-15, skipper Bruce Bochy saw his underachieving ball club fall to 64-98 on the year, some 40 games behind the first place Dodgers as they failed to log a single winning month all year. And though they were able to avoid the dubious 100-loss mark, the Giants still finished last in the National League West and finished tied with the Detroit Tigers for the worst overall record in all of baseball. But as forgettable as the season might have been while the negatives far outweighed the positives, there were plenty of heartfelt moments down the stretch including the retirements of two fan favorites and Giants postseason heroes -- Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong.
Despite not appearing for the Giants since 2015 and most recently playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates a season ago, 40-year old right-handed pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was signed to a one-day contract to officially retire as a Giant as he suited up one final time in a Giants uniform and was honored by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a 7-2 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Having played seven of his twelve Major League seasons with the same organization that drafted him in 1998, Vogelsong is best remembered for his breakthrough season in 2011 which saw him make the National League All-Star team as well as his postseason contributions most notably in 2012 when his 1.09 ERA in four starts helped the Giants win the World Series that year before helping them win it again in 2014.
As for Cain, the Giants saw their longest tenured player call it quits after 13 seasons in San Francisco, the longest for any player to remain exclusively with the franchise since moving from New York in 1958. Appropriately nicknamed "the horse", Cain, the owner of the only perfect game thrown in Giants franchise history, was integral in both championship runs in 2010 and 2012 before a mid-season injury in 2014 kept him out of action for the 2014 World Series. Ironically, the 34-year old righty would be, "Cained" one final time after tossing five shutout innings in his final start, a term appropriately used by Giants fans when a pitcher receives little to no run support during a well pitched game. With Cain departing with a 1-0 lead thru 5 innings, the Giants bullpen gave up the tying run in the following frame and then two more runs in the 9th inning to blow a 2-1 lead and eventually fall to the Padres, 3-2, giving Cain yet another no-decision. Finishing his career with an ERA of 3.68 and an overall record of 104 wins and 118 losses, few pitchers have suffered luck as bad as Cainer who should easily have 30 or so more career wins than losses as 109 of his 331 career starts have led to no-decisions. And like Vogelsong, Cain would exit to a thunderous ovation and hugs from his manager and teammates upon exiting the game.
Another starting pitcher who the Giants are hoping can mold into the next Matt Cain is former first-round pick Chris Stratton who emerged as one of the more surprising players for the Giants in 2017 and made his first career start in 2016 while filling in for an injured Matt Cain. The 27-year old righty is expected to at least be considered for San Francisco's fifth spot in the rotation next season barring any changes to the roster heading into the offseason after boasting a 4-4 record and an ERA of 3.68 in 10 starts. One question mark that rotation will face heading into 2018 will be whether or not it'll still feature starter Johnny Cueto who can opt out of the six-year, $130 Million contract he signed before last season. But after finishing 2017 with an 8-8 record and an ERA north of 4.50, a down year statistically to Cueto's standards, it's unlikely he'll find a better deal on the market than what he has on the table with the Giants. Giants brass hopes Cueto will join a 2018 rotation that will also feature ace Madison Bumgarner, Matt Moore who's 2018 team-option was picked up a week ago and strikeout specialist Jeff Samardizja.
Though Samardzija wouldn't necessarily finish his 2017 campaign the way he would've liked (9-15, 4.42 ERA), Shark did manage to register 207.2 innings pitched as well as 205 strikeouts and only 32 walks, the best strikeout to walk ratio in Giants franchise history at 6.41, besting than the previous mark of 6.17 shared by two Hall of Fame pitchers -- Christy Mathewson (1908) and Juan Marichal (1966). It would mark the second most strikeouts in a single season for Samardzija and third time he's finished above the 200 K plateau. Another impressive feat would be one accomplished by second baseman Joe Panik who dazzled in the month of September with a .375 batting average. During a three-game road trip in Denver, Panik would put on a show against the Rockies, collecting 12-hits in the series to set a franchise-record. Panik's historic series of going 12-for-15 (.800 avg) with 3 doubles, a home run, 5 RBI and an OPS of 2.000 helped increase his batting average to .288 on the year and also helped the Giants secure an 11-3 victory in the series-finale that snapped a 10-game losing streak at Coors Field. The Giants would face the Rockies just two weeks later in San Francisco where they would win both games to complete the short 2-game sweep while also stringing together their first 3-game winning streak since June 30-July 2.
Madison Bumgarner who put a damper on San Francisco's season early on after a dirt-biking accident led to the Giants ace spending nearly three months on the disabled-list, had his worst month of the season statistically due to a pair of sub-par starts in which he gave up 11 earned runs in 11 innings. However, after losing four straight decisions for the first time in his career, Bumgarner bounced back with consecutive solid starts including a gem in his final outing of the year to beat the Dodgers, 2-1 and finishing 4-9 on the year with an ERA of 3.32. But it would be MadBum's battery mate who had the best overall season for the Giants as Buster Posey led the club in batting average and finished tied for fourth in the National League and sixth overall with a .320 batting average. It would be the fifth season batting over .300 for Posey who shook off an early concussion after taking a pitch to the head in the Giants home-opener as the former NL MVP once again managed to put up solid numbers that helped him secure the starting nod in July's All-Star Game. A few other team leaders on offense included Brandon Crawford who led the team in RBI's for a second straight year with 77, Brandon Belt who had a team-high 18 home runs despite missing the final month and a half with a concussion and Eduardo Nunez who stole 18 bases with the Giants before being traded to Boston at July's trade deadline.
The power-less Giants once again finished at the bottom of the pack in home runs, slugging a league-low 128 long balls, 23 behind the next closest team (Pittsburgh Pirates). Oddly enough, the final at-bat of the season for the Giants would be a walk-off home run by Pablo Sandoval who's solo shot in the 9th inning of the season-finale gave the Giants a 5-4 victory over the Padres. But as joyful as the moment was, it was received with mixed reviews in the baseball world as the win surrendered the first overall pick in next year's MLB Draft to the Detroit Tigers, meaning the Giants will select second. Take it as you want it, it was a nice reminder of what its like to win a game, something the Giants did very little of in 2017 and something they hope to improve on heading into 2018. In need of bullpen help which is expecting a bounce back year from a healthy Mark Melancon and contributions from Wil Smith who was plagued by injury and lost for the season during Spring Training as well as an outfield power presence in the lineup, the Giants may be one of the more active teams come December's winter meetings.
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The nightmarish 2017 season took another step towards finally being over for the San Francisco Giants as the month of August came to a close. An even 40-games behind the division-leading Dodgers entering September has left the Giants officially mathematically eliminated from Postseason contention. And though the month of August was once again filled with more bad than good, the first two weeks looked rather promising.
After taking 2 of 3 against their Bay Area rivals in Oakland, the Giants would pull off a winning homestand by notching back-to-back series wins for the first time since May, doing so against two teams vying for a playoff spot no less in the Diamondbacks and Cubs. Unfortunately, they would follow up that homestand with a losing road trip by dropping two of three in both Washington and Miami, including a crushing defeat in the rubber-match of a double-header against the Nationals as Nats left fielder Howie Kendrick delivered a walk-off Grand Slam in the 11th inning to hand the Giants the series loss. In that Washington series, San Francisco's lone win would be recorded by right-handed starter and former first round pick Chris Stratton. In what would be a fine month of August for the Giants farmhand, the 27-year old would have his most impressive outing yet against the Nats as he struck out 10 Washington hitters over 6 2/3 shutout innings. Going 2-1 in the month with an earned run average of 1.52 in four August starts, Stratton would watch his season ERA dip from 6.63 to 3.82. And his only loss suffered would be a tough one as he allowed only two runs against Arizona but wasn't given a single run of support. With a solid September to finish off 2017, Stratton could make a strong case for a spot in the Giants' starting rotation next season.
Seeking their first winning month since June of last season when the Giants went 17-10, Bruce Bochy's ball club appeared to be headed in the right direction after a seven game homestand in which they split four games against the lowly Phillies and took two of three from the Brewers. But losses in 6 of their last 7 games including a sweep at the hands of the D-Backs in Arizona would put a dent in those hopes. Another pair of losses to the Padres and a series-opening loss at home on the final day of August would spell yet another losing month as the Giants fell to 13-16 in August and 53-83 overall. By losing two of three in San Diego, the Giants dropped their fifth consecutive series against the Padres who have owned their Bay Area counterparts to the tune of an 11-5 record this season. What stood out most in their lackluster series at Petco Park was the Giants' inability to deliver with runners in scoring position as they went a dismal 4-for-33 and were shutout in the series finale. As for the one game the Giants did prevail in, it would take one of the better pitching performances of the year from a Giants starters as Jeff Samardzija went the distance and tossed a complete-game shutout while allowing only three hits, no walks and striking out five. It would be the fourth shutout of Samardzija's career and only the second by a Giants hurler all year.
From one pitcher to another, staff ace Madison Bumgarner who was slated to start in the series-opener against St. Louis was scratched just hours before game time with flu-like symptoms. Making the spot start in MadBum's place was Matt Cain who suffered a career-high 10th consecutive loss. But it wasn't for a lack of trying as the Giants offense simply failed to back him as he gave up a pair of runs over five innings pitched. What started off as a rebound season for Cain who notched an impressive April, has now taken a nosedive as he suffered his worst calendar month of the season (7.90 ERA) and his streak of 10 consecutive losses is the longest active streak of its kind in the Majors.
For the final calendar month of the regular season, the Giants will try to fend off becoming the first team in franchise history since 1985 to record 100-losses. But with seven of the team's nine remaining series against teams jockeying for position in the pennant race, it's unlikely they'll be able to avoid that dubious feat. With 26 games remaining, the Giants must win at least 10 of those to avoid the dreadful 100-loss mark. Needing every bit of help they can get, San Francisco will open September with three more games against the Cardinals and for whatever reason the NL Central is the lone division the Giants have had success against this season having gone 17-14 against NL Central opponents. And next on the mound to face them will be Johnny Cueto who last pitched in a Giants uniform on July 14 after missing all of August with a strained right flexor tendon suffered while making a rehab start on July 31. The Giants will surely welcome him back with open arms as he looks to finish strong in what's been a disappointing 2017 campaign for Cueto who led the team in wins a season ago with 18.
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