SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ winning streak was snapped in St. Louis, but they still believe they’re the hottest team in baseball.
“I think we are,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I mean, shoot, we lost a game in the ninth and (on Sunday) we had some opportunities and just didn’t come through. So, I think these guys feel good.”
That will be put to the test over the next three weeks, beginning Monday night, as Melvin’s squad attempts to put a pair of one-run losses to close their road trip behind them and continue a push for the playoffs that looked improbable, if not impossible, a couple weeks ago.
Opening their penultimate homestand of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Giants sat four games back of the Mets for the wild card spot. They will face off against Arizona, a half-game back of them in the standings, six times over their final 19 games.
Even after losing two in a row for the first time since August 21-22, San Francisco has gone 11-3 over its past 14 games, using the hot bats of Rafael Devers and Willy Adames to make sure they will play meaningful baseball down the stretch.
“We’re not thinking about it today,” infielder Wilmer Flores said of the sour ending to the road trip, which also brought an end to their 18-game home run streak. “We’re thinking about winning today. It doesn’t matter what the losses could impact or do, just worry about today.”
As August came to a close, the Giants seemed content to play out the string of the season and get young players such as Luis Matos and Drew Gilbert more playing time. All of a sudden back in the playoff hunt, Melvin said it hasn’t changed his managerial maneuvering.
“We just try to win every game no matter what — it’s the big leagues,” he said. “It’s been pretty much the same all year because we’ve been back-and-forth. Even when we’ve been on the verge of being out of it, you know you’re not. You know that all it takes is a run to get back into it.”
The Giants did just that, but there’s more work to be done thanks to the position they put themselves in by losing seven of their first 10 series after the All-Star break.
In addition to the Diamondbacks, the Giants will see the Dodgers seven times over their final 19 games. There’s also another three games against the Cardinals, who just took two of three in St. Louis and also sat a half-game back entering Monday night.
The schedule doesn’t offer a respite from playoff hopefuls until the final series of the season, a three-game set against the Rockies. It starts against the Diamondbacks, who own the majors’ third-best records since the start of August (21-14) and haven’t dropped a set at Oracle Park since 2023.
“First of all, we’ve got to win,” Flores said. “I don’t think it matters where we are in the standings. If we control how we play, honestly, we could be a game out, we could be in the playoffs, we could be out, all you can do today is play well to win the game.”
Notable
— Flores, a pending free agent, said he hasn’t heard one way or another from the Giants about a reunion in 2026.
— RHP Randy Rodriguez has scheduled his elbow surgery and decided on the doctor who will perform the operation. Dr. Keith Meister will reconstruct the ulnar collateral ligaments in Rodriguez’s right elbow — Tommy John surgery — during the last week of September, likely ruling the Giants’ closer out for all of 2026.
— LHP Carson Whisenhunt (back strain) threw a bullpen, the first time he has thrown off a mound since landing on the IL at the end of August. That is more than can be said for RHP Landen Roupp (left knee inflammation), who played catch up to 90 feet but will remain on flat ground for the rest of the week.
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