SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants completed the halfway point of their 2025 schedule in the most dispiriting way Thursday. They erased a five-run deficit only to get blown out anyway in a 12-5 loss to the Marlins, which ended a three-game Miami sweep.
The Giants are 44-37 after a 3-6 homestand, which is not terrible in the age of the 12-team postseason bracket and not far from where they stood after 81 games during their three World Series title seasons. They were 41-40 in 2010, 45-36 in 2012 and 47-34 in 2014.
The Giants’ 2025 record is a bit deceiving. They have been a .500 team for most of the year, going 32-33 since their surprising 12-4 start, buoyed by good pitching and weighed down by a bottom-10 offense.
“It’s tough to have perspective from the beginning of the year to where we are now,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We are who we are, and we feel like we’re a lot better than we played these three games. It’s not a horrible position.”
“We are who we are” is a versatile phrase. The neutral sense is that a record does not lie. In a less forgiving way, it could mean that half a season is not too early to dismiss their profile as a pitching team with a disappointing lineup, especially given some of the big names that Melvin writes on the lineup card each day.
Hitting coach Pat Burrell does not buy that this team, with the seventh-worst OPS (.688) in the Majors over the first 81 games, can’t get better.
“That gets proven wrong every year,” Burrell said. “Look at the teams that get hot at the end. If that was the case, no Wild Card teams would ever win the World Series, and you’ve seen what happens with that.
“We’ve had some games where everybody hits, but as a whole, for whatever reason, we haven’t had many where everybody hits at the same time. If that happens, and it happens to be October, well, good God. We’ve seen what happens with that.”
The offense on an otherwise miserable Thursday afternoon offered a glimmer of what must happen offensively to make a true run toward October.
Willy Adames, who has been an offensive disappointment throughout his first season as a Giant, singled three times, a day after he missed two grand slams by a total of about 10 feet. Jung Hoo Lee, who had swooned to a .167 average in June, lined a hit that got past right fielder Jesús Sánchez for a leadoff triple in the fourth, starting a three-run rally that completed the Giants’ comeback from a 5-0 deficit.
The comeback began in earnest with Rafael Devers’ two-run homer in the third, his second with the Giants. Devers had been 6-for-31 since his acquisition before Thursday’s three-hit game, which also included a single and double.
The best case for the Giants offense rests with the hope that a resurgent Adames and Lee can join a lengthened lineup that also includes Devers, 2024 All-Star Heliot Ramos, Matt Chapman when he returns from his sprained hand likely just before the All-Star break, and a suddenly searing Casey Schmitt, who got good news Thursday morning.
A CT scan confirmed an X-ray that showed no fracture after Marlins closer Calvin Faucher hit him in the left wrist Wednesday night.
Melvin said Schmitt has a bad bone bruise and his return date is uncertain. Although Schmitt would like to play in Friday night’s series opener at the White Sox, that might be optimistic.
“It’s still pretty swollen,” he said. “I tried picking up a bat today. It didn’t feel great in my hands.”
Schmidt was the third Giant to be hit Wednesday night, and the ninth in a nine-game span. That provided Thursday’s subtext. The Giants did not dispel the notion that a Miami hitter was going to get drilled in the season-series finale.
Starter Hayden Birdsong did the deed, hitting Otto Lopez in the leg with two outs and nobody on in the first. While Birdsong surely gained respect within the clubhouse, he also set himself up for a three-run, 440-foot homer by Kyle Stowers, the longest at Oracle Park this season. That mark stood for two innings, until Agustín Ramírez hit a two-run shot 443 feet for a 5-0 lead.
Birdsong’s day ended with two walks to start the fifth. Both scored in a three-run rally, sending the Marlins on their way to their first sweep in San Francisco in eight seasons.