Giants' Season Hangs in Balance as Padres Come to Town

Thursday's extra-inning loss was nothing short of heartbreaking for the San Francisco Giants.

Consecutive victories over the Rockies had catapulted this team back into the 7-seed before their 3-0 lead disappeared in the final game of the series.

The Giants will certainly feel the effects of Thursday's defeat after stranding the winning and tying runs at third base (in the 10th and 11th innings, respectively).

However, despite the obvious blow, San Francisco's playoff hopes remain alive.

Courtesy of the Cardinals' victory over the Brewers on Thursday, the Giants enter Friday clinging to the 8-seed.

Here's a look at the National League postseason picture.


The Giants are slated to finish their season with a four-game set against the Padres (including a double-header on Friday).

On paper, this matchup doesn't look great for two reasons.

First, San Francisco is 1-5 against San Diego this season, and the Padres have doubled the Giants' offensive output in head-to-head matchups, outscoring them 38-19 in six meetings.

Second, San Francisco has lost all four of its double-header appearances in 2020, scoring a total of one run in these games (two of which came against San Diego).

The beautiful thing about such meaningful games? Statistics tend to be thrown out the window.

Giants' starting pitcher Kevin Gausman said it best in an interview on Thursday: "We don't really have the luxury of sitting around and feeling bad for ourselves." 

As San Francisco is currently plagued by the 2020 tiebreaker rule (they hold a worse intradivisional record than many other teams jockeying for playoff positioning), the general consensus seems to be that they need to win three of their final four games to qualify for the National League Wild Card series.

And it starts with a pair of seven-inning contests on Friday against a dangerous Padres team.

San Francisco may find solace in considering that San Diego has little to play for this weekend -- they are locked in as the National League's 4-seed.

However, if the Giants fail to bring their bats for yet another double-header, they could find themselves playing meaningless baseball to finish their 2020 campaign.


What are your thoughts on the Giants' postseason odds?

Feel free to let me know in the comments below and don't forget to "Subscribe" for future post notifications :)

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