Game Wrap 8/21/2025: Padres 8 Giants 4

A nightmare 5'th inning blew up Justin Verlander's start and put the game out of the Giants reach.  Key Lines:

Jung Hoo Lee CF- 1 for 3, BB.  BA= .262.  I would like to know if there is stat for how many times teams' leadoff batter reaches base multiple times yet fails to figure into the scoring.  It sure seems like the Giants would be at or near the top of that list.  Lee's counterpart, Fernando Tatis Jr reached base twice out of 5 PA's and scored twice.  And just to be clear, this is not on Lee, but the batters that follow him in the lineup.

Rafael Devers LF- 1 for 4 HR(25).  BA= .254.  Devers is hitting home runs but his BA is just .222 over his last 7 games, .236 over his last 15 and .241 over his last 30.

Willy Adames SS- 1 for 2, HR(20), 2 BB.  BA= .222.  Devers and Adames went B2B in the 6'th inning and narrowed the score to 8-4.  Alas, that's where the run-scoring died.

Luis Matos RF- 2 for 4, 2B, 3B.  BA= .178.  Well, Matos is back up and Grant McCray is back down.  The Giants say they want to seem more of Matos and plan to not only platoon him in RF with Drew Gilbert but also give Ramos and Lee more days off and rotate Matos through those positions.  McCray has options so there is less urgency to make a decision on his future with the team, but Matos is out of options after this season.  The Giants need to see if he can find traction with more regular playing time. BTW, the triple was a gift due to a miscommunication between Padre OF's.

Justin Verlander RHP- 4.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 4.64.  Verlander retired the first 9 batters he faced then started to struggle the second time through the lineup.  A double error in the 5'th by Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos brought in 2 runs which ended up being earned because as the inning unfolded, they would have scored anyway.  At one point the Padres had 2 successful bunts in row.  Reliever Matt Gage allowed an inherited runner to score.  So yes, Verlander was snakebit once again but there is a reason all 7 of those runs counted as earned.  He gave up several hard hits and really fell apart in the 4'th and 5'th innings.  

Joel Peguero RHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  A successful MLB debut for Joel Peguero, my proverbial white whale from spring training.  The man with the easy triple digits didn't disappoint as he blew 7 of them and topped out at 102 MPH.  I understand Peguero has had his struggles and triple digits does not guarantee success or else Camilo Doval would still be on the team, but what I've noticed that almost every team around the league has that the Giants don't is at least 2-3 relief arms that "roll out of bed throwing hundos" as Mike Krukow so eloquently put it.  There are a lot of things that this team needs to be better next year but adding a couple more hundo throwers is one of them.

The Giants move on to Milwaukee to take on the red hot BrewCrew over the weekend.  Carson Whisenhunt will be recalled to start tomorrow's game facing Jose Quintana LHP who comes in with a 3.32 ERA, and why couldn't he do that when he came through The Churn?

As I watched another awful game unfold, I meditated on what the heck is wrong with this team and what must they do to get better.  I wish I could tell you that but the answers are not easy.  Right now, the highly paid core of this team, at least on the position side of the ball, is simply not producing what the core of a contending team needs to produce, and the supporting cast is not strong enough to pick up the slack.  We, and Buster, have to hope this was an adjustment year for Lee, Adames and Devers and that Chapman's hand will fully heal by next season, because if this groups is not significantly better next season, Buster dug himself quite a hole.  On top of all that he has to decide if Ramos' bat is worth the defensive misadventures and if Patrick Bailey will hit more like he has in the second half or if he is just a half-season hitter as he has been for two seasons now.  And if that's not enough he has just two reliable SP's returning next season and needs to add some reliable high-velocity arms in the bullpen.

We are obviously just fans and there's a reason we are not running the team, but we also are not totally without baseball knowledge. I think what's troubling all of us is when we look at this team and try to think of how they can be better next season, it's very hard to visualize.  If the "big four" don't step it up and deliver next season, it just might not happen.