3rd inning: 12-6

1st inning: 6-12

2nd inning: 10-8

3rd inning: 12-6

And they start off the 4th inning 0-2 with back-back-losses to the Pirates (2-1 Tuesday and 9-4 yesterday) and are thus a .500 team once again.

Let’s look at the league wide statistics (Baseball-Reference). The MLB average team slash line is .248/.320/.409 and that’s good for 256 runs or 4.57 per game. The Giants have slashed .249/.320/.419 and scored 257 runs for 4.59 rpg. If you measure offense with FanGraph’s wOBA the Giants are 12th at .323 and if you use wRC+ they are 13th at 104. They are 11th in total bases with 802. I think our eye test says they are a little above average offensively.

On the pitching side our eye test tells us we have three reliable starters with Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, and Anthony DeSclafani. The bullpen has put itself together (and now have a new weapon with Luke Jackson) after a poor start. But the 4th-5th starter problem remains a problem. Statistically they allow 4.54 runs per game and that is as middle-of-the-pack (15th) as it gets. Their 4.07 FIP is 9th-best and that reflects the fact that as a team the Giants induce a lot of weak contact (especially ground balls) and limit walks. They’ve given up a league-average (64) number of homers.

If you drew it up on a piece of paper—league-average hitting plus league-average pitching—you’d probably get a league-average team! The Giants 28-28 record is the 18th-best in MLB. The Giants are within one game of six of those teams and are currently the only team with an exactly .500 record.

bWAR leaders: Webb 2.2, Wade, Jr. 1.9, Estrada 1.9, Cobb 1.8, Davis 1.2, DeSclafani 1.2

fWAR leaders: Estrada 2.0, Davis 1.6, Webb 1.5, Wade, Jr. 1.4, DeSclafani 1.2, Cobb 1.0

The high-flying Orioles come to town tomorrow for a three-game set. Logan Webb starts on Friday night (game time 7:15 Pacific) and Anthony DeSclafani on Saturday night (7:05 PT). Sunday’s game is at 1:05, no starter listed but I hope it will be Alex Cobb. He pitched this past Sunday.

Go Giants!

–M.C.