Oakland A’s starter JP Sears threw seven innings of shutout ball against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in what will be the A’s last Bay Bridge Series appearance as an Oakland team at Oracle Park on Tue Jul 30, 2024 (AP News photo)

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Oakland Athletics 5 (45-64)

San Francisco Giants 2 (53-56)

Win: JP Sears (8-8)

Loss: Robbie Ray (1-1)

Time: 2:40

Attendance: 37,885

By Stephen Ruderman

SAN FRANCISCO–After an interesting trade deadline in which the Giants sold to dump some salary, they went up and lost 5-2 to the Oakland A’s, who hit four home runs, in the first game of this short two-game set.

After a brutal 2-5 road trip to start the second half, the Giants swept the Colorado Rockies in four games over the weekend at Oracle Park to get back up to 53-55 and just three and a half games back of the third wild card spot. That prompted President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi to somewhat go for it.

Now, the A’s came into town for the first leg of the 2024 Bay Bridge Series. Well, this may have looked like an easy schedule for the Giants on paper, the A’s came into Tuesday night’s game winners of nine of their last 13 games.

This would be Bob Melvin’s first game managing on the other side of the Bay Bridge Series. Melvin managed the A’s from June 2011 through the end of the 2021 Season. Melvin took the A’s to the playoffs six times in his ten full seasons at the helm. Melvin won 853 games with the A’s, the most for the A’s in Oakland, and an extremely-distant second-most in franchise history next to the legendary Connie Mack’s 3,582 games.

Left-hander Robbie Ray made his second start of the season. Ray made his long-awaited Giants’ debut on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, giving up just a run and striking out eight over five no-hit innings. Ray got the lone win for the Giants in their four-game series at Dodger Stadium.

Ray started off his night with a scoreless top of the first inning. The Giants then came to bat against A’s left-hander JP Sears in the bottom of the first. Heliot Ramos lined a two-out base-hit to center field with two outs, but he was caught trying to steal second base to end the inning.

Daz Cameron led off the top of the second with a home run to right to put the A’s on the board. After Sears threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second, Lawrence Butler hit a home run to center with one out in the top of the third to make it 2-0.

Sears pitched a scoreless bottom of the third, and a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth. As for Ray, escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth, but he surrendered a two-run home run to Brent Rooker with one out in the top of the fifth.

That would do it for Ray, whose outing Tuesday night was a lot different than his outing last Wednesday in Los Angeles, as he gave up four runs and seven hits.

Spencer Bivens came in and escaped a jam to finish the top of the fifth, but he did throw a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth. He then threw a scoreless top of the seventh, as he did eat up two and two thirds innings.

Sears remained in complete control, and he ended up giving up just three hits, walking just one and striking out nine over seven shutout innings. The Giants wasted a couple of opportunities, but you have to tip your cap to Sears, who was on Tuesday night.

JJ Bleday homered to right off left-hander Taylor Rogers in the top of the eighth to make it 5-0. For the A’s, it was their fourth home run of the night, and it was surprising considering that they have depended on the long ball during this stretch.

Mark Kotsay brought in former Giant Scott Alexander in the bottom of the eighth. Marco Luciano, who was called back up Tuesday, doubled to center to lead off the inning. Luciano advanced to third on a wild pitch with one out, and after David Villar walked, Derek Hill got Luciano in on a ground out to second.

Austin Adams struck Tyler Fitzerald out to end the bottom of the eighth, and Ryan Walker came in for the Giants to throw a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

Tyler Ferguson came in for Oakland in the bottom of the ninth. The Giants got their second run of the game when Patrick Bailey knocked in Michael Conforto with one out. That would be all they would get, and the A’s won it 5-2.

JP Sears got the win, and Robbie Ray took his first loss of the season. The Giants fall to 53-56, and now five games back of the Padres for the third wild card.

The Giants and A’s will be back at it Wednesday night. Logan Webb (7-8, 3.72 ERA) will be on the mound for the Giants, and he will be opposed by former Giant Ross Stripling (2-9, 6.02 ERA).

Giants News and Notes:

Tuesday of course was the Trade Deadline in Baseball, and the Giants, well, I don’t know what to make of their moves.

Last night, Farhan Zaidi traded Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson back to the Braves for right-handed reliever Tyler Matzek and minor league infielder Sabin Ceballos.

Tuesday morning, Zaidi dealt Alex Cobb, who is just about to come off the Injured List, but has been held back by a blister, to the Cleveland Guardians for left-handed pitching prospect Jason Bresnahan. Cobb was was all-star for the Giants last season, but has yet to pitch in a major league game this season due to hip surgery.

Don’t worry, the Giants got a bat. Zaidi acquired outfielder Mark Canha for minor league reliever Eric Silva.

Most importantly, the Giants did not trade Blake Snell, as Zaidi apparently felt that they needed to go with it after sweeping the Rockies, one of the worst teams in baseball, in four games over the weekend.

So, you can say the main goal of the deadline for Zaidi and the Giants was dumping salary, and somewhat going for it with the kids.

The Giants of course called Marco Luciano prior to the game. Luciano was swinging the bat quite well, as he hit .375 in ten games. However, his defense was a whole nother story, as he committed five errors in five games.

Blake Sabol was also called up prior to the game.

The Giants and Baseball suffered a tragedy over the weekend. Former Giants’ reliever Reyes Moronta was killed in a motorcycle accident in his native Dominican Republic Sunday.

The Giants called Moronta up in September 2017, and he pitched in seven games. In 69 games in 2018, he was a big part of a solid Giants’ bullpen that season, as he went 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA. In 2019, he was solid again, positing a 2.86 ERA.

Moronta was very much in the future plans for the Giants, and was even setting himself up to be the team’s closer. However, he tore his labrum in an outing against the San Diego Padres on Aug. 31, 2019, and he was never the same afterwards.

Moronta missed the COVID-shortened 60-game sprint season of 2020, and then only appeared in four games for the Giants in 2021. He then split time with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2022, posting a 4.30 ERA, and then he struggled with the Los Angeles Angels last season with an ERA of 6.75.

This season Moronta moved to the Mexican League and signed with the Bravos de León, posting an 8.69 ERA. He was then released on July 25, just three days prior to his death.

The Giants honored Moronta prior to the game with a moment of silence.

Final Thoughts:

I really have no clue what Farhan Zaidi has in mind here. Okay, so he’s somewhat going for it with the kids, but he’s selling to dump some salary.

He’s supposedly going for it, but he traded Jorge Soler, who was popular in the clubhouse, and who had finally been swinging the bat well after a rough start to his season. Then the best he can do is get Mark Canha from the Tigers, which, granted, was a better move than the trade for A.J. Pollock at the deadline last season, but really?

The worst part was that the Giants passed on a potential golden opportunity to trade Blake Snell to a contender for a top prospect, because they swept just a godawful Rockies’ team to get to within three and a half games, which gave them some “hope.” Snell is most likely not even going to be back next season

I’m not saying that they should kick the tires to next season. That’s why I wanted to buy AND sell. In fact, this is the first time in a long time that I was open to trading prospects. But still, you just can not pass up on an opportunity to add a top prospect. Especially since, despite the fact that I predicted that the Giants would get off to a frustrating start over the first two to four months, then get it together, I have pretty much lost hope for this season.

I’m not saying it’s over, hence the buy and sell, but it’s very unlikely to result in anything special at this point. Why? Farhan Zaidi. I’ll give credit to Farhan, he is a supremely intelligent man, and he has made some sneaky good moves in almost-six seasons with the Giants. He made some clever moves to help the Giants get back into contention in 2019; the Giants almost made the playoffs in 2020; and of course, they had their 107-win impossible dream season in 2021.

However, since 2022, it has been mostly downhill. These last three seasons have all pretty much been the same. Farhan signs some guys, and there’s hope and expectations coming into the season, as well as a good clubhouse. They have their ups and downs, but they really can’t truly get it together. Farhan then struggles to show his team that he believes in them, and then they collapse.

It happened at the end of June 2022, and it happened again after A.J. Pollock was the best player Farhan could add at the Trade Deadline last year. What I suspect did it this year was when he went on KNBR after the Giants’ 5-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on July 11.

After a run in which the Giants won eight out of 11, the Giants lost the final two games of their three game series in Cleveland against the Guardians, the third-best team in Baseball, and then they lost two of three to the Blue Jays at home. They lost four out of five, it happens.

But then after the loss to Toronto to close out the series, Farhan went on KNBR to tell Tom Tolbert and Adam Copeland, “We’re 4 games under .500. Overall it’s been a real disappointment. We pushed a lot of chips in with this team. We need the players to show what the right direction is for us. If we keep playing like we did for the last 5 days, we’re going to have to think about selling and seeing some younger players.”

The 2024 San Francisco Giants are a good team. They have talent, but they are also a young team with some growing pains. They have battled hard all season, and for Farhan to go on KNBR and dump all over them, that has to be demoralizing in the clubhouse.

Now, one of two things can happen. Either they can use that as motivation to stick it to Farhan, or they can let it get to them and implode. Sadly, it’s the latter. You’re going to get that with a young team, but it also shows that now is the time for new leadership. Perhaps someone with less of an analytical background, and more of a real baseball background. Somebody who knows and understands the game, and has a real feel for the game. Someone who knows how to deal with players.

Farhan has built a nice young core here in the 2020s, but while he has some good plans, he is not exactly the best at executing it. He has also shown that he has a hard time managing the day-to-day operations of a baseball front office. From the almost-daily roster changes to the PR blunders he’s had, Farhan has shown that he really struggles to deal with his players.

But this is what you get with analytical guys. They may love the game, but they just believe in numbers and really don’t have a feel for the game. They are bland, robotic and sterile, and they just view players as robots and mere objects instead of what they are, HUMAN BEINGS.

Players are real people, and they are working tirelessly every day over the course of the long grind of a major league baseball season. You have to treat them with the respect that they deserve, and most importantly, you have to show that you believe in them. Farhan has failed to do that. All Farhan has done is throw his players and city under the bus, and this can not continue.

Farhan has played his role, but it is time to move on, and it is time to hire a real baseball person to run the front office. Farhan has built a nice young core, but the Giants need to let someone with a real feel and understanding of our great game take the reins from here.

As for the Giants’ analytics department, they can stay. There is a place for the analytical people in baseball: being a small part of the overall art of baseball, and assisting the baseball people who are in charge with valuable statistics that they can take into account.