San Francisco Giants starter Hayden Birdsong was dealing early in the game keeping the St Louis Cardinals off balance striking out 11 hitters. Things fell apart in the top of the fifth when Birdsong had left and gave up three unearned runs. (AP News photo)

By Michael Roberson

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The San Francisco Giants (80-82) finished the 2024 season on a sour note, by losing the last game 6-1 and series (2-1) of the year to the St. Louis Cardinals (83-79) in front of 32, 248 disappointed fans, Sunday Afternoon by the Bay at Oracle Park.

On a Noon start time and a pleasant 62 degrees in the City. the Giants were aiming to win the series and achieve the safe .500 status. However, the 6-1 loss put their record to two games below .500. at 80-82, instead of 81-81.

“Regardless of what our record was, it would have been disappointing, based on what we felt the team was all about at the beginning of the season.” Stated Giants Manager Bob Melvin about not reaching .500. “Either if it were 81-81 or 80-82 it still was not going to feel much better, regardless.”

The game itself got off to a slow start, as no one scored until the third inning. Unfortunately that happened to be the road team from the Midwest. The Cardinals went up 1-0 off the bat of second baseman Brendan Donovan, as he belted a solo home run to right field, near McCovey Cove.

Two innings later, Donovan was at it again as a run producer. This at bat he hit an RBI single, scoring shortstop Thomas Saggese. The Cardinals temporarily led 2-0. Then left fielder Alec Burleson duplicated the previous feat with his own RBI single. He plated Pedro Peges, putting them up 3-0 after 5 innings of play.

In the top of the sixth stanza, St. Louis decided to double their score, while still simultaneously shutting out the Giants. Third baseman Jose Fermin continued the RBI single barrage by knocking in outfielder Michael Siani, expanding the lead to four.

Burleson repeated his last plate appearance with–you guessed it–another RBI single; however, this line drive scored two runners (Jordan Walker & Fermin). The Birds from the LOU were up a whopping 6-0 at that juncture of the game.

The Giants did show enough pride to prevent an embarrassing shutout at the Oracle Park Finale in the bottom of the seventh inning, second baseman Brett Wisely was on the other end of the ever so common RBI single. His hit brought in infielder Casey Schmitt, eliminating the Goose Egg the Giants were facing as season’s end.

After seven innings, San Francisco was finally on the scoreboard and had two innings to mount a dramatic final comeback. That did not come to fruition, so the Giants had to settle for a 6-1 loss, and the distinction of finishing the season below the magic .550 line. This imaginary line delineates a winning or non-winning season in all sports.

That’s a WRAP for the 2024 MLB season for the two Bay Area teams. In the 2025 season, the Giants will have the nine county region all to themselves, as the the now former cross-Bay neighboring Oakland Athletics, will be relocating to the State Capital city of Sacramento, with the final destination being in Las Vegas in 2028 with their former roommate, the Raiders.