Sept. 19—The San Francisco Giants almost certainly won’t make the playoffs, but they’re off to a good start on a long journey.
The Giants aim to defeat the host Baltimore Orioles in three games on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a great trip for this road trip,” designated hitter Michael Conforto said after collecting three hits in San Francisco’s 5-3 win on Wednesday.
The Giants (74-78), fourth in the National League West, beat the Orioles 10-0 in Tuesday’s series opener. San Francisco will complete a nine-game road trip with stops at Kansas City and Arizona State.
The Orioles (84-68) have lost eight of their last 10 games and are five games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees. Baltimore has only four home games remaining before the season ends next week.
The latest game shows some small signs of improvement.
“I think guys are really engaged in the dugout,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
Baltimore is now certain to lose its fourth consecutive series. The Orioles are trying to block out the noise that could signal panic.
“It’s really hard to stay positive even in the negative when things aren’t going your way,” catcher James McCann said. “We don’t need fans, media, TV or anything else to tell us that things aren’t going well.”
In some ways, scoring three runs seemed like a success for the Orioles, who had averaged 1.9 runs per game over their previous 11 games. However, they stranded eight batters in the first seven innings on Wednesday.
“The encouraging thing about Wednesday’s game is this: I think our hitters are better,” Hyde said. “We created more traffic, we walked. Now we’re waiting for some breaks on the aggression. But we gave ourselves a chance.”
The Giants got first-inning homers from Mike Yastrzemski in both games this week.
“Yaz set the tone in the first game,” Conforto said. “Pitchers are kind of nervous, that’s what we talked about. It means a lot to us that Yaz is leading the way.”
The Orioles started right-hander Zach Eflin (10-9, 3.55 ERA) on Thursday. He is 5-2 with a 2.22 ERA since joining Baltimore from the Tampa Bay Rays in July, but he has lost his last two starts. He shouldn’t be blamed for Friday’s loss, as he went 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run — a homer off Kerry Carpenter of the Detroit Tigers.
Eflin has faced the Giants eight times (six starts) and is 1-2 with a 4.79 ERA.
Right-hander Logan Webb (12-10, 3.53 ERA) will take the ball for the Giants. The All-Star made his shortest start since May 5.
On June 2, 2023, Webb pitched seven innings against Baltimore, the only appearance of his career, and was marked for the loss after giving up three runs on four hits.
Weber went 5-3 with a 3.62 ERA against American League teams this year. It was his 32nd start of the season, equal to his total in 2022 and one short of his career high set last year.
–Visual-level media
