Giants’ sweep of Rockies rekindles confidence playoffs are attainable originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants entered the weekend wondering what the near-future looked like. San Francisco sitting six games under .500 had some discussions about the team being potential sellers with the 2024 MLB trade deadline coming up.
How quickly things change.
Following a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, the conversations in the Giants’ clubhouse seem more focused about the day-to-day challenges they face rather than complaining about what happened in the past or what hurdles they may face in the near future.
And yes, the talks still include the possibilities of making it to the 2024 MLB playoffs.
“I know that everyone in this room, being in this room, we believe in each other and we believe that our best baseball is ahead of us,” Matt Chapman said after becoming the first Giants infielder to have 15 home runs and 12 steals in the same season since Jeff Kent in 2000. “Our pitching is getting healthier … and obviously offensively it seems like we’re starting to kind of put together good at-bats.
“We’ve got a lot of good things happening. We all believe in each other and we hope to be able to continue to push for that playoff spot.”
While no one believes that sweeping the Rockies was some huge accomplishment – Colorado (38-69) owns the worst record in the National League and second-worst in the majors – it was the perfect remedy for the Giants, who were 2-5 on their first road trip coming out of the All-Star break.
Combined with everything else that the Orange and Black have had to deal with this season, many fans already had begun looking forward to the 2025 season.
Some people may still feel that way, but inside the Giants’ clubhouse the thinking is focused on the here and now.
“I think we’re just playing cleaner baseball all the way around,” manager Bob Melvin said. “If we’re going to move forward we have to get to .500. But it was nice to be able to string a few wins together. When we took the field today we felt like we were going to win the game. And it’s important you get on rolls like that. That’s the type of feeling you have to have if you’re going to get on rolls.”
At 53-55, the Giants are the closest to .500 that they’ve been since beating Toronto on July 9 to get to 45-47. And while they’re still 3 ½ games behind the New York Mets for the third and final wild card spot in the NL, they could easily make some of that ground up in the coming weeks.
San Francisco hosts the suddenly resurgent Oakland Athletics in Oracle Park’s final version of the Bay Bridge Series before heading out on the road for seven winnable games against the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals, two teams that have also been struggling to get to .500.
After that the Giants return home to play the Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves before another two-game series against the A’s, this time in Oakland.
“I think it’s just a credit to not only the guys in the clubhouse but the coaches,” Chapman said. “BoMel and all the coaches have done a great job of navigating the injuries and all the stuff we’ve dealt with this year. It’s been a collective effort. It just shows that there’s fight in this year, and it doesn’t matter if it’s some of the young guys coming up, everybody’s contributed. Whoever’s over here and wearing this uniform, we believe in them.
“We needed that for sure. It’s not easy to four-game sweep somebody, so for us to find a way to get that done is good.”
Maintaining a positive outlook throughout the season surely hasn’t been easy but it’s been one of the key factors in San Francisco staying afloat and trying to get things back on track.
“We knew we have to play well to continue to be in this fight,” Melvin said. “Just tried to narrow it down to each and every game and not worry about what’s happened in the past and not worry about what’s going forward.”
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