A 4-2 loss.
Part of me wants to berate the San Francisco Giants for losing to the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night, which they did, by a score of 4-2. Part of my wants to say that the Marlins (a bad baseball team) are the type of squad the Giants (a good baseball team) should be sweeping, especially when at home.
That ignores the reality of it all, though. The Marlins hold wins over the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, and Padres, and even a series win over the Rays. Baseball is going to baseball.
And so perhaps we should not be so put off by a loss, even a feckless one, even against a moderate-to-severely untalented team.
Yet it felt like a profoundly put-offable loss. The kind of loss that we were born to be put off by. Not one of those awful losses where everything goes wrong and you can shake it off, sleep it off, and try again tomorrow. Not one of those heartbreaking losses where you feel the pain when you wake up the next morning, but know it was still indicative of a good fight.
Just a mild-mannered, beige-colored loss filled with beige flags that are easy to fear may turn red.
All of their offense came in the fifth inning when Christian Koss, an extremely ninth-place hitter of a ninth-place hitter, top-spinned a liner over the left field wall for the second home run of his career.
Maybe that’s a green flag. Koss, seemingly the temporary everyday second baseman with Tyler Fitzgerald optioned, showing life with the bat. Koss, who made multiple sublime defensive plays, looking the part of a quality Major Leaguer. Koss, just three pitches after Patrick Bailey hit what looked and sounded like a home run but died on the center field warning track, telling his teammate I got you on an 0-2 pitch and dragging the Giants right back into the game.
On maybe it’s a red flag that, against a pitcher who brought a 5.68 ERA into the matchup, the Giants needed to rely on their most unlikely source of offense just to scrape a pair of runs across the plate. That they were so desperate for offense that, later in the inning, even with RBI-leader Wilmer Flores on deck, third base coach Matt Williams felt compelled to send Rafael Devers home from first on a double by Heliot Ramos, prompting a play at the plate so one-sided that Devers conceded before even considering a slide. So desperate for offense that Ramos getting heated when he was hit by a pitch an inning earlier felt like the closest thing they had to life, and was fittingly erased when Flores ground into a double play three pitches later.
On the mound, Justin Verlander was mediocrity personified, needing 86 pitches to get through five innings, giving up six baserunners and three runs, and striking out five. The beigest of pitching performances, followed by four innings with one run allowed by the bullpen.
Maybe that’s a green flag. Verlander, in just his second game back from an injury, and surely sleep-deprived after welcoming a new member to the family over the weekend, looking like a competent pitcher, never looking out of his control. The bullpen, despite not using Camilo Doval, Randy Rodríguez, or Tyler Rogers, keeping the Giants in the game on the off chance that the offense could do something.
Or maybe it’s a red flag. Kyle Harrison ain’t walking through that door and, as Verlander ceded a trio of runs to an awful offense, Carson Whisenhunt was getting rocked once more up the road. And while sure, the bullpen was strong, it was the one vital member of it who did make an appearance, Ryan Walker, who allowed runs to be scored, his ninth such occasion this year, just one shy of his entire 2024 total.
Perhaps they’re all just beige flags. Perhaps they’re green flags on a foggy night. But when Jung Hoo Lee led off the ninth inning with a four-pitch walk and, two batters later, Casey Schmitt — owner of some of the team’s best at-bats on the night — grounded into a game-ending double play, it felt fitting. And when bad things feel fitting, it tends to be a sign no one wants to read.
Not good enough. But maybe tomorrow they will be.