On Saturday night in Massachusetts, the San Francisco Giants found another brutal way to lose a game they had in hand.
They carried a 2-0 lead late, only to watch three runs cross in the bottom of the ninth and leave with a 3-2 walk-off defeat. For a club sitting at 52-77 and stuck in fourth place in the National League West Division, it was the latest ugly turn in a season that keeps finding new ways to sting.
The loss pushed San Francisco to 3-7 over its last 10 games as the 2026 season grinds toward the finish. Rookie Blade Tidwell gave the Giants exactly what they needed, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings.
Carson Seymour was also sharp, working 1.1 shutout innings of his own. But the rest of the relief effort unraveled, and the ninth inning erased everything that came before it.
That made it the Giants’ 11th walk-off loss of the year, their most since 2009, when they finished 88-74. That earlier team finished third. This group is only two games ahead of last place and, at this pace, could sink even lower by September.
Manager Tony Vitello didn’t dress it up after the game, telling Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, "A heartbreaking loss," Giants manager Tony Vitello said, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. "There's no other way to put it."
The bigger problem has been lurking all season: the bullpen has never settled into anything close to a reliable late-game unit. There has been no true closer, and the ripple effect has shown up everywhere else in the relief mix.
The numbers are hard to ignore. Per Inside the Pen, the Giants have converted just 24 of 44 save chances. Their bullpen ERA sits at 4.33, which ranks 22nd in MLB, and their 20 blown saves are tied for 11th in the league.
Put another way, 19 blown saves in 129 games means San Francisco has given away a win once every 6.8 games. And with no clear answers on the current roster for the closer and setup roles, there’s little evidence the fix is already in the room.
For now, the Giants are left to ride out a lost year and wait for president of baseball operations Buster Posey to go shopping in the offseason. The hope is that 2027 brings a refreshed relief corps and a much-needed reset in spring training.
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The Giants made the switch hoping a different defensive home would help Lee settle in and provide cleaner value in the outfield, but the underlying numbers still show a negative trend. For a club trying to tighten up every part of its game, Lees adjustment has become one of those small but stubborn issues that keeps showing up in the margins. [Read more 🡒]