The San Francisco Giants are down to their final three games of the 2026 season, and the last opponent on the schedule is about as loud as it gets: the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
That sets up a closing series at home that feels like one more chance for a young, battered Giants roster to leave something behind before the offseason arrives. The year has not gone the way San Francisco hoped, with Wild Card ambitions giving way to a season that is headed toward close to 100 losses. Still, there’s a final stretch left, and plenty of players trying to make sure they’re remembered for the right reasons.
Manager Tony Vitello doesn’t have many seasoned options left, but he does have youth to work with. The Giants already have two starters lined up for the series, while the final game of the season remains undecided.
Right-hander Yunior Marte will take the ball to open the series on Friday. Marte has already seen this Dodgers lineup recently, and that outing was a rough one: six earned runs on eight hits across 4.2 innings.
Even so, he has not been poor overall in a limited sample with the Giants. The bigger issue has been command, especially if he’s going to handle a lineup like Los Angeles.
In four games, including two starts, he owns a 1.40 WHIP, and the task now is simple - throw strikes and stay out of trouble.
Game two is expected to go to left-hander Matt Wilkinson, who has made a strong case for a role in the Giants’ 2027 starting rotation. September has been his best month so far, and he’s been building momentum with it. Over four games and 13 innings, Wilkinson has posted a 2.77 ERA this month.
His most recent appearance came against these same Dodgers, and it was the kind of outing that gets attention: five innings, three hits, no runs, no walks, and six strikeouts. He enters his final start of 2026 with a 3.65 ERA, and the way he’s finished has raised the bar for what could come next. If baseball is still being played in 2027, expectations around Wilkinson will be high.
In Other News...
Giants Just Got A Brutal Reality Check On Buster Poseys Roster
David Schoenfields final ESPN grades for all 30 clubs landed especially hard in San Francisco, where the Giants were one of just three teams to draw an F for the 2026 season. The evaluation matched the disappointing finish on the field: a losing record and a year that fell well short of the playoff hopes that hovered over the club before Opening Day. For a franchise that entered the season with expectations, the grade served as a blunt measure of how much ground was lost.
There were some reasons for optimism tucked into the overall review, including Bryce Eldridges strong rookie season and signs that the farm system is in better shape. Even so, Schoenfield pointed to underperforming contracts as part of the problem and put the spotlight on the front office led by Buster Posey to deliver a better response next season. The talent pipeline may be improving, but the big-league roster still has plenty to prove. [Read more 🡒]
Logan Webb Gives Giants Fans Something To Celebrate After A Tough Finish
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It was also a year with some bumps along the way. Webb finished with a 4.31 ERA, landed on the injured list because of a finger blister, and still found enough peak form to win National League Pitcher of the Month in June and make his third straight All-Star team. For a Giants season that ended without much joy, Webbs award offered a reminder of how much he still meant to the group, and why the question around his next step matters so much. [Read more 🡒]
Camilo Doval Just Put His Giants Future Back In Focus
Camilo Doval is back on the Giants roster, and the move quietly nudges one of the more unusual pitching stories of the season back into view. San Francisco activated the reliever and sent Cesar Perdomo to Triple-A Sacramento to clear a spot, a procedural swap that carries extra weight because Dovals path to this point has been anything but straightforward.
After being traded twice in 2026, first from the Giants to the Yankees and then to the Pirates, Doval was designated for assignment and claimed back by San Francisco. He has said he wants to keep pitching for the Giants, and with one year of team control left, his return puts his place in the clubs future back on the table even as the roster churn around him continues. [Read more 🡒]