Willy Adames gave the Giants a milestone moment Thursday night, but the rest of the game kept slipping through their hands.
Adames launched the 200th home run of his Major League career in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians, a blast that also gave him 20 homers this season. That made him the first Giant to reach the 20-homer mark as a shortstop in multiple seasons since Brandon Crawford had 24 in 2021 and 21 in 2015, and the first to do it in two straight seasons since Rich Aurilia had 20 homers in 2000 and 37 the following year.
But the early damage on defense proved costly, and the Giants never dug out of it in a 5-2 loss at Progressive Field.
Adames committed his 137th career error, and his 18th this season, in the first inning when he couldn’t handle a sharp grounder that could have become an inning-ending double play. That mistake helped open the door for Cleveland to add a third run later, and the Giants also gave away another one in the eighth when they failed to finish a rundown with San Mateo native Petey Halpin trapped between first and second.
Osleivis Basabe couldn’t secure the ball while chasing Halpin toward second, and after Halpin moved to third on a wild pitch by JT Brubaker, he scored on Brayan Rocchio’s single.
The sloppy stretches overshadowed a rough night for Landon Roupp, who was charged with three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. The Giants have now lost each of Roupp’s last six starts and 17 of the last 19 games he’s appeared in. They’ve also lost their sixth straight series and were held to two runs or fewer for the 45th time in 127 games this season.
Roupp needed 39 pitches to get through the first two innings after a rocky opening. Jose Ramirez and Nathaniel Lowe each drove in a run, and then Angel Geneo sent a hard grounder up the middle that Adames couldn’t cleanly field. One batter later, former Giants catcher Patrick Bailey singled to bring in Ramirez and make it 3-0 Cleveland.
The Giants’ offense was quiet for most of the night against Gavin Williams. The Cleveland starter struck out six of the first nine hitters he faced, including four on his sweeper and two on a four-seam fastball that reached 100 mph.
San Francisco finally broke through in the fourth when Rafael Devers singled to center for the club’s first hit, and Adames followed by crushing a 97 mph Williams fastball into the right-center field seats.
Even then, the Giants couldn’t sustain it. They finished with five hits, struck out 13 times and left nine runners aboard. Two more were stranded in both the eighth and ninth innings.
The Giants struck out 40 times over the three-game series, which Cleveland won two games to one. San Francisco had won 1-0 on Wednesday, but has now dropped seven straight rubber games on the road.
Now the Giants head to Fenway Park for a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox. Those games will be Devers’ first in Boston since June 2025, when he was traded by the Red Sox to the Giants for Jose Bello, James Tibbs III, Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks.
In Other News...
Dodgers Off-Field Trouble Could Finally Change The NL West Fight
For years, the Dodgers have seemed to operate with the kind of financial certainty that keeps the rest of the NL West chasing shadows, but the backdrop around owner Mark Walter is suddenly less stable. Walter is reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice over alleged financial mismanagement tied to life insurance companies he owns, adding a layer of off-field uncertainty to a franchise that has helped set the standard for spending and roster building in the division.
The alleged moves under scrutiny, including claims that Walter sold the Lakers to raise capital and tried to cash out the Dodgers' TV deal, only deepen the questions about how the organization is positioned going forward. For the Giants, and for everyone else trying to close the gap, the immediate baseball impact is still unclear, but any crack in the Dodgers' financial armor is worth watching closely in a race that has long been shaped by resources as much as results. [Read more 🡒]
Marcelo Mayer Could Force A Giants Infield Decision Soon
Marcelo Mayer appears headed for the big leagues soon, and the timing could make the Giants infield picture even more interesting. The former Red Sox prospect, now in San Francisco after the trade that sent him west, has been working mostly at second base during his rehab assignment with Sacramento, a sign the club is already thinking about where he fits once he arrives.
The Giants current infield mix has been thinned by injuries and reshaped by recent trades, leaving room for Mayer to carve out a role right away. He has spent most of his minor league time at shortstop, but the club may ask him to handle second or third base, and that decision could come into focus quickly with a series against Boston on deck. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Stuck With A Growing Willy Adames Problem
Willy Adames has given the Giants exactly the sort of durability and everyday presence they wanted when they handed him a major deal, but the defensive side has become harder to ignore as the season has gone on. His back injury has clearly factored into the picture, and the results have shown up in the field, where his error total has climbed into the leagues upper reaches and turned shortstop into one of the teams most uncomfortable storylines.
For San Francisco, the real problem is that the path out is not obvious. The club does not have a clear alternative waiting to take over at short, which leaves it in the uneasy position of weighing Adames overall value against the mistakes piling up behind him. With the contract already on the books and the roster options thin, the Giants may have no choice but to keep riding it out and hope the defense settles down. [Read more 🡒]