Will the SF Giants even finish ahead of the Padres this season?

As the SF Giants disappointing season draws to a close, a new point of frustration arises, the race with the San Diego Padres for third place in the NL West.

The SF Giants have not been good this year. While a rookie-powered explosion in June propelled the Giants as high as 13 games over .500, the rest of the year has been an extended crash and burn. Yet as disappointing as the season has gone, the Giants have remained in postseason contention, hanging onto just enough games to keep pace with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Wild Card race.

But after a 2-8 road trip against their divisional rivals, the Giants are all but out of it. They're 5.0 games back of Arizona, with just too few games left to play to make up the difference. What was a tense race has been settled. Now, the Giants must run a much more embarrassing race: outlasting the San Diego Padres to avoid falling to fourth in the National League West. 

On June 30, the Giants were ten games above .500, in the midst of their best baseball of the year. At that same time, the Padres were eight games below .500, sitting at a lowly 37-45. That gap has been winnowed down to essentially nothing, with the Padres currently tied with the Giants. Part of that has to do with San Diego's ill-fated decision to buy at the deadline; part of it has to do with San Francisco's misguided complacency. Regardless, both squads find themselves in the same position now - fighting for scraps, buried deep in the standings.

Perhaps it would be best if the Padres continued their trend and overtook San Francisco in the standings, with little else to play for but draft pick selections. A few more bad games and the Giants could slide past the Padres, Yankees, and Red Sox and claim the 12th spot in the 2023 MLB Draft. It wouldn't be the worst compensation for such an aggravating season.

But a fourth-place finish in the NL West would be a resounding humiliation after the fifth year of the Zaidi era. Giants fans have seen what this team is capable of when it's anchored by All-Star talent, and this current iteration of the Giants are not. Finishing behind San Diego would be another reminder of how important it is to be able to rely on your core contributors the entire season through and how unsustainable the current methods of roster building are.

In the end, maybe it doesn't actually matter. The Giants do need stars, but they've already wasted their best shot at enticing the offseason's premiere free agent, Shohei Ohtani, by failing to show him they're already a playoff-caliber team. The Giants are going to pick near the middle of the draft regardless, and they're not going to unlock a rookie's star potential in the final week of the season anyway. They can still play for pride, but that means a lot less than playing to win.

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Series details

Who: SF Giants vs. San Diego Padres
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
When: September 25-27, Monday (6:45 PM), Tuesday (6:45 PM), and Wednesday (6:45 PM). All times Pacific.

Giants' current streak: L2, 2-8 in last 10, 77-79 overall, 5.0 GB of 3rd Wild Card

Padres' current streak: W1, 9-1 in last 10, 77-79 overall, 5.0 GB of 3rd Wild Card

Projected starters

Monday: Logan Webb (10-13, 3.35 ERA) vs. Blake Snell* (14-9, 2.33 ERA)

Tuesday: Kyle Harrison* (1-1, 4.85 ERA) vs. Seth Lugo (7-7, 3.79 ERA)

Wednesday: Sean Manaea (7-6, 4.51 ERA) vs. Matt Waldron (1-3, 4.58 ERA)

*Indicates LHP

**Indicates opener

How to watch, listen

• SF Giants broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area, KNBR 680/1510 AM
• Opposing broadcast: SDP Network, KWFN 97.3 FM, XEMO 860 AM
• National broadcasts: FS1 (Monday), MLB Network (Tuesday and Wednesday, out-of-market only on Tuesday)
• Live stream: fuboTV (start your free trial)