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One area that Giants have struggled in that surprises GM Zack Minasian the most originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants’ recent struggles are no mystery, but what has general manager Zack Minasian most perplexed?

Minasian joined KNBR 680’s the “Murph & Markus Show” on Thursday morning and was asked what surprises him the most about the team’s current skid.

“I don’t know if I would point to one particular area that has been disappointing other than our overall record,” Minasian explained. “For whatever reason, we just haven’t seemed to hit with runners in scoring position like we had hoped.”

Early in the year, the Giants’ offense wasn’t a problem, but the last few months have turned into a downward spiral.

“It’s always tough to isolate that situation and say, ‘Well, this is why,’ ” Minasian added. “I think we’re 30th by a decent margin vs. the 29 teams, probably since mid-May … mid-June.”

San Francisco acquired three-time MLB All-Star Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox on June 15th. Since then, the Giants have batted .214 with runners in scoring position, the worst mark in the league.

“That part, in particular, has been really difficult to put your finger on as far as why it’s not happening at that specific moment,” Minasian concluded.

Hopes of a NL Wild Card spot are nearly out of reach as the Giants were swept by the Padres earlier this week. San Francisco went 3-13 (.231) with runners in scoring position in the series.

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In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.

The Dodgers have dropped out of first place.

The team that was expected to win 120 games has fallen a game behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West, and who knows how much further baseball’s most expensive collection of players could plummet?

The geniuses in the front office improved the farm system more than they did the obviously problematic bullpen at the trade deadline, resulting in blown lead after blown lead after blown lead.

Games have become "Choose Your Own Adventure" books in which every choice available to manager Dave Roberts ends in disaster, with relievers giving up leads in four of the team’s last seven games.

The recent activation of Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have made the starting pitching whole, but what does it matter if the bullpen can’t close out games?

Mookie Betts has started hitting and the offense has picked up, but what does it matter if the relievers give the runs right back?

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters the other day the look of the bullpen could significantly change by the time the playoffs start because of the anticipated returns of the likes of Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech. He could be right.

Read more:Welcome to second place: Tumbling Dodgers are swept by the Angels

However, there’s no chance of that transformation occurring in the next 10 days, which could be the most important 10 days of the regular season. The Dodgers will play the Padres six times over that period — three times at Dodger Stadium this weekend and three times at Petco Park in San Diego next weekend.

The Padres have won 14 of their last 17 games to overtake the Dodgers, who were nine games ahead of them on July 3. Whereas the Dodgers were relatively inactive at the trade deadline, the Padres fortified a lineup powered by Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. They bolstered the league’s No. 1 bullpen with the addition of Mason Miller, the best reliever on the market.

The Dodgers also have momentum — but an entirely different kind. When their starting pitcher departs a game, a collapse feels inevitable.

That was certainly the case on Wednesday when Ohtani was taken out of the game against the Angels with a 5-4 advantage. Why wouldn’t there be a sense of impending doom in a game in which Roberts was forced to place the game in the hands of Justin Wrobleski and Edgardo Henriquez?

Wrobleski and Henriquez combined to give up two runs in the eighth inning, and the Angels went on to complete their three-game sweep of the Dodgers.

If they had protected the lead, who would have pitched the ninth inning?

Roberts: “Umm …”

The manager eventually came up with a name: , whom the Cincinnati Reds demoted to the minor leagues before trading him to the Dodgers.

Roberts explained that Blake Treinen was unavailable because he’d pitched in three of the last five games. Another potential consideration Roberts didn’t mention: Treinen, who was activated from the injured list about two weeks ago, has a 4.26 earned-run average.

The blown lead on Wednesday was the second by the Dodgers in as many days. A worn-down-looking Alex Vesia gave up a tying run in the ninth inning and Ben Casparius lost the game in the 10th.

Read more:Nine-game NL West lead gone: Dodgers fall into first-place tie after Angels walk-off

“It’s something that we’re really not accustomed to, to be quite honest,” Roberts said.

The bullpen played a major role in the championship the Dodgers won last year. That seems like a remote possibility this year. Even if Scott and Yates return, what are the chances of them pitching well when the high-price free-agent pickups haven’t pitched well for the majority of the season?

And, say, the bullpen comes together as Friedman envisions. Where will the Dodgers be in the standings? The Dodgers have the fifth-best record in the NL. Only two teams receive first-round byes.

In the wake of the loss on Wednesday night, Roberts sat in the visiting manager’s office at Angel Stadium. A bottle of wine was on the desk in front of him.

“It’s a gift,” Roberts said. “I haven’t opened it yet.”

He didn’t discount the possibility of doing so, however. Asked if he could drink the entire bottle that night, Roberts forced a smile.

“Possibility,” he said.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why Rafael Devers criticism confuses former Giants teammate Mike Yastrzemski originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Mike Yastrzemski was not teammates with Rafael Devers for long, but he knows exactly what kind of person and player the slugger is.

The former Giants outfielder joined “Foul Territory” on Monday and was asked what it was like playing with Devers, whose Boston Red Sox tenure ended in controversy, for nearly two months before he was traded to the Kansas City Royals on July 31, before the MLB trade deadline.

“He was the best man. Awesome teammate … I think he just got thrown into a weird circumstance,” Yastrzemski told A.J. Pierzynski. “Sometimes as players you have to stick up for yourself and I think that’s what he tried to do. And I think the wording of it was delivered poorly. Because he’s an awesome teammate.”

“He works his tail off. He tries to help everybody. If you’re facing a guy that he’s faced and you haven’t faced him, full scouting report … He’s really smart and he cares about winning so much. So, I don’t understand where all the heat came from.”

Devers left Boston on a sour note after he reportedly refused to play first base after the team already transitioned him from third base to designated hitter when they signed Alex Bregman in the offseason.

He began his Giants tenure as the team’s designated hitter while nursing a minor groin injury before eventually debuting at first base for San Francisco on July 22, and in the weeks since the move, appears to have taken kindly to the transition.

Although his short stint with the Giants has not gone the way he or the team expected after the blockbuster trade in June, there is no denying how impactful Devers can be for San Francisco moving forward.

As Yastrzemski can attest to.

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David Peterson was the only arm out of the starting rotation the Mets could rely on to give the team length. 

Entering Wednesday's game against the Braves, Peterson had six consecutive starts where he went six innings (a career-high) and in 15 of his last 22 starts. That would not continue on Wednesday as Peterson's fourth-inning implosion led to nine runs and an eventual 11-6 loss. Of those nine runs, six were charged to Peterson thanks to walks and getting behind in counts.

"He lost the strike zone, missing a lot armside and the walks, especially when you’re walking the bottom of the lineup," manager Carlos Mendoza said of Peterson's fourth inning. "The inning started with four straight balls…they made him pay."

In the fourth, Peterson allowed four walks and two hits before being pulled for Reed Garrett. The right-handed reliever could not get out of the inning, as the Braves capped off the inning with a grand slam from Michael Harris II.

Peterson allowed six earned runs for the first time in a game since May 15, 2023, at Washington and for the sixth time in his 124 career outings. His 3.1 innings pitched also marked his shortest start since Aug. 4, 2023.

But starters have bad outings throughout a 162-game season, but this has become an epidemic for the Mets' starting rotation. With Peterson's short outing, the Mets starters have gone a full turn -- including Frankie Montas' bulk outing -- without going five innings. 

When asked why his starters haven't been able to give the team length, Mendoza pointed to one reason.

"When you look at the last couple of nights, we lost the strike zone," Mendoza said. "Pretty much with all of them, giving free passes. Teams are going to make you pay. Top of my head, that’s been the biggest thing for me. We haven’t been able to get a shutdown inning, especially when we get the lead like that. It’s frustrating."

"Yeah, it’s frustrating. We’re not holding up our end, and we need to do better," Peterson said of the rotation not giving length. "[Fixing it] starts with analyzing the performance and turning the page and moving on to the next one." 

The team has received only 594.1 innings from starters this season, which is 27th in the majors. Since June 13, they have been last in that category. 

"We got the coaches looking at pretty much everything, trying to figure it out," Mendoza said of this stretch of losses for the Mets. "How can we continue to help these guys, especially the guys from the rotation. We know the talent’s there, we just haven’t been able to get much from them, especially this last time through. Not easy, but understanding, we have to keep going."

The Mets will look to win their series with the Braves on Thursday before hosting the Mariners over the weekend. Pitching prospect Nolan McLean will start Saturday's game, and perhaps the youthful arm can give the team the length from the rotation they are desperate for.

The result was historic. The way it happened was all too familiar.

Never before, since interleague play began in 1997, had the Dodgers been swept in a six-game season series against the Angels.

But plenty of times in recent weeks had they suffered the kind of fate that befell them Wednesday.

Entering the eighth inning, the team was leading by one run. Without many trustworthy options in a recently scuffling bullpen, however, manager Dave Roberts had few cards to play from his deck.

First, he sent left-hander Justin Wrobleski out for a third inning of work. When he walked the first two batters, Roberts turned to right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, who had pitched multiple innings the night before.

You can probably guess what happened next.

Despite perfectly defending a sacrifice bunt to get the lead runner at third, the Dodgers again failed to escape a late-game threat. With one out, Jo Adell hit what looked like a possible double-play grounder — only for Henriquez to deflect the ball on an ill-advised fielding attempt and send it rolling away for an infield single.

Two batters later, Logan O’Hoppe roped a go-ahead, two-out base hit into center.

Read more:Shaikin: Will Smith could win a batting title. Could the Dodgers stop him?

Another lead had been squandered by the bullpen. Another loss — the Dodgers’ fourth straight, and 21st in their last 33 games — had been all but cemented.

With a 6-5 defeat, the Dodgers were swept for the second time this season by the Angels. They also fell out of first place in the National League West for the first time since April.

It was yet another day they could only shake their head.

Wednesday was supposed to be about Shohei Ohtani, who was making his first pitching start as a visitor at his old home ballpark at Angel Stadium.

It was also Ohtani’s first full-length outing since returning from a second career Tommy John surgery earlier this year. But even the two-way star could only conjure so much magic.

After building up inning by inning since his return to pitching, Ohtani’s leash was extended into the fifth for the first time this season — a target length the Dodgers don’t plan on having him surpass at least until the playoffs.

“He’s just such a valuable player to us offensively, as a pitcher,” Roberts said. “So to push for an extra inning, or call it five extra innings in totality, it’s just not worth it. There’s just way too much downside.”

Read more:After one year, this MLB postseason schedule innovation is no longer

And by the time Ohtani took the mound for the first time, he’d already helped the Dodgers take an early lead, beginning the game with a scorching line-drive triple before Mookie Betts singled him home and Will Smith went deep to make a three-run first inning.

The two-way star gave up two runs in the second, one on a Taylor Ward home run, then another after Yoán Moncada doubled and came around to score on a sacrifice fly, but the Dodgers restored their three-run advantage with a two-run rally in the fourth; one that featured three walks (including one from Ohtani and a run-scoring free pass from Smith) and an RBI single from Betts (who extended his hitting streak to eight games, five of which have been multi-hit efforts).

Ohtani’s first foray into the fifth inning didn’t go smoothly. O’Hoppe and Bryce Teodosio hit consecutive one-out singles. Zach Neto laced a two-run double into the left-field corner that kicked away from Alex Call. And with his pitch count up to a season-high of 80, Roberts went to get him before he could qualify for the win.

Reliever Anthony Banda escaped the inning without further damage. Ohtani’s final line was 4 1/3 innings, four runs, five hits and seven strikeouts (two of them against former Angels co-star Mike Trout). His season ERA is now 3.47. He has 32 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings.

And for a while, it appeared the score would remain that way — until yet another late-game collapse sent the Dodgers to another maddening setback.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.