San Francisco Giants End Week No Worse for Wear, Earn Split With AZ

The San Francisco Giants headed into a massive weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and made out no worse for wear. That did them well heading into a nine game stretch against teams that are above them in the standings.

Heading into the San Francisco Giants series against the first place Arizona Diamondbacks, Giants fans had high hopes for gaining some solid ground in their postseason races. That didn’t quite happen, but they lucked out in not losing much ground. They started five back and ended five back, thanks in large part to their next opponent, the Houston Astros. The Astros took two of three from the Dodgers in LA, keeping the Diamondbacks atop the the NL West standings.

The only team in the West to actually gain ground was the Colorado Rockies, who the Giants will face six more times during the rest of the season. It seems the Giants have been able to split against the good teams they’ve faced in recent times, and beat up on the bad ones. So let’s take a look at the schedule and see how many games they have remaining against “contending opposition” versus the cellar dwellers.

The Giants have the following setup in their schedule:

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• 21 games against the NL West, where they currently have a winning record (29-26)
• 13 games against the NL Central, where they currently have a losing record (9-11)
• 10 games against the NL East, where they currently have a winning record (13-10)
• Of their games against opponents with better records, 20 of those are at home, where they have a record of 32-22
• With 50 games remaining, they play 19 games against teams who are currently worse than them in the standings, with the potential for that number to grow in the coming days. Those teams are the Rangers, Mets (7 games), Reds, and Padres
•  They only play 9 road games against teams with better records
•  Of their 21 remaining games in the division, 12 of those are at home

So what does that mean? The numbers say that given what the Giants splits are, both divisional and at home, and considering the opponents remaining, the Giants should be able to gain some ground in the coming weeks. They have a lot of divisional games at home, and they have 16 games against the Mets, Reds, and Padres, all teams that this Giants team should be able to take care of.

If they can hang with the Diamondbacks in a four game set on the road, they can get some big wins and take a few hot streaks. The schedule really eases up after the next nine games, so if the Giants can stay afloat through that stretch, they could really find themselves rise in contention.

They also have the potential to implode spectacularly. But with the way that those currently here are swinging the bat, and the impending return of Brandon Belt, the Giants could really make a big push.

Will they? Time will tell. But maybe digging out today’s big win against the Diamondbacks is the type of win that will spur them on to a nice run.