Why late-season surge will be too little too late for SF Giants

It appears that the SF Giants have finally remembered how to play baseball. The team has been hot as of late, and suddenly looks like they have found their stride.

Rafael Devers is playing like the best DH in baseball again, Willy Adames looks like the guy San Francisco signed to the largest contract in franchise history, and Matt Chapman continues to be one of the most valuable third basemen in the league when healthy.

Unfortunately, the team's latest surge is too little, too late. The Giants will not be able to ride their wave into the playoffs. Yesterday we made the case for why the Giants will make the playoffs, today we play devil's advocate.

Why SF Giants will miss playoffs despite late season surge

For one, their rotation still is not at the level it needs to be. Outside of Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, who have been fantastic this year, the Giants do not have the rotation depth to make a postseason run. Justin Verlander, the team's No. 3 starter, is not the pitcher he once was. Carson Whisenhunt, Kai-Wei Teng, and Carson Seymour are not ready to give the team high-leverage innings as a starter at this point in their young careers.

Then there's the issue of the Mets, who still lead San Francisco by four games for the final NL Wild Card spot. The Mets were struggling in July and August, but they've pulled themselves together over the past two weeks, with an 8-6 record in their last 14 games. The Mets also hold the tiebreaker over the Giants, due to their better head-to-head record this season. That means San Francisco needs to be five games better than New York in the last 22 games of the season.

Even with a relatively soft schedule, that's probably not going to happen. The Diamondbacks and Cardinals aren't great, but they are still both hovering around .500, and both teams are capable of stealing wins against the Giants.

There's also the glaring issue of the Dodgers. San Francisco still has seven games against the Dodgers, which presents a serious issue. Unless the Giants can take at least four of the seven games against the Dodgers, their season is probably cooked, regardless of whether they win the rest of their remaining series.

Unfortunately for the San Francisco Giants, it is not easy to overcome three months of bad baseball. This squad is trying their best to do it, but the hole the team dug itself into in June, July, and the first half of August is probably too deep to climb out of. It's been a fun few weeks, but it's too little, too late.

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