Why this season felt like such a disappointment for the SF Giants

At 81 wins, the SF Giants finished just two games behind the Cincinnati Reds for the final Wild Card spot. This year was a low watermark for reaching the playoffs, and they fell short of that goal, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

Why this season felt like such a disappointment for the SF Giants

The New York Mets were sandwiched between the Giants and Reds in the standings. The Reds and Mets finished with the same record, but the former held the tiebreaker advantage in the head-to-head matchup.

For the Giants to have reached the playoffs, they would have needed 84 wins. The Mets had the tiebreaker over them, and they split the season series against the Reds. In that scenario, the tiebreaker would have been determined by intradivision record.

The Giants struggled against the NL West. The only division opponent they had a winning record against was the Colorado Rockies. They went 11-2 in those matchups. Overall, they went 24-28 against the NL West. On the other hand, the Reds went 26-26 against division opponents.

In many seasons, it usually takes well above 85 wins to reach the playoffs. That was the case just last season, where the Atlanta Braves and Mets needed 89 wins to play in the postseason.

This season, the Mets were one of the better teams in the NL in the first half. They had a 55-42 record in the first half, compared to a 28-37 record in the second half. It took a second-half collapse for the Reds to even sneak past them in the standings.

For the Giants, they did not massively underperform relative to expectations. Before the year began, most projection models had them at around 80 wins. The addition of Rafael Devers changed that trajectory to some extent.

While they did not necessarily underperform expectations, they were disappointing nonetheless. It is easy to comb through the season to find a few extra wins. The stretch of games I keep coming back to is the 1-5 stretch against the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox at the end of June. At a minimum, they needed to win three games in that stretch.

However, a poorly-time hit by of a pitch from Hayden Birdsong to Otto López against the Marlins led to a disastrous outing. The offense only putting up five runs against the White Sox did not help matters either.

Another series that sticks out was getting swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of July. That was the final series before the trade deadline. Perhaps, that was all Buster Posey needed to see before he traded away Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval, and Mike Yastrzemski.

These games come back to haunt teams at the end of the year. The Giants finished the season with 81 wins, and if they were wondering why they were short by a few games to reach the playoffs, the answer is right in front of them.

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