65-97
· Yahoo Sports
We got extra baseball on the final day of the season — which afforded the Giants relief pitching enough space to revert to their well-established baseline. The story for 9 innings was that Game 162 was the least 2026 Giants game of the 2026 season, mostly because of how well pitched it was. Tied in the 9th, the romantics allowed themselves to daydream, envisioning a big fly, a slow rising final shot for Mike Krukow to narrate, his third home run call in 36 years as a color-analyst.
That’s not the world we live in. A walk-off send-off blast just isn’t reality — at least not this year, not for this version of the Giants. Christian Koss, though he circled the bases in the 8th, thinking he tucked a solo shot inside the left-field foul pole, the call was walked back and ruled foul upon review. That phantom 2-1 lead faded from the board, like it never happened, like it wasn’t even close.
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That moment was the death rattle. The last, belabored gasp of this season. A home run turned into strike one. Strike two and strike three followed soon after. A couple innings later, with the Giants down to their final out, Koss was at the plate again, trying to swing out of a four-run hole.
What was an uncharacteristically impressive all hands on deck performance by the bullpen for 9 innings went up in flames in the 10th. Two quick outs were followed by two quick cement mixers served up by Duncan Davitt and annihilated by Alex Call and Andy Pages.
View LinkBefore that four-run nail-in-the-coffin, the mighty Dodgers had been subdued by nine different arms. A slew of slingers picked from scrap heaps and called in from far off fields on the farm went off script and held their own.
Carson Seymour didn’t give a homer in the 1st. Sam Hentges, in maybe his best moment in a Giants uniform, stayed focused and cut through the hubbub of Tony Vitello’s ejection by getting Mookie Betts to swing through an elevated fastball before fanning Freddie Freeman to end a threat in the 3rd.
Jonah Cox went horizontal behind Braxton Roxby to steal a single from Freddie Freeman in the 5th. Marcelo Mayer’s slick pick punctuated Jason Foley working around a lead-off double by Tommy Edman in the 7th.
View LinkLA had gone hitless in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They managed just six hits and one run, unearned on a sacrifice fly way back in the 4th.
Unfortunately, one run, on a first career RBI single by Scott Bandura, was all the Giants offense could manage against the parade of LA relievers as well.
Opportunities to add on presented themselves, but Bandura’s knock was San Francisco’s only hit with a run in scoring position in ten at-bats. Singles by Bo Davidson and Victor Bericoto to lead off the 4th went nowhere. In the 7th, Marcelo Mayer’s first hit as a Giant set-up runners at the corners with nobody out, but another opportunity to inch out ahead slipped away as both Drew Cavanaugh and Turner Hill fell victim to Bobby Miller curveballs.
View LinkThe second-coming of Camilo Doval carried the tie through to the bottom of the 9th, putting himself in line as the pitcher of record if the bats were to come alive before the 27th out. They didn’t, and by that time, all the pitching good will had been spent. Never give a good team more chances to beat you. The Giants did, and the Dodgers said thank you kindly and claimed their 100th win of the year while handing San Francisco their 97th loss.
This is the first time in their 144 year history that a Giants team has finished a season with a 65-97 record. It’s their worst finish since 2017’s 98-loss season.