Dispatch from Australia: Can the Giants finish their three-peat?

The San Francisco Giants are in the middle of a three-year hiatus from the playoffs, but the Adelaide Giants are still trying to go back-to-back-to-back

The Adelaide Giants don’t have any actual affiliation with the San Francisco Giants. In fact, in their earliest incarnation, they were linked to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is how Paul LoDuca spent formative months Down Under, as did future Giants relievers Felix Rodriguez (1993) and Matt Herges (1999). But now they’re in the Australian Baseball League playoffs, trying to win a third straight ABL title.

Adelaide spent nine years as the Adelaide Bite, which is both a reference to great white sharks and a nearby landmark called the Great Australian Bight, which is basically the long inland curvature in the middle of the southern part of the continent. They went back to being the Giants in 2019, though that hasn’t kept them from retaining a fan section known as the Shark Tank along the first base line. Perhaps in a nod to their Bay Area counterparts, that section was briefly known as the Burrito Bowl.

There are some other similarities with the American team, with the Adelaide announcing team winning Broadcaster of the Year this season. Those other telecasts can clearly grab some pine, meat. And that meat might be kangaroo.

The ABL is very similar to minor league ball in the United States, with lots of stunts, chants, and crowd-pleasing events. They also have a number of MLB minor leaguers playing winter ball due to the favorable climate, along with “non-imports,” aka, Australians. That’s also something they have in common with San Francisco, who also played a lot of minor leaguers on their team last season.

Adelaide’s name change coincided with a rise in the club’s fortunes. Since going back to Giants, they’ve made it to the Championship Series in three of the past four seasons (one was cancelled for COVID-19). Adelaide won it all in 2023 and 2024, defeating the Perth Heat both times.

This year they’re facing the Heat again, this time in the semifinals. Adelaide finished second in the regular season, after a wild final day that saw them rally with a six-run ninth inning to eliminate the Melbourne Aces. In the first game Friday night in Adelaide, Giants pitcher Lachlan Wells did his best Logan Webb impression. He pitched nine innings, yielding just two runs and two hits, striking out nine and walking none.

He also lost due to a lack of run support, which was the cherry on top of his Webb impression. Wells gave up a two-run home run to Tampa Bay Rays prospect Angel Mateo, and the Giants went on to lose, 2-1.

Wells was the ABL’s MVP in the 2023-24 season, then spent last year with the Double-A Reading Phillies, where he went 6-5 with a 3.55 ERA. His teammate Briley Knight, whose homer gave Adelaide their only run, played college ball at the University of Portland.

Despite getting eight hits, including a home run and two doubles, the Giants couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position, going 0-10 with RISP and leaving 10 men on base. This author feels like he’s describing a San Francisco game from August with those words.

So the Adelaide Giants and their collections of Aussies and mostly-Phillies prospects have to win two in a row against Perth to have a chance to defend their title. Perhaps they too have championship blood, but after a game like this, it’s safe to say that Adelaide Giants baseball is also torture.