The San Francisco Giants aren’t playing in the postseason, but some of their old friends are. Let’s look at how they did Tuesday.
For the seventh time in the last eight years, the San Francisco Giants will not be participating in the MLB playoffs. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for Giants fans to follow! There’s plenty of beloved, and less-beloved Forever Giants still playing in baseball’s exciting-if-bloated postseason tournament.
Here’s a look at how our old friends delivered on Tuesday’s four-game bacchanalia of baseball.
Mauricio Dubon
The Houston Astros left fielder grounded into a fielder’s choice and lined out to first in his two at-bats during the Detroit Tigers’ 3-1 victory. Dubon caught a line drive and also fielded a single. The Astros made things interesting with three straight hits in the 9th inning, eventually loading the bases with two outs, but Dubon had already been pinch-hit for at that point, so he missed his chance to be a hero.
Chas McCormick walked in Dubon’s place, and then Jason Heyward gave older Giants fans flashbacks to the 1962 World Series by scorching a line drive directly into Spencer Torkelson’s glove to end the game.
I wonder how many people shared my thought at the instant this happened: McCovey to Richardson. https://t.co/Bv2lfAd8pJ
— Bruce Jenkins (@Bruce_Jenkins1) October 2, 2024
Dubon is one the bench for Wednesday’s Game 2, in favor of Heyward. The Giants traded the future Gold Glover to Houston in 2022 for catcher Michael Papierski, who went hitless in the five games he played for the Giants.
Sam Long
The former SF Giants left-hander, originally known as “Sammy,” threw a perfect 7th inning in the Kansas City Royals’ 1-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. In a tidy 10-pitch appearance, Long induced two fly ball outs, then got Ramon Urias to ground out.
Long had a solid year for the Royals, pitching 42.2 innings with a 3.16 ERA, going 3-3 and notching his 4th career save. The Giants effectively traded Long for Cal Stevenson in April 2023, with both players going to the Oakland A’s and Giants for cash considerations. Stevenson went hitless in six games, though he did walk three times, and was a Philadelphia Phillie a month later.
Jorge Soler
The Giants’ big-money signing at DH this winter was traded to the Atlanta Braves along with Luka Jackson at the trade deadline, for single-A infielder Sabin Ceballos and the right to not pay Soler and Jackson the remainder of their salaries. After exclusively playing at designated hitter for the Giants, Soler has made all 46 of his appearances in a Braves uniform at one of the outfield corners.
Soler manned right field for Atlanta in their 4-0 loss to the San Diego Padres, going 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. He singled in the ninth inning and the Braves pinch-ran for him with Eli White, only for White to get immediately erased on a fielder’s choice. In the field, Soler caught three fly balls to him, while the Padres mainly did their damage on balls that went over the fence entirely.
The slugging outfielder should be in the lineup Wednesday night against Padres starter Joe Musgrove, against whom he’s hit 3-for-15 lifetime.
The Other Game
The New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers didn’t play any former Giants in their first game, but Forever Giant Sean Manaea will start Game 2 for the Mets. He went 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA this season, striking out 184 hitters in 181.2 innings.
The Mets used a controversial tactic with Manaea this year where he actually started games, instead of coming into games out of the bullpen most of the time. We’ll see if this crazy, revolutionary idea continues to work in the playoffs, but somewhere, Farhan Zaidi is shaking his head in disgust.