The San Francisco Giants almost certainly won’t be in the postseason, but they are off to a good start to a long road trip.
The Giants will aim to complete a three-game sweep of the host Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon.
“Just an all-around great start to this road trip,” designated hitter Michael Conforto said after homering among his three hits in San Francisco’s 5-3 victory on Wednesday.
The Giants (74-78), who sit in fourth place in the National League West, thrashed the Orioles 10-0 on Tuesday in the series opener. San Francisco will make stops in Kansas City and Arizona to complete the nine-game road swing.
The Orioles (84-68), losers of eight of their past 10 games, fell five games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees. Baltimore has only four home games remaining before finishing the season on the road next week.
There were signs of small progress in the latest game.
“I thought guys were really engaged in the dugout,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
Baltimore is now assured of losing its fourth consecutive series. The Orioles are trying to block out the noise that would suggest there is panic.
“It’s really hard when things aren’t going your way, and being positive during a negative time,” catcher James McCann said. “We don’t need the fans or the media or the TV or whatever to tell us it’s not going right.”
In some ways, scoring three runs seemed like a breakout at the plate for the Orioles, who averaged 1.9 runs in their previous 11 contests. However, they stranded eight runners on Wednesday, all through the first seven innings.
“The encouraging thing about (the Wednesday game): I thought our at-bats were better,” Hyde said. “We created more traffic and we walked. Now we’re just waiting for some breaks offensively. But we gave ourselves opportunity.”
The Giants received first-inning leadoff home runs from Mike Yastrzemski in both games this week.
“Yaz set the tone in the first inning,” Conforto said. “Kind of putting the pitchers on their heels a little bit, and that’s what we talked about. Yaz being in that leadoff spot has been huge for us.”
The Orioles have right-hander Zach Eflin (10-9, 3.55 ERA) lined up as their Thursday starter. He is 5-2 with a 2.22 ERA since joining Baltimore from the Tampa Bay Rays in a July trade, but he lost his past two starts. The Friday setback shouldn’t be blamed on him because he went 6 2/3 innings while allowing only one run — a homer to the Detroit Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter.
Eflin has faced the Giants eight times (six starts), going 1-2 with a 4.79 ERA.
Right-hander Logan Webb (12-10, 3.53 ERA) will get the ball for the Giants. The All-Star is coming off his shortest start since May 5. He lasted four innings on Friday against the San Diego Padres, allowing four runs, three earned, and seven hits.
Webb worked seven innings on June 2, 2023, in his only career appearance against Baltimore, and he was tagged with a loss after giving up three runs on four hits.
Webb holds a 5-3 mark and a 3.62 ERA this year against American League teams. He will be in his 32nd start of the season, matching his 2022 total and one shy of his career high established last year.
