Giants Can’t Afford To Have Strength of Team Falter in Second Half

After a poor end to June, the San Francisco Giants are fortunately playing much better to start July.

With the summer months here, the Giants limped into July in a bit of a rut.

San Francisco has been able to be one of the best teams in the National League, and a massive surprise this season. However, they showed some weaknesses to end June with losses coming against some of the worst teams in the league.

More News: Giants Are Exceeding Expectations but Still Have Plenty of Work Left To Do

The Giants were swept at home by the Miami Marlins in the three-game set and then followed that up by losing two out of three games against the Chicago White Sox. As two of the worst teams in baseball, losing five out of six games during that stretch was very concerning.

While things have been better of late, the poor stretch over the last month has resulted in some concerns.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about a somewhat concerning trend for the Giants amid their recent struggles.

More News: Here's Why Giants Slugger Rafael Devers Skipped First Workout at First Base

“But, as a whole, the Giants have unraveled over the past month, allowing 4.84 runs per game while losing 14 of their last 25. Once an impenetrable fortress, the non-Rodríguez portion of the bullpen has been more like Swiss cheese lately, especially closer Camilo Doval.”

San Francisco is certainly a team that has been built on pitching and defense. So far, that has resulted in a lot of wins overall, but the Giants showed that if the pitching starts to slip, the offense isn’t quite capable of picking them up right now.

More News: Giants Select Talented SEC Shortstop in New MLB Mock Draft

Hopefully, with the addition of Rafael Devers, he along with Willy Adames and Matt Chapman can lead an improved unit in the second half of the campaign in the lineup. However, it will still be the pitching staff they rely on.

So far this year, the Giants have been led by the best bullpen in baseball in terms of ERA. This unit has been excellent and a bit of a surprise as well. However, while some of the key members are still performing very well, the struggles of closer Camilo Doval have raised an eyebrow.

His resurgent campaign has been a contributing factor in the turn around for the unit, and hopefully the rough stretch is nothing more than that.

More News: Giants Are Exceeding Expectations but Still Have Plenty of Work Left To Do

Furthermore, the rotation has the luxury of having two aces in Robbie Ray and Logan Webb. Both pitchers were selected to the NL All-Star team, but there isn’t much behind them in terms of reliable depth in the rotation.

As the trade deadline approaches, adding some depth to the pitching staff would help prevent a similar tough stretch from happening.

For more Giants news, head over to Giants On SI.