Giants Offense Has Sputtered Dramatically During Recent Cold Streak

Now that the Major League Baseball season is just about a quarter of the way in, the picture is starting to become a little bit more clear for teams like the San Francisco Giants.

Over the first half of what's been played so far, the Giants were one of the major stories in all of baseball, vaulting themselves to become one of the best teams in the National League despite virtually zero expectations across baseball.

Though it's not as if San Francisco has completely fallen off the face of the earth during the second half, they have certainly started to cool down a little bit as reality sets in.

Entering the series finale trying to avoid a sweep against the Minnesota Twins, they have lost six of their last 11, and there is a clear main reason within the numbers.

What Has Gone Wrong For the Giants Lately?

On the season as a whole, San Francisco has an offense that is well above average, sitting right near the top-ten in runs scored as a team and collective hits.

Looking at the last two weeks though, the Giants are 20th in runs scored and even further below that in hits.

An offense that had been doing a tremendous job of backing up a thin pitching staff has started to cool off, and while much of that is the nature of the game and the marathon of a season, it's a storm that would be tough to weather.

The ugly reality for San Francisco is that their pitching is not — or at least has not been — strong enough to carry the offense, it has to be vice versa.

This is not particularly surprising given the narrative of what the pitching staff was seen as entering the year, but it is being reinforced a month and a half in.

If the Giants are going to make the kind of run they looked capable of in the first month of the season, they are going to need the lineup to raise its overall level of play.

Guys who immediately stand out as not carrying their weight are high-priced offseason addition Willy Adames as well as defensive standout catcher Patrick Bailey.

Both are two of the most important players on the team, but they have not hit like it.

San Francisco needs their best players at their best, and right now they are not getting it.

If the recent sputter over the last couple of weeks is going to prove to be just a blip on the radar for a playoff contending team, it's time for the bats to show up in a big way over the next few series.