SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants took the field for their season finale on Sunday with the possibility of joining an exclusive if not enviable baseball cohort. Their record stood at one game under .500.
Their run differential for the season was minus-1. If they achieved a one-run victory over the St. Louis Cardinals , they would’ve become just the third team in major league history — joining the 1983 San Diego Padres and 1922 Chicago White Sox — to finish with a .
500 record and a flat-footed run differential of zero. Advertisement It didn’t happen. In front of a sunshine-splashed home crowd that soaked up its last glimpse of baseball at 24 Willie Mays Plaza this year, the Giants lost 6-1.
They’ll have to accept a season of somewhat breaking even. That turn of phrase, if it didn’t immediately register, was uttered by Giants chairman and control person Greg Johnson last October at the press conference to introduce Bob Melvin as the club’s new manager. Johnson was attempting to describe the ownership group’s annual financial goals.
Those break-even targets, of course, were tangential to their goals between the foul lines: to field a consistent and sustainable contender that can reach the postseason every year. Grateful to each and every one of you for your unwavering passion and support #SFGiants fans are truly the best in baseball 🧡 pic.twitter.
com/6UCPuzKmMg — SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 29, 2024 But the nuance mattered little to those who sei.