Just How Bad is the San Francisco Giants Bullpen Right Now?

After their 13th blown save if the season on Saturday against the Boston Red Sox, the Bay Area relief corps continues to be a major weakness

San Francisco Giants' former closer, Ryan Walker | Credit: Bob Kupbens | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

On Saturday night, the mother of all meltdowns occurred in Massachusetts, as one of baseball's biggest underachievers found another painful way to lose a close contest.

The San Francisco Giants, purveyors of a 52-77 record this season and (not-so-proudly) clinging to fourth place in the National League West Division, set their own house on fire again. Leading 2-0 late in the contest, the team allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lose a heartbreaker, 3-2.

The walk-off loss dropped San Fran to 3-7 in their last 10 games as they simply try to put the merciless 2026 season to an end. Despite a terrific 5.2 scoreless innings from rookie Blade Tidwell, the Giants threw water all over it. The sandcastle that Tidwell had built with his sensational start was washed away by a tidal wave of bad relief pitching — Save for fellow youngster Carson Seymour, who also threw shutout baseball for 1.1 innings of work.

It was the club's 11th walk-off loss of the season, the most for the Giants since 2009, when the team went 88-74. That was a third-place team. This year's squad is only two games out of last place and could be in the cellar by September at this rate.

Many of their losses can be attributed to their relievers. Still, that doesn't soften San Francisco's psyche in this sad season. Having victories slip from your grasp in such a manner can be devastating to a team's mindset.

"A heartbreaking loss," Giants manager Tony Vitello said, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. "There's no other way to put it."

The Bullpen by the Numbers

Giants reliever Sam Hentges | Credit: D. Ross Cameron | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Statistically, the San Francisco bullpen continues to be a thorn in their side, as they have been all season. This group has never established a bona fide closer, and that's caused all the other dominoes to fall behind it.

A cursory examination of the statistics explains it all per Inside the Pen. The Giants have converted just 24 of 44 save opportunities this season. MLB bullpen rankings have San Francisco's group posting a 4.33 ERA thus far, placing them 22nd out of the 30 teams, and their 20 blown saves are tied for 11th in the game.

To put that all into perspective: 19 blown saves in 129 games means San Francisco has blown an opportunity for a victory once every 6.8 games. And they certainly don't have any answers on the current roster to fill the key closer and setup roles - at least, not from what we've seen so far.

The best course of action right now is to continue on course in a wasted year, and see what president of baseball operations Buster Posey goes shopping for in the offseason. Then, hopefully, the team can return in 2027 to refresh the relief corps in sunny spring training. Surely, there will be brighter days ahead for the San Francisco bullpen.