Series Preview: SF Giants at Cardinals - important stats and how to watch

Slow Starts Sink Ships

The SF Giants are an odd team. They've scored double-digit runs at least once in four of the last five series, which is the kind of offensive production that last year's Dodgers were putting up. They've also lost three of those five series, going just 9-7 in that span and sitting at just a single game over .500. As the calendar melts into June, the Giants must do one thing - prove they're consistently a better team than whoever they face.

Right now, that isn't the case. They took out the Astros, Brewers, Twins, and Marlins in May, which was a good start. But after folding against the Cubs, scoring just 2 runs combined in their two losses, the Giants will have to rebuild whatever momentum they had coming out of Colorado. They face another struggling NL Central team in the St. Louis Cardinals, who many expected to contend this year, but that's unfortunately no guarantee of success for this team.

Part of the problem is that the Giants have been wildly ineffective against starting pitching in June. They've been outscored by 8 runs in the last 9 games by the time the opposing starter departs. In fairness, the Giants have cashed in a few more runs on inherited runners there to make the deficit a little less crushing, but even with an overall above-average offense, they've been trailing in the late innings way too often. In four of the last six games, the Giants have had to try to come from behind against notably worse teams. How many of those kinds of games can San Francisco realistically win against the Rays, Dodgers, or Braves?

It stings because in the other two games in the last two series, they've scored double-digit runs. It's not that the offense is simply scuffling. The Giants are built to do damage against opposing bullpens with late-inning roster swaps and quality depth. But it also seems like their strategy against opposing starters is to hope they break down and start serving up meatballs, and if not....well, maybe we can get them out of here before the sixth. The inconsistency is simply frustrating.

The Giants starters, at least, will have a shot at holding things down this series. Despite a couple of hiccups, the Webb-Cobb-DeSclafani trio has still been San Francisco's most reliable bunch of starters this year, and they'll cover this St. Louis series. But they'll need early run support instead of relying on late-inning rallies to bail them out once again. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that this is a series that the Giants need to sweep. If they can't, big changes are going to have to happen before they can realistically become contenders.

Series Details

Who: SF Giants at St. Louis Cardinals
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
When: June 12-14, Monday (4:45 PM), Tuesday (4:45 PM), Wednesday (1:15 PM). All times Pacific.

Giants' current streak: W1, 5-5 in last 10, 33-32 overall

Cardinals' current streak: L2, 3-7 in last 10, 27-39 overall

Projected starters:

Monday: Logan Webb (4-6, 3.09 ERA) vs. Matt Liberatore* (1-2, 6.00 ERA)

Tuesday: Alex Cobb (5-2, 3.01 ERA) vs. Jack Flaherty (3-4, 4.15 ERA)

Wednesday: Anthony DeSclafani (4-6, 3.89 ERA) vs. Jordan Montgomery* (3-7, 3.88 ERA)

*Indicates LHP

How to watch, listen:

SF Giants broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area, KNBR 680/1510 AM
Cardinals broadcast: Bally Sports Midwest, KMOX 1120 AM (880 Español)/98.7 FM
National broadcasts: MLB Network (Wednesday, out-of-market only)