San Francisco Giants Are 0-61 When Trailing After Eight Innings
Most teams are able to win a handful of games when trailing after eight innings. This season the San Francisco Giants haven’t been able to win one.
The San Francisco Giants‘ second-half slide has been well documented. On August 20 they were in first place in the National League West. As of Tuesday night they were eight games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and clinging to the final Wild Card spot. In an article following the Giants’ loss on Sunday, Andrew Baggarly noted one reason for frustration in San Francisco this season. The Giants are 0-61 when trailing after eight innings.
Grant Brisbee brought this fact to attention in an article detailing some of San Francisco’s struggles. At the time he wrote this article, the New York Mets had also not won a game when trailing after eight. However, in the past three weeks they finally put a mark in the win column when facing this situation.
On one level, the Giants’ record in these types of games shouldn’t be that surprising. Across the majors teams have won four percent of their games when trailing after eight (89-2,031). For the sake of comparison, the Giants won two games when trailing after eight in 2015, and they won five of such games in 2014.
One obvious reason for this result is that the Giants are scoring fewer runs in the ninth inning than in previous seasons. San Francisco is averaging 0.26 runs in the ninth in 2016. In the previous two seasons that number was slightly higher at 0.31 (2015) and 0.34 (2014).
A handful of wins might not seem like that big of a deal. However, it’s a massive deal to a team fighting for its playoff life. One or two extra wins could be the difference between playing in the Wild Card Game or sitting at home. The fact that San Francisco hasn’t won a single game like this can be attributed to the randomness of baseball. That would be little solace to a team sitting at home in October after looking so good for so much of the season.
Giants fans have suffered through a lot of disappointment in the second half. They’ve watched their team slide from first to a distance second in the division. Beginning Tuesday night the Giants will have six more home games to try and right the ship. If they fail, most other fan bases won’t feel too bad for a team that has won three championships since 2010.