I don’t know what to call this segment of the schedule prior to the All-Star game/break because it sure as heck isn’t half a season. The 2026 San Francisco Giants played their 81st game 17 days ago (it was a loss, of course) and will have 66 games remaining when they resume play on Friday in Seattle. So, let’s call it the first part of the season. As bad as the Giants were in that first part and figure to be in the second part (and for the rest of this decade, probably), they still managed to stumble into some good moments. Here are five of them.
5. Heliot Ramos flips is bat after breaking up Dylan Cease’s no-hitter bid (July 8th)
This was pitched by our Sean Keane and it’s possible that he intended for this to be one of the five worst moments of the first part of the season, but I am having a hard time finding anything wrong with Heliot Ramos in 2026, save the time he missed from injury; so, here he is flipping his bat after breaking up a no-hitter in a game that was already hella lost.
Advertisement
This is 100% like the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” where Captain Sisko puts together a ragtag baseball team to face off against some really jerky Vulcans. The Niners lose to the Vulcan Logicians, 10-1, but at the end of the episode they celebrate their 1 run like they’d won the game, confounding the logical Vulcans who thought such a dominate win would be a humiliation.
You can’t humiliate the Giants. They are beyond the point of embarrassment. They will take any victory.
Baseball, like life, is a tough sport. And, like life, most of baseball’s participants are losers. But holding on to the spirit of competition and never giving up despite always losing or being so bad — just outright sucking when compared to the competition? That’s living. And here’s Heliot Ramos showing the indominable spirit every pro athlete should have and every fan should appreciate. Even when the Giants lose, they aren’t beaten.
Advertisement
4. Going 4-3 against the Dodgers
Not so much a moment as a series of moments, but after having already surrendered the rivalry to the Dodgers, seeing the Giants grasp and claw at them like a corpse expelling gasses has been fun to see and certainly another example of a bad team having some fight in it.
Tyler Mahle outdueled Shohei Ohtani the night after the Giants scored 3 runs off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and won the game despite Landen Roupp walking 5 and being succeeded by 5 relievers? Humm Baby!
Two and a half weeks later, they rolled into Dodger Stadium and took the first two games of a four game series, with Trevor McDonald, Matt Gage, Keaton Winn, and JT Brubaker limiting the Dodgers to 3 runs in the first game’s 9-3 win. In game two, Eric Haase homered twice and Harrison Bader homered as well as the Giants once again took it to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Adrian Houser, believe it or not got the win.
Advertisement
Sure, sure, the Dodgers went on to win the next two games and the 18-24 mark the Giants achieved after winning those first two games would only be matched in terms of games under .500 just once more all season , when they were 20-26, the important thing is that the greatest team in the history of professional sports run by the smartest front office that ever existed and populated by coaches and scouts the likes of which have never been seen — a team that is so good that fans have demanded the sport kills itself with a salary cap — lost 4 out of their first 7 games against the lowly, pathetic San Francisco Giants.
Is it a simple matter of “That’s Baseball!” or does it indicate that a threepeat is unlikely? I think it’s this, because it’s hard to imagine that the Giants have been secretly talented this whole time but only showing it against the Dodgers. In fact, I think that’s unlikely. Instead, the reason why this is a best moment is because it’s the Giants, the Dodgers’ former rivals, that’s showing to the rest of the sport that LA can bleed, and since it can bleed, it can be defeated.
3. Casey Schmitt’s 3-run home run against the Marlins (April 26th)
Advertisement
Don’t laugh!
Casey Schmitt is having a great season, and even if there are clear indications that it’s not sustainable, that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed out of hand. What’s done is done. Now, before you go thinking that I’m taking another potshot at the team by listing a home run that occurred back in April for one of its best moments from the first part of the season, know that I’m doing so as sort of a holistic thing.
As much as fans and pundits talk about the Phillies series as being rock bottom for this 2026 season (the doubleheader sweep via walk-offs that many say as the turning point of the season), this game before that series brought the Giants to 13-15 and opened everyone’s eyes to Schmitt’s season.
It was also the best result he’s had in a high pressure situation. By Baseball Reference’s Leverage Index, this at bat carried a 1.65, or 65% more pressured than the average at bat. This 3-run home run, his sole hit of the game, added 0.193 Win Probability for the Giants, and the 6-3 score it led to wound up being the final score.
Advertisement
No, it wasn’t his biggest Win Probability Added event of the season, but it was his most clutch hit, according to Baseball Reference. He’s had five better games in terms of total value, and yes, most of them are thanks to his home run power.
His biggest WPA (0.344) was in a game against the White Sox where he hit a 2-run home run and added a third RBI, too. In fact, he was big in that White Sox series at Oracle Park. He also had a great game against the A’s and had a three-doubles game against the Orioles.
So, another moment that’s more like a series of moments. Casey Schmitt has made himself a key player this season. A breakout that has been a pleasure to watch.
Advertisement
Do I need to say anything else?
1. Luis Arraez’s All-Star season
Now, the only thing that could possibly bump a walk-off grand slam from the top spot is a total surprise, and that’s just what Luis Arraez’s entire 2026 has been. Yes, the batting average we all expected is there (.330), but that’s with a .369 OBP (career: .364) and .460 slug (career: .418). And all of that is next to the wildest surprise, the absolute outlier, the greatest development of all: his All-Star caliber defense at second base.
According to Statcast, he’s been the 9th-most valuable defender in all of Major League Baseball (+8 Fielding Run Value). He’s in roughly the same league as elite defensive catchers, but of the non-catcher infield group, he’s in the tier just below JJ Wetherholt (+15 FRV) and Bobby Witt Jr. (+13), a group that includes Masyn Winn, Andres Gimenez, and Nico Hoerner, whom many Giants fans (myself included) wanted the Giants to pursue in the offseason, given how great he is at up the middle defense.
Advertisement
Instead, for the simple cost of $12 million and whatever they’re paying Ron Washington (which, in retrospect, might not be enough!), they have one of the best players in all of Major League Baseball. A total surprise and a welcome development even in a lost season.
But don’t let me be the last word. What moments would you like to highlight?
