It's time for the Giants to end the misery and let the kids play

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The inning, the game, and the season came tumbling down in one forgettable, regrettable, and laughable inning that was witnessed by another frustrated crowd at Oracle Park on Wednesday.

It’s time.

If it wasn’t time at the trade deadline when the Giants made some white-flag-raising deals to acquire a slew of prospects, it’s time now. Time to move in a new direction and let younger players get regular playing time in preparation for 2026.

One of the Giants’ most embarrassing innings of the season, the lowlight of their humiliating 11-1 loss to the first-place Padres, spoke volumes about the state of the team and where it’s headed if the status quo remains unchanged.

The boos around Third and King were telling as well.

Before the game, I asked manager Bob Melvin if management is close to trying new guys across the diamond, to put more emphasis on the future. I cited Wilmer Flores, who’ll be a free agent after the season and continues to get at-bats that could be taken by others who’ll be around next year.

“Not yet,” he said. “Unfortunately, every day that we go through something like this, especially here at home, it gets harder and harder on everybody, and everybody's wearing it. So hopefully, today, we break out of it and start playing better.”

Didn’t happen. The second inning saw to that. After the latest ugly loss, this one far uglier than most, Melvin softened on the subject.

“We might be at the point here pretty soon where we give some guys some days off and look at some other guys,” he said postgame. “I still hate to admit we’re at that point.”

That point has arrived.

“We have to get better defensively,” he said, “and we have to take a look down the road at maybe adding some defensive players.”

Pivoting sooner rather than later with roster usage makes sense. The Giants are off Thursday and open their next series Friday against Tampa Bay, and changes could be coming. Chief executive Buster Posey undoubtedly will consider all angles, and eventually that would include the fate of the manager and coaches. For now, young players have been given cameos and ought to get longer looks.

Even if it means sitting Jung Hoo Lee for a while to see what Grant McCray could do in center field. Even if it means trying someone else in left field — perhaps Marco Luciano or Luis Matos — because of Heliot Ramos’ defensive struggles. Even if it means promoting Blade Tidwell, who arrived in the Tyler Rogers trade and has had two impressive outings in Triple-A. Even if it means taking another crack at Hayden Birdsong and Carson Whisenhunt, who was optioned to Sacramento after just three big-league starts, and let them piggyback each other in games by getting three or four innings apiece. Even if it means promoting left-handed reliever Helcris Olivárez to see deserves a shot at a bullpen role next year.

Even if it means – and this is the biggie – calling up top prospect Bryce Eldridge. Why not? There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. He needs development, the Giants say. Let him develop up here so that he’s somewhat seasoned as a big-leaguer entering 2026. It could energize the clubhouse and reward fans who keep attending games only to go home bummed.

“It’s a tough spot to be in,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “We’ve got to do something different. We’ve got to figure it out.”

Adames, who signed last winter to the biggest contract in franchise history, made other strong statements after the Giants lost 13 of their last 14 home games for the first time in their San Francisco era.

“It’s like every day something else happens. It feels like in the dugout, I don’t know, we lose the energy right away, and from that, it’s hard to come back when you don’t have it in the dugout. It’s just tough.”

And … “You have ups and downs during a season, but it feels like we’ve been down for two months.”

And … “It has been the hardest (season) for me mentally.”

The fateful second inning started innocently with Ramos making a nice sliding catch for the first out. But pandemonium quickly ensued. Kai-Wei Teng walked Xander Bogaerts on four pitches, one of his three walks in the inning. Ryan O’Hearn popped a single to left, and Teng walked Ramón Laureano to load the bases.

To help support the narrative from here, feel free to hum a few bars of circus music.

Jake Cronenworth got jammed on a pitch and hit a soft liner over the mound, a possible double-play ball. Adames was behind the bag waiting to take it on an easy hop to begin an inning-ending double play, but the ball hit the front of the bag and bounced into left-center.

Because of course it did.

“It feels like the last two months, it’s the same story. It feels like nothing positive is coming,” Adames said. “Jam shot hits the base, that’s a double-play ball. Something negative is in the air, and we haven’t been able to figure out how to beat it.”

Cronenworth was credited with a two-run single. Teng walked the No. 9 hitter, Elias Díaz, on five pitches. Fernando Tatís Jr. followed with a two-run single, and Luis Arráez hit a sacrifice fly. It was 5-0, and fans booed.

More nuttiness followed when Ramos barehanded Manny Machado’s double off the wall and stunningly spiked the ball onto the outfield grass. Instead of throwing to a bag, Ramos threw the ball no more than 20 feet, and it rolled without purpose toward the infield.

Melvin insisted it wasn’t Ramos’ fault, noting infielders didn’t cover the play properly. While Adames put himself in position as the cutoff man to third base, second baseman Christian Koss went out to cut second. But nobody covered second. First baseman Dom Smith stayed home. Either way, it was another mishap.

At that point, Melvin made a pitching change, Spencer Bivens replaced Teng, and it didn’t take long for the Padres to score their seventh run – on a Patrick Bailey passed ball. A perfectly catchable ball flicked off the top of Bailey’s mitt.

More boos.

“It just looks bad,” Melvin said. “The way we’ve been playing, it looks horrible. Now all of a sudden it’s 7-nothing, we’re in the second inning, and the way we’ve been playing, it’s just a miserable feeling.”

End the misery. Let the kids play.