Grant Brisbee

3 days ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

MINNEAPOLIS - Baseball is a game of inches, yes, and you'll be reminded of that for as long as the sport is played. But it's also about timing. The San Francisco Giants were swept out of Minnesota over the weekend, losing three close games. Timing had more than a little to do with it. Let us count the ways. The Giants scored six runs in their Sunday afternoon 7-6 loss to the Twins, which would have been more than enough to win either of the first two games of the series.

5 days ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

Back in 2014, the Astros were lousy. They'd lost at least 106 games in each of the previous three seasons, and as you might expect, everyone responsible for building those teams was fired. A new front office was brought in, though, and they caught the eye of Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter, who wrote a front-page story on their modern ways. Some wisecracking editor decided to put "Your 2017 World Champs" on the front cover, and the internet had a lot of fun with the outlandishness of it all.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

CHICAGO - Imagine that you're manager Bob Melvin, trying to plan out the Giants' pitching strategy before Wednesday's game. The Cubs have been the highest-scoring team in baseball this season, and there's always a chance that the wind might be blowing out of Wrigley Field. Even if you know how everything played out - the Giants won, 3-1, in a nice, tidy and normal game, unlike the night before - the idea should still give you hives.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

CHICAGO - If you're a baseball fanatic, you've met someone who's taken the idea of "baseball is boring" and made it a part of their personality. They're too far gone to change their mind, but if there's a chance to convince them, use Tuesday night's game as an example of the sport's magnificent bounty of nonsense.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

CHICAGO - The Giants made four errors in their 9-2 loss to the Cubs on Monday night, with Matt Chapman and Willy Adames each committing two. Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, the Giants are 41-122 when committing four or more errors. That's exactly one loss worse than the 2024 White Sox, which means that when the Giants commit four or more errors, they're worse than the team with the worst regular-season record in modern baseball history.