Kurtenbach: A pathetic ninth-inning conflict perfectly summarized the SF Giants' miserable season
Want to know why the San Francisco Giants are an irredeemable, unwatchable mess?
Look no further than the ninth inning of Sunday's latest descent to the bottom.
The Giants are now 15 games under .500 for the third time this month, swept by the lowly Miami Marlins - the sixth time they’ve been swept in 25 series this season.
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But it's not the losing that makes them the most disappointing, most inscrutable squad in baseball; it's the profound, arrogant dysfunction.
They are a rudderless ship captained by a mutinous crew of unaware veterans and a powerless manager. Sunday's final frame wasn’t just a loss: It was the perfect, pathetic epitome of a deeply broken operation.
Down 2-1 in the top of the ninth, Rafael Devers managed a leadoff walk.
A pinch runner, a stolen base, perhaps even a bunt (let’s get crazy), and you're in business. The Giants had life.
Naturally, they chose death by 6-4-3 double play.
But the final out isn’t the punchline. The tragic comedy occurred before that final pitch was even thrown.
Manager Tony Vitello sent rookie Jonah Cox to pinch-run. Cox possesses prodigious speed and actual base-stealing ability. He skipped Triple-A and went straight to the majors to take on this specific role (and apparently no other).
Devers, meanwhile, possesses a 22nd-percentile sprint speed that frankly feels flattering. He runs like he's wearing combat boots in a swamp, and that was before a series of hamstring injuries this season.
Yet, the Giants' highest-paid player arrived at first base and waved “no, no, no” at the dugout.
Cox, entering the game, just stood there, awkwardly marooned in foul territory. Poor kid.
It took the first-base umpire to step in and enforce the substitution.
Let that sink in. The ump had to manage the Giants.
Devers finally trudged off, hiding his face behind his helmet while barking something presumably terrible into it.
It's galling. It’s a stunning lack of self-awareness from a guy with - let me check, oh yes - zero stolen bases in a Giants uniform.
You want to call it fire? Call it pride? Please.
It's pure, uncut selfishness.
“He was signaling over to us that he’s good to run,” Vitello told reporters afterward.
No, Tony, he wasn’t. He was openly defying you, and the television cameras caught it.
“You know how competitive he is,” Vitello added, laying it on thick.
Competitive for whom, exactly? Certainly not your team - his team - which was trailing by a run in the ninth.
It's bad enough to publicly show up your manager.
But it's worse when the manager bends over backward to excuse it.
And yet the absurdity didn’t stop there. Because once Cox finally took his rightful place at first base, he did precisely nothing.
Facing a right-handed pitcher on a team completely incapable of holding runners, Cox just stood there. He was a statue masquerading as a track star.
Presumably, first-base coach Shane Robinson and Vitello had the steal sign on. If they didn’t, it's malpractice.
Either way, Cox remained anchored. Maybe it was solidarity with Devers, who would have been standing there, too.
Or maybe you don’t make sudden movements when the adults are fighting.
Regardless, Cox became the lead out in a game-ending double play. His presence was completely inconsequential.
“You’d like to get Jonah to go get a bag,” Vitello said.
Brilliant observation, Skip. So why didn’t he?
This is the Giants in a nutshell. It's not just one person's fault; it's a beautifully orchestrated symphony of suck.
Devers has been a massive disappointment all season, and yet he shows zero respect and even less self-awareness. So much for veteran leadership.
Vitello, meanwhile, just takes it - macro- and micro-aggressions alike. He’s a substitute teacher who lost control of the classroom.
All while the kids on the roster just look around, surely thinking, “This is the big leagues?”
They shouldn’t be this atrocious. I’m not going full Kenny Atkinson here. And this isn’t fandom speaking, either.
But whenever they play a team with an actual pulse, their total lack of direction is exposed. They are completely rudderless.
Who's running this clown car? Is it the manager who has been to fewer big-league parks than the beat writers, or the overpriced, underperforming, out-for-themselves veterans?
Say what you will about Fake Gabe Kapler, but when Zack Littell tried to show him up, Kapler marched out and dressed him down.
Vitello? He offers empty public relations spin for a guy who blatantly disrespected him in 4K.
But don’t worry, they “talk every day.”
We spend so much time worrying about stats and numbers, and in baseball, those are indeed the drivers of wins and losses.
But chemistry matters, too.
And this team clearly has none. Zilch. Nada. Zip. They might be veering into negative territory.
It manifests on the field, too.
Because every time this team gets a chance to build momentum, they find a way to jerk the steering wheel to veer off a cliff.
And when they're rolling downhill, boy, do they hit the gas.
That's what you get with two dozen freelancers sharing a clubhouse - a bizarre cocktail of unproven kids and uncooperative vets with a man in charge who has no cache in the biz.
Are we surprised this brew tastes bitter?
It’s not just Devers’ or Vitello’s or Cox’s fault - we can go up and down the org chart, from the top to the very bottom. No, it’s a group effort that has brought this team to this sad point.
They'll brush Sunday off like it's no big deal. On its own, maybe it isn’t.
They'll play the Athletics and Braves this week - this miserable campaign will keep trudging along. The old chemist’s adage: the best solution to pollution is dilution.
But when the autopsy of this season is inevitably performed, this ninth-inning showdown will be up there with “Catch the bleeping ball,” the bizarre roster decisions, and, of course, Willy Adames’ gladhanding at second base against the Dodgers, which resulted in no repercussions.
A moment like Sunday’s is not the disease. It's just a painfully obvious symptom.
Someone should probably get that checked out.
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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 2:40 PM.