Giants drop fourth straight game, fall season-low 17 games below .500

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Jul 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Manager Tony Vitello’s lineup card for Tuesday evening’s game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium had one very notable omission: Luis Arraez.

Arraez has played in nearly every game this year for the Giants, but Vitello told reporters in Kansas City that he elected to sit the four-time All-Star due to a combination of heat and “matchup stuff.” Vitello, in all likelihood, will write Arraez’s name into his lineup card for Wednesday’s series finale. In a couple of weeks, Vitello will no longer have that luxury.

San Francisco has been labeled as sellers for most of the season, and Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to the Royals was the latest affirmation that Arraez will be among those no longer wearing the orange and black at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. The Giants have lost four in a row after opening the second half with a win, this latest defeat dropping them a season-low 17 games below .500.

The hope for Vitello and company was that the All-Star break would provide this team with a much-needed reset, a mental reprieve that set the tone for a better brand in baseball to finish the season. So far, it’s been more of the same.

Along with Arraez, Tyler Mahle is among those that the Giants might trade in the coming weeks.

Mahle, who allowed three runs over five innings to the Royals, has not shored up the Giants’ rotation in the way that the front office hoped after signing him to a one-year, $10 million deal. Through 16 starts, Mahle has a 5.31 ERA and 4.51 FIP over 83 innings. Still, it’s very plausible that several contenders look past Mahle’s subpar production this season and seek to acquire him as backend depth.

As poorly as the 31-year-old has pitched as a Giant, he’s coming off a season where he posted a 2.18 ERA over 16 starts with the Texas Rangers. And from 2021-2025, Mahle had a 3.62 ERA over 80 starts even as he battled a litany of injuries.

There may also be interest in someone like right-hander Caleb Kilian, who retired the side in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Kilian hasn’t exactly been a lockdown closer since finding himself in the role, owning a 4.69 ERA over 40 1/3 innings. Still, the right-hander has impressed in lower-leverage situations out of the bullpen. His combination of an excellent strikeout rate (80th percentile entering play) and excellent stuff should be worthy of a spot in a contender’s bullpen, even if Kilian has been a mixed bag in the ninth.

Up next

Landen Roupp (7-8, 3.98 ERA) will take the mound against the Royals’ Seth Lugo (3-6, 4.39 ERA) as the Giants try to avoid being swept. Roupp is coming off one of the best starts of the season, pitching seven shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners to open the second half.

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