Friday is the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough. His first nature show was broadcast the year I was born. As we all know, PBS has broadcast many of the programs he created for the BBC since then. He gave up traveling the world for his documentaries in his 90s, but has a program called Wild London on this year: hedgehogs, foxes, peregrine chicks, beaver, and so on. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jan/01/wild-london-review-honestly-telly-does-not-get-any-better-than-this
Sir David was going to be the Picture of the Post, save for Trevor McDonald’s terrific spot start on Monday. Just 3 runs of support, but that was good enough for the Giants only win against the Padres, and in fact, the only win so far in May. Runs scored in May: 0, 1, 1, 3, 5, 1. That last ‘1’ was a terrific start by Adrian Houser, so he gets a PotP honorable mention. We do know that McDonald will be back, no matter how odd it seems that the PotP is being awarded to someone now wearing a River Cats uniform. MLB’s system is upside down.
Here is the weekend series, note that the Pirates had to play on Thursday in Phoenix,
• Friday, 7:15, RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (2-2, 4.76) vs. Robbie Ray (2-4, 2.95)
• Saturday, 6:05, RHP Braxton Ashcroft (1-2, 3.02) vs. Landen Roupp (5-2, 3.18)
• Sunday, 1:05, RHP Bubba Chandler (1-4, 4.76) vs. Tyler Mahle (1-4, 5.00)
The Giants go up against this Pirates team,
• 1B Spencer Horwitz (14), 2B Brandon Lowe (23), SS Konnor Griffin (16), 3B Nick Gonzales (17)
• RF Ryan O’Hearn (25), CF Oneil Cruz (28), LF Bryan Reynolds (22)
• C Henry Davis (7), DH Marcell Ozuna (13)
• bench: C Joey Bart, IF Jared Trilio, OF/1B billy Cook, OF Jake Mangum
• rotation: Paul Skenes (5-2, 2.36), Mitch Keller (4-1, 2.87), Mlodzinski, Ashcraft, Chandler
• co-losers Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana, set up Isaac Mattson
Old acquaintance Bart has been in 19 games and Davis 29, so Joey is settled into the backup job, hitting 0.220 with 2 homers.
The Pirates manager Don Kelly was hired last year, and has his 21-17 team in good shape. They just took a series from the Snakes. They play in a division in which every team is above 0.500, and that record has them in third place, 5 behind the hot Cubs. Because they have Paul Skenes only until he’s a free agent, the Bucs are trying to do well this year. They made a 4/$120M contract offer to Kyle Schwarber over the winter, and also tried to get Josh Naylor, to show intent to compete. They did sign reliever Gregory Soto and hitter Marcell Ozuna to one year deals, and Ryan O’Hearn for 2/$29M. The latter is the largest deal ever during Ben Cherington’s time as GM. Signing Ozuna and O’Hearn meant that the Pirates did not invite Andrew McCutchen back again, so Cutch is now a Texas Ranger. Brandon Lowe came in by trade. With a winning record, and some new hitting added, this is a team the Giants must face up to, and must play good ball. Happily, the Giants’ struggling hitters do not have to face Skenes this weekend.
