SAN FRANCISCO — The big numbers coming into the Giants’ season finale were 163, 217 and 30.
Those were the respective figures that would define the day for Rafael Devers, Logan Webb and Willy Adames. Webb was gunning for the National League strikeout crown, Devers could achieve the rare feat of playing 163 games and Adames sought a milestone that has been equally evasive for Giants hitters: the 30-homer threshold.
All three were put to bed by the end of the first inning in an eventual 4-0 win Sunday against the Colorado Rockies.
Webb required four pitches to punch out the first batter of the game, Ezequiel Tovar, and went on to strike out the side, for good measure. Adames, moved into the leadoff spot, needed even less time. He attacked the first pitch he saw — a belt-high fastball from McCade Brown — and sent it on a line-drive trajectory over the 391 sign in center field.
With an exit velocity of 105.7 mph and a projected distance of 419 feet, Adames knew the ball was gone the moment it left his bat and, judging by his exaggerated celebration as he rounded the bases, was also well aware of the context of his 30th home run.
In the unlikely case you need a reminder: Adames became the first Giants hitter to reach 30 home runs in one season since Barry Bonds last did it in 2004. If it was not the franchise’s most infamous ongoing so-called curse, then it had to be second only to the run of 19 different left fielders on Opening Day since Bonds’ last year manning the position.
The milestone made Adames’ slow start to his Giants career a distant memory. It didn’t look possible until a late-season tear that took him from 19 home runs on August 21 to the precipice of 30 entering the final day of the season. Adames slugged nine home runs in 18 games but was stuck on 28 for nearly two weeks until he got No. 29 on Friday night.
With little else at stake on the final day of the season, Melvin decided to maximize his chances and moved him into the leadoff spot. Adames had reached 30 homers twice before with Milwaukee, but he had never left the yard to lead off a ballgame.
Willy Adames #2 of the San Francisco Giants celebrates with Heliot Ramos #17 after hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park on Sept. 28, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
If Adames couldn’t play all 162 games — he fell two short — then consider 30 home runs a pretty good consolation prize.
“He’s a great player, he wants to play everyday, but sometimes we need our days off,” said Devers when asked about Adames before the game. The shortstop prides himself on his availability, but no, there was no resentment over Devers’ own accomplishment.
Devers, by way of his midseason trade from Boston, became the first player in MLB to appear in 163 games since Justin Morneau in 2008. The Red Sox had already played 73 games when Devers was traded on June 15, and he appeared in all 90 possible games with San Francisco. The feat of durability had been done only 34 times in major-league history but is even more rare to do so in Devers’ fashion, going from one team to another. The last player to do it without the help of a tiebreaker game was Todd Zeile in 1996.
“There were many days where I didn’t feel like playing, where my body didn’t respond. But guess what, that’s my job. I need to play. I need to be there every single day,” Devers said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros.
When he arrived from Boston, Devers’ reputation was clouded by the public dispute that led the Red Sox to trade him one year into a 10-year contract extension. He refused to play first base in Boston but has done whatever has been asked of him in San Francisco.
And, when Melvin approached him about playing No. 163, “he was all-in for that,” the manager said. “It’s important to him and he wants to do it. … He just likes to play baseball. If you get to know him at all, he’s got a smile on his face every day he’s at the ballpark. It’s what he loves to do.”
Going into next year, with top prospect Bryce Eldridge in the mix, Devers said he would “adapt to whatever they want me to do.” He put an exclamation point on his first year with the Giants, slugging a fourth-inning solo shot for his 20th homer since joining the club.
“He’s been as amenable as you could possibly be,” Melvin said. “He wants to be in there everyday. This is a guy that is going to be and important guy in this organization for a long period of time. We’re lucky to have him.”
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb throws against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)
The pair of home runs was all the support needed behind Webb, who put a ribbon on his season with 5⅓ shutout innings. He entered the day tied with Jesus Luzardo and Paul Skenes for the NL lead in strikeouts and finished with eight, giving him 224 for the season.
Together with his 207 innings pitched, Webb became the first Giant to lead the league in innings and strikeouts since Bill Voiselle in 1944.
“He’s just one of the premier pitchers in the game,” Melvin said before the game. “When you add up everything else, you know, the potential personal accolades – the innings pitched, the strikeouts – he’s a guy. A big-time pitcher.”
The Giants fell short of their goals this season, but they enter 2026 with a pretty good foundation in the form of Devers and Webb, who took on a larger workload than any of their peers and consistently performed along the way.
“(And) I mean, look at (Matt) Chapman,” Melvin added. “And Adames wants to play 162. Jung Hoo (Lee)’s gone through a full year. There are some core pieces here that are really good and those guys are all part of it.”
San Francisco Giants first baseman Wilmer Flores, left, walks off the field after being replaced by first baseman Bryce Eldridge (not shown) during the third inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)
Flores gets farewell
One mainstay unlikely to be back next season is Wilmer Flores, who has taken on diminished role in the second half of the season and is set to be a free agent. Flores, 34, has been an integral part of the clubhouse who has taken on a variety of roles on the field — most notably, his ability to come through in clutch moments — since signing as a free agent before the 2020 season.
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Melvin, in his 22nd year as a big-league manager, said he has “as much respect for Wilmer Flores as anybody I’ve ever managed.”
Flores received a rare start at first base against a right-handed starting pitcher and got a standing ovation when Eldridge replaced him at first base to begin the third inning. He walked off the field to many hugs while the “Friends” theme song — Flores’ walkup music, which he used to help learn English — playing over the soundsystem.
“He deserve(d) to be at first today,” Melvin said before the game. “He’s been such a great teammate for this club ever since he’s been here. He’s a quiet leader. I’m sure he doesn’t have a lot to say to (the media), but he does in the clubhouse, in hitters meetings. And then to acclimate to whatever role that he has to deal with … and not complain about it, with the numbers he’s put up this year, it just shows you that he is the consummate teammate.”