SAN FRANCISCO — The game at Chase Field on April 2, 2017 is one of the most memorable losses in recent Giants history, which is saying something, given the kind of baseball they have played over the past decade. Madison Bumgarner hit two homers on that Opening Day and threw seven solid innings, but in the ninth, Mark Melancon allowed four hits and blew the save. It was Melancon’s first opportunity after signing a $62 million deal to fix a bullpen that cost the Giants a shot at another even-year title a few months earlier, and it also was a sign of things to come.
If you go back and watch the final hit of that inning, you will see a Giants star quickly walking away from the plate before Arizona’s Daniel Descalso could score the winning run. That man now runs the organization, and in the coming months he will be confronted with an interesting question.
Posey started his end-of-season press conference on Tuesday by taking responsibility for the bad bullpen that sent the 2026 MLB season off the rails, and he has vowed to fix it. But he also knows as well as just about any executive that it’s not always an easy thing to do.