The San Francisco Giants have been, for the most part, disappointing to their fans in this 2026 season so far. Early on, the offense was weak. That sometimes can be explained by colder, less pleasant weather that we’ll call the Minnesota .effect.Warm air aids batters; wintry weather favors pitchers. Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers, Willie Adames and other Giants crawled out of the gate as hitters. However, the Giants’ bats have recently come alive only to be countered by difficulties with their pitching, which has been plagued by difficulty in locating pitches sufficiently near the strike zone to encourage swings.

What’s the deal? We fans have been wondering about that. Is it the new pitching coach? Was Patrick Bailey really that good? Is it that rookie manager having poor judgement? Is Buster Posey, who dealt away Tyler Rogers, not such a good judge of talent as we thought he was?

No, heck no. Maybe it’s just that some of those pitchers just aren’t very smart. Four of them proved that on Pride Night June 12 at Oracle Park, the beautiful yard currently named after the corporate spyware outfit owned by current media accumulator Larry Ellison. Landon Roupp, technically a starting pitcher who almost averages 5 innings per start, J.D. Brubaker, and Ryan Walker all bravely inscribed their Pride Night caps with partial Biblical quotes that effectively weaponized Christianity in opposition to homosexuality just to prove that they’re not “woke”. Now I understand why it’s so hard for them to throw strikes. Sam Hentges, thus far an ineffectual lefty reliever, ditched the Pride cap altogether but explained at length how none of this was hateful.

For a conservative, basically right wing ownership like the Giants to avoid issues like LGBTQ rights is understandable if simultaneously disgusting. But for it to defy the spirit of Pride Night so openly is hard to take. ^Three decades ago, Giants pitcher Rod Beck and his wife spearheaded the drive for “Until There’s a Cure” night to organize a local battle against the ravages of AIDS/HIV. That became o very big deal that everyone associated with the Giants could take pride in. Now Buster Posey and Tony Vitello have to step up and be real leaders. They had better act like it matters.