The San Francisco Giants will almost certainly not make the postseason, but they are off to a good start on a long road trip.

The Giants will try to win three games against the host Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon.

“Just an all-around great start to this road trip,” said designated hitter Michael Conforto after one of his three hits hit a home run in San Francisco’s 5-3 win on Wednesday.

The Giants (74-78), who are in fourth place in the National League West, beat the Orioles 10-0 in the series opener on Tuesday. San Francisco will stop in Kansas City and Arizona to complete the nine-game road trip.

The Orioles (84-68), who have lost eight of their last 10 games, fell five games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees. Baltimore has just four home games left before finishing the season on the road next week.

In the last game there were signs of small progress.

“I thought the guys on the bench were really committed,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

Baltimore is now certain to lose its fourth straight series. The Orioles are trying to block out the noise that suggests panic.

“It’s really hard when things aren’t going the way you want them to and to stay positive in a bad time,” catcher James McCann said. “We don’t need the fans, the media, the TV or anyone else telling us that things aren’t going right.”

In some ways, scoring three runs seemed like a breakthrough for the Orioles, who had averaged 1.9 runs in their previous 11 games, but on Wednesday they left eight runners behind for the first seven innings.

“The encouraging thing about Wednesday’s game: I thought our at-bats were better,” Hyde said. “We generated more traffic and we ran. Now we’re just waiting for some breaks on offense. But we gave ourselves a chance.”

The Giants got two leadoff home runs from Mike Yastrzemski in the first inning in both games this week.

“Yaz set the tone in the first inning,” Conforto said. “He embarrassed the pitchers a little bit, and we talked about that. Yaz coming in first was huge for us.”

The Orioles have named right-hander Zach Eflin (10-9, 3.55 ERA) as their starter for Thursday. He has a 5-2 record and a 2.22 ERA since joining Baltimore from the Tampa Bay Rays in July, but he has lost his last two starts. Friday’s setback shouldn’t be held against him, as he pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run – a home run to Kerry Carpenter of the Detroit Tigers.

Eflin made eight appearances against the Giants (six starts), posting a 1-2 record and a 4.79 ERA.

Right-hander Logan Webb (12-10, 3.53 ERA) will get the ball for the Giants. The All-Star is coming off his shortest start since May 5. On Friday, he lasted four innings against the San Diego Padres, allowing four runs, three earned runs and seven hits.

Webb played seven innings in his only career appearance against Baltimore on June 2, 2023, suffering a loss after allowing three runs on four hits.

Webb has a 5-3 record and a 3.62 ERA against American League teams this year. He will make his 32nd start this season, matching his 2022 total and just one start shy of his career high set last year.

–Field level media