Rafael Devers at DH, Christian Koss at 3B as Giants send Logan Webb vs. Brewers

Rafael Devers is in the designated hitter spot and Christian Koss is at third base as the San Francisco Giants face the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday at Oracle Park, per the lineup posted by Giants beat reporter Susan Slusser on X. Logan Webb gets the ball for San Francisco against Thomas Pannone.

What happened

Slusser posted the full Giants batting order for Wednesday's home contest. Luis Arraez leads off at second base, followed by Bryce Eldridge at first. Heliot Ramos hits third in left field, with Devers slotting into the cleanup spot at designated hitter. Jung Hoo Lee is in right field, Willy Adames at shortstop, Daniel Susac behind the plate, Grant McCray in center field, and Koss rounding out the order at third base. Webb starts on the mound.

The arrangement puts Devers in the DH role rather than at the hot corner, with Koss drawing the start at third base. Slusser's notation marks Arraez, Eldridge, Devers, Lee, and McCray as left-handed hitters, giving the lineup a pronounced lean from that side of the plate against Milwaukee.

Why it matters

The configuration at the corners is the detail most likely to prompt a second look from Giants fans pulling up the card. Devers, wearing number 16 and batting cleanup, is one of the more prominent bats in this order. Placing him at designated hitter keeps his bat in the lineup while Koss — number 50, batting ninth — handles the defensive assignment at third base.

For a club that entered Wednesday at 65-97 and already eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, lineup construction carries a different kind of weight than it might for a contender. These are the games where roster evaluation happens in plain sight. A Koss start at third base is exactly the sort of audition the schedule now permits. The Giants are 35 games back in the NL West and sit 11th in Wild Card ranking, 23.0 games relative to the cut line. There is no postseason math left to protect — there is, however, a rotation to evaluate, a young lineup to develop, and a Logan Webb start to appreciate on its own terms.

The numbers

San Francisco carries a .401 winning percentage into Wednesday's game, sitting fourth in the NL West at 65-97. The Giants have dropped five straight, arriving at this Brewers series riding an L5 streak. Oracle Park hosts Milwaukee on Wednesday before San Francisco travels to Petco Park for back-to-back games against the Padres on Thursday and Friday.

The left-handed tilt in Wednesday's lineup is worth noting as a standalone construction detail. Five of the nine hitters in Slusser's card are marked as batting from the left side — Arraez, Eldridge, Devers, Lee, and McCray — which shapes how the order reads against whatever Milwaukee brings out of the bullpen as the game progresses.

Where the club stands

The Giants are 65-97 (.401), fourth in the NL West, and 35 games behind the division leader. The Wild Card door closed some time ago — San Francisco sits 11th in Wild Card ranking, 23.0 games relative to the cut line, and is eliminated from both races.

The upcoming schedule offers a reasonable cross-section of where this roster is headed. After Wednesday's home game against Milwaukee with Webb on the mound, the Giants send Robbie Ray to Petco Park on Thursday against JP Sears, then Carson Whisenhunt takes the ball Friday against Bradgley Rodriguez. Three different starters across three days, two different ballparks — a tidy window into what San Francisco is working with in the back half of a long season.

The L5 streak adds a layer of context to Wednesday's card. A club playing out the string still has things to sort through, and the combination of Webb on the mound and an unfamiliar name at third base captures both ends of that spectrum neatly: the established anchor and the open question, sharing the same lineup card.

What to watch

### Why is Devers at DH and Koss at third?

Slusser's post is a lineup card, not a transaction note or a club announcement, so the reasoning behind the specific configuration is not detailed in the material. Whether the arrangement reflects a maintenance day, a planned look at Koss, or simply a Wednesday decision is not reported. The lineup is the lineup; the explanation behind it is not on the card.

That said, the broader thread worth following is how Koss handles the third base assignment and what the Giants' lineup construction looks like as the season winds down. With the club eliminated and the schedule now functioning more as a development runway than a pennant chase, the distribution of starts across the roster — who plays where, who gets extended looks — becomes the operational story worth tracking through the final weeks.

Webb's outing against Pannone is also worth watching in its own right. A Logan Webb start is one of the more reliable appointment-viewing items on the Oracle Park calendar regardless of the standings, and Wednesday's matchup against Milwaukee gives him a chance to work in front of a home crowd with a lineup that carries real left-handed presence throughout.

The road trip to San Diego that follows will offer a different backdrop entirely, with Ray and Whisenhunt taking their turns at Petco Park against the Padres. But first: Webb, the Brewers, and a Giants lineup that has quietly become one of the more interesting construction puzzles in the NL West — not because it is competing for anything, but because it is being assembled in real time, one Wednesday card at a time.