SF Giants lineup at Texas: Tidwell starts, Devers listed at first base

Per Susan Slusser, the San Francisco Giants will send Blade Tidwell to the mound Tuesday at Globe Life Field against the Texas Rangers, with a lineup that places Rafael Devers at first base and Christian Koss at third.

What happened

Slusser, the Giants' beat reporter, posted the full lineup for the club's game at Texas. Osleivis Basabe leads off at second base, followed by Jung Hoo Lee in right field and Willy Adames at shortstop. Rafael Devers is listed at first base, with Daniel Susac behind the plate. Buddy Kennedy draws the designated hitter role, Eddys Leonard is in left field, Grant McCray is in center, and Christian Koss rounds out the order at third base. Tidwell starts as the right-handed pitcher, per Slusser's post. MacKenzie Gore is listed as the probable starter for Texas in this matchup.

Why it matters

The positional assignments are worth a second look. Devers, whose primary home has been third base, appears in the lineup at first base — an arrangement that opens the third-base spot for Koss. That kind of defensive flexibility is the sort of thing a club in the final weeks of a long season tends to explore, though the specific reasoning behind the configuration was not included in Slusser's post.

Kennedy drawing the designated hitter role keeps his bat in the lineup without requiring a defensive assignment, while McCray and Leonard occupy the outfield corners alongside Lee. It is a lineup that mixes some of the club's more established names with players still working to define their roles at the major-league level — which, at this stage of the Giants' season, is more or less the operational mandate.

The Giants are also riding a five-game losing streak into Globe Life Field, which adds a certain texture to the evening's proceedings. Not urgency, exactly — the standings have already rendered their verdict — but the particular focus that comes from having nothing left to play for except the game itself.

The numbers

San Francisco carries a 65-97 record entering Tuesday's game, a .401 winning percentage that places them in the NL West's basement, 35 games behind the division leader. The Wild Card picture offers no more comfort: the club ranks 11th in the Wild Card standings, sitting 23.0 games relative to the cut line. Per the verified standings data, the Giants have been eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race.

The five-game losing streak heading into Texas is the kind of number that stops being alarming at some point in a 65-97 season and starts being simply descriptive. The Giants are not collapsing; they are finishing. The question Tuesday is what they learn while doing it.

Where the club stands

Eliminated from both postseason tracks and on a five-game skid, the Giants are playing out August in the way clubs at 65-97 tend to — with one eye on the scoreboard and the other on the organizational ledger. Tuesday's game at Texas is less about October positioning and more about the kind of evaluation that happens when the standings stop mattering. Who handles a start against a competitive lineup? Who holds up defensively at an unfamiliar position? Who earns a longer look heading into the offseason?

After the two-game set in Texas — Wednesday's game lists Carson Whisenhunt opposing Cody Bradford at Globe Life Field — the Giants return home to Oracle Park on Friday to face the Detroit Tigers, with JT Brubaker projected to start against Keider Montero.

Is Tidwell a regular part of the rotation?

Slusser's post places Tidwell on the mound Tuesday, and the verified schedule data lists him as the probable starter for this game. What the material does not address is the broader context of his role — whether this is a spot start, a rotation turn, or something else entirely. That question remains open.

What is clear is that Tidwell is the right-handed pitcher taking the ball Tuesday at Globe Life Field, and that the Giants will follow him with Whisenhunt on Wednesday before heading back to the Bay.

What we don't know yet

Slusser's post is a lineup card, not a press conference. It tells us who is playing and where, but it does not explain the reasoning behind Devers at first base, Koss at third, or Kennedy in the DH slot rather than a defensive position. Whether those assignments reflect a planned rest schedule, a desire to expand positional versatility, or simply the best available configuration on a given Tuesday in August is not addressed in the material.

The post also does not include any information about players who might have been rested or unavailable — only who is in the lineup and where they are playing. The Giants' full roster picture for this series remains, for now, whatever Slusser posts next.

What to watch

The listing of Devers at first base is the most operationally interesting thread to follow. If that placement recurs across the Texas series or into the Detroit homestand, it would suggest the Giants are actively developing his positional range — or managing something that has not been reported. For now, it is one data point on a Tuesday in August, which is exactly what it should be treated as.

Tidwell's outing against a Rangers lineup is worth tracking for its own reasons. Texas is a legitimate opponent, and how a young starter handles that environment tells you something, even in a season that has long since been mathematically resolved. The Giants' rotation picture heading into the final weeks of 2026 is one of the more consequential open questions for the organization, and Tuesday's start is one more piece of that puzzle.

The Wednesday matchup — Whisenhunt against Bradford at Globe Life Field — follows immediately, and then the club pivots to Oracle Park for the Detroit series beginning Friday. Three games in three different contexts, with a 65-97 team trying to find something worth carrying into next year. That is the work of August when the standings have already said everything they have to say.