This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

PHOENIX -- The Giants are finally dominating on both sides of the ball. The rub is that their best stretch of the season is coming when the games matter the least.

With an 11-0 rout of the D-backs at Chase Field on Tuesday night, the Giants extended their winning streak to a season-high five games and climbed back to .500 (79-79) with four games left to play. They’ve now won four straight road series against contending teams, yielding a positive run differential (+7) for the first time since March 30.

Still, the late surge won’t paper over the fact that the Giants will miss the postseason for the fifth time in six seasons under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, whose job security has come into question in recent weeks.

“I just think it’s been a disappointing season, even with this recent play,” Zaidi said. “Any time you have a disappointing season, it’s my job to evaluate everything in my purview, and it’s [ownership’s] job to evaluate everything in my purview, plus me. I think that process is happening, and I understand it. If you look around baseball, there are other teams in the same boat as us that had playoff aspirations, and it didn’t happen. We’re trying to figure out what went wrong and how to be better. I’m still very committed to that.”

Zaidi is guaranteed a contract through 2025, though he declined to say whether he felt safe in his current role.

“I’m doing my job every day, thinking about next year and thinking about what we need to do,” Zaidi said. “That’s just not something that I’m thinking about.”

Zaidi has dealt with some health challenges that resulted in two hospitalizations this year. But he said he’s doing better now and felt well enough to travel to Arizona for the Giants’ final road series of the 2024 campaign. He believes the health of the organization is also trending up following the emergence of youngsters like Heliot Ramos, Tyler Fitzgerald, Grant McCray (No. 10 prospect), Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and Erik Miller this season. But he acknowledged that the Giants ultimately struggled to overcome injuries and underperformance from more established players, particularly in the rotation.

Blake Snell has been the best pitcher in baseball in the second half, but he went 0-3 with a 9.51 ERA over his first six starts after signing in late March and suffering a left groin strain that resulted in two stints on the injured list. Veterans Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray also opened the season on the IL, leaving Logan Webb, rookie Kyle Harrison and converted reliever Jordan Hicks as the only rotation mainstays over the first couple months of the regular season. The injuries ultimately had deleterious effects on the bullpen, which was routinely tasked with covering gaps in the rotation.

The offense, meanwhile, didn't produce consistently enough to take some of the pressure off the pitching staff, preventing the Giants from getting on a roll until now.

“Unfortunately, I think our story is not super unique for teams that don’t reach expectations before the season,” Zaidi said. “I think it’s a combination of health and some guys not hitting their career norms. And in an odd way, I think some of that has to do with the timing and the rhythm of the season. We talked some about how particularly from a pitching standpoint, we got off to a tough start. I feel like something that we felt would be a strength for us, we were kind of playing catch-up with all season.”

Zaidi said retaining Snell, who has a 1.23 ERA over his last 14 starts and is expected to opt out and become a free agent at the end of the season, will be a “priority” for the Giants, who are also expected to be in the market for middle infield help this winter. San Francisco already checked one big item off its to-do list by locking up third baseman Matt Chapman to a six-year, $151 million contract extension earlier this month, a sign that Zaidi has recognized the importance of establishing more lineup continuity after years of roster churn.

“I think I’ve evolved in my views of things,” Zaidi said. “Some of that has to do with the culture around the Giants organization and the fan base and things our fans want. Things that this organization has done when it’s been most successful, which might not have been how I was successful earlier in my career. So we talked about it. I think there’s been a meeting of the minds over time. I think I’ve made adjustments. I think we’re at a point now where I think we’re very much in sync with the vision of the team that we want. We want a younger team, we want a more athletic team. We want some consistency in the rotation and the lineup.”