- Position
- SS
- Number
- #50
- Age
- 28
- Pieces here
- 9
On the record
Called Shots →Christian Koss makes more starts at third base for the Giants over the rest of the 2026 regular season than any other player.
From August 28 through the end of the 2026 regular season, Christian Koss starts more games at shortstop than at all other positions combined.
San Francisco starts a seventh different player at third base at some point in the 2026 regular season.
San Francisco finishes the 2026 regular season with a higher share of its runs scored on home runs than the 43.1 percent it had scored through September 5.
Christian Koss hits no more than one home run over the rest of the 2026 regular season, finishing with four or fewer.
Written about him
The Giants cannot lose 100 games. Their floor is one game better than 1985.
San Francisco is 63-89 with ten games to play, so the worst record it can finish with is 63-99 and a second hundred-loss season is off the table. The league's year-by-year record for this franchise runs 144 seasons and contains exactly one hundred-loss year: 1985, at 62-100. The distance between that team and this year's floor is one game. Four seasons in the 144 have a worse winning percentage than a 63-99 finish, three of them played in New York. Across the 69 seasons the Giants have played in San Francisco, the best available outcome, winning all ten, is 73-89 and the eleventh-worst season in that span; losing seven of the ten produces 66-96, which is the 1984 club's record exactly. Tuesday's nine starters were Cox, Eldridge, Gilbert, Lee, Basabe, Hill, Cavanaugh, McCray and Koss. Turner Hill drove in three on a single, a groundout and the first home run of his major league life. Seven of the ten runs scored without a home run. Rafael Devers had core-muscle surgery in Philadelphia the same day. One take filed.
Every Team Left On The Giants' Schedule Has A Number. San Francisco Has A Letter.
San Francisco is eliminated from postseason contention. The league's standings feed carried a wild-card elimination number of two for the Giants through Saturday's games and has read E, in both the wild-card and division columns, from Sunday's games onward. Sunday was a 4-2 loss at Citi Field; Arizona beat Houston 3-2 the same afternoon. San Francisco is 61-85 through 146 games, so its maximum possible win total is 77, and Philadelphia (81-64), the Cubs (81-65) and Arizona (78-68) already have more than that, against three wild-card places. The Giants have won both games since, 5-4 in eleven innings Monday on a Shay Whitcomb single and 2-1 Tuesday behind six scoreless innings from Landen Roupp, with both runs coming on solo home runs by Bryce Eldridge and Christian Koss. Sixteen games remain against four opponents, and every one of the four still has a live elimination number: four with St. Louis (72-74, number 10), three with San Diego (77-68, half a game behind Arizona for the third wild card, number 16), three with Minnesota (69-76, number 12) and six with the Dodgers (88-57, leading the National League West by ten and a half). Arizona does not appear on San Francisco's remaining schedule and neither does Colorado, the only other eliminated club in the National League at 55-89. The season ends at Oracle Park against the Dodgers on September 27. San Francisco has used 64 players in 2026 and 15 of them made their major league debut this season. Two takes filed.
Every Run The Giants Scored On Saturday Left The Ballpark
San Francisco beat the Mets 9-5 at Citi Field on Saturday, and all nine of its runs scored on home runs. The Giants hit six: Rafael Devers in the first and the fifth, his 34th and 35th; Christian Koss in the third and the fifth, his second and third; Osleivis Basabe in the eighth; Grant McCray in the ninth. Every run-scoring play in the game was a home run. The Giants also had four hits that were not home runs, a Grant McCray single, a Jonah Cox single, a Bryce Eldridge double and a Shay Whitcomb single, and none of the four drove in a run. Three of the four men who homered are having bad seasons: Koss is hitting .211 with three home runs in 52 games, two of them Saturday and all three inside his last nine games after none in his first forty-two, McCray is hitting .143 with eight hits in 56 at-bats, and Basabe is hitting .216. Manager Tony Vitello was ejected by home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak in the top of the second, after one of the nine runs had scored. Across 143 games this season the Giants have scored 601 runs, 259 of them on home runs, which is 43.1 percent, on 164 home runs. Sixteen times this season every Giants run in a game has come on a home run, and before Saturday the most they had scored in such a game was three. Only twice all year have they hit five or more home runs in a game, the other being seven on June 5. Friday night in the same ballpark they had twelve hits, one home run, and lost 10-6. San Francisco is 59-84, eliminated in the National League West, with a wild-card elimination number of four and 19 games left. Two takes filed.
Losing Willy Adames Costs The Giants A Third Baseman, Not A Shortstop
Six men have started a game at third base for San Francisco in 2026. Matt Chapman made 82 of those starts and has not played since June 30; Casey Schmitt made 24 and has not played since July 27. Both had surgery in the following days and MLB's injury page gives both an expected return of 2027. Christian Koss has held the job since July 28, but he has also started nine games at shortstop since July 1, and on every one of those days somebody else played third: Schmitt once, Buddy Kennedy five times, Shay Whitcomb three. Kennedy and Whitcomb were both claimed off waivers this month, from Seattle on August 2 and Houston on August 13, and Kennedy was designated for assignment on Thursday after going 4 for 33 with four singles. Willy Adames received a PRP injection in his sprained left elbow on Thursday; Tony Vitello said three or four weeks of rest and the club's injury page says a four-week minimum, which lands on September 24 against a last scheduled game of September 27. Koss and Whitcomb have drawn six walks in 159 plate appearances between them this season, against 74 in 857 for Chapman and Adames. Three takes filed, on Adames, on Koss at shortstop and on a seventh third baseman.
San Francisco's Active Roster Does Not List A Shortstop
San Francisco placed Willy Adames (left elbow sprain on the transaction log; MLB.com reported an MRI showing a moderate strain of the non-throwing elbow, and the two wordings are recorded here as published rather than blended) and Victor Bericoto (right knee bone bruise) on the 10-day injured list on August 24 and JT Brubaker (bruised ribs) on the 15-day, all three hurt in Sunday's 5-4 loss at Boston. Bryce Eldridge went on the bereavement list and Matt Wilkinson was optioned. The Giants recalled five men from Triple-A Sacramento the same day: Nate Furman, Grant McCray, Anthony Molina, Ryan Walker and Shay Whitcomb. Adames had started 121 games at shortstop and played 1,046.1 innings there; MLB's active-roster page now lists no shortstop among the 26. Christian Koss, a third baseman with 71 innings at short this year and two innings pitched, played the position Monday while Whitcomb made his Giants debut at third. San Francisco won 5-0 behind six pitchers after losing starter Carson Whisenhunt in the third inning to left elbow pain. Whisenhunt was scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday morning and no result has been published. The Giants have used 58 players this season, tied with the Angels and the Athletics for fifth-most in the majors against a league median of 52, and seven of them made their San Francisco debut in August.