SAN FRANCISCO -- What had turned into a foregone conclusion became official on Tuesday night.

With a 4-0 loss to the Padres, the Giants were eliminated from postseason contention, marking the fourth time they’ve missed the playoffs in Farhan Zaidi’s five-year tenure as president of baseball operations. While they still have a mathematical chance of ending up tied in the standings for the third National League Wild Card, they come up on the losing end of any tiebreaker scenario.

It’s a massively disappointing outcome for San Francisco, which stood atop the NL Wild Card standings after climbing 12 games over .500 on Aug. 4. Since then, the club’s postseason odds have cratered from a season-high 80.4 percent to zero, a calamitous collapse caused by prolonged stretches of offensive impotence, shoddy defense and astonishing road woes.

“Coming to terms with the fact that we’re not going to the postseason is pretty [terrible],” manager Gabe Kapler said. “It’s not a fun thing to be thinking about. It’s disappointing. Every step along the way, we expected to go to the postseason. That never changed. It’s certainly frustrating.”

The Giants went down quietly Tuesday, recording only three hits against Padres right-hander Seth Lugo in their 13th shutout loss of the year. They’ve lost 10 of their last 14 games to fall to 8-16 in September, the second-worst mark in the Majors behind the Nationals (7-16). At 78-80, they’ll have to win at least three of their final four games to avoid finishing below .500 this season.  

"I'm tired of losing. It's not enjoyable; it's not fun," right-hander Logan Webb said Monday. "We've got to make some big changes in here to really create that winning culture that we want to show up every single year and try to win the whole thing."

How far those changes might go remains to be seen. Chairman Greg Johnson has said he expects both Kapler and Zaidi to return in 2024, which could turn into a “prove it” year for the Giants’ brain trust.

“I think we could do better, that's for sure,” Kapler said before the game. “I think that comes from every corner of the clubhouse, and we just have work to do in that regard. There's always room for improvement. But Logan's words were strong, they're noted and they’re agreed with by everybody here right now. 

“We all have responsibility to raise the bar, to have the highest possible expectations, to not accept losing, to expect to win every night and to go quickly back to make adjustments when we haven't met that standard.” 

Under Zaidi and Kapler, the Giants won a franchise-record 107 games in 2021 and edged the rival Dodgers for the NL West title, but they’ve been unable to match those heights in subsequent seasons. They fell short of a playoff berth after finishing 81-81 last year and then struck out on their attempts to land a star free agent over the offseason, with Aaron Judge choosing to re-sign with the Yankees and Carlos Correa failing a physical due to an ankle issue that was flagged by the Giants’ medical staff.

The Giants’ contingency plan -- signing Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto -- didn’t pan out as expected, with both outfielders underwhelming in their first seasons in San Francisco. Veterans Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and Alex Wood also struggled in the first half and lost their rotation spots, leaving Webb and Alex Cobb as the club’s only true starters for most of the year. 

Despite their flawed roster, the Giants made no meaningful upgrades at the Trade Deadline, acquiring only veteran AJ Pollock, who went hitless in six at-bats before being released. Aside from Wilmer Flores, the Giants’ lineup slumped badly after the All-Star break, posting an MLB-worst .660 OPS over 68 games. They ended up dropping 28 of their final 34 road games and didn’t win a series away from Oracle Park after sweeping the Pirates on July 14-16.

The emergence of rookies like Patrick Bailey, Marco Luciano, Luis Matos, Casey Schmitt, Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn and Ryan Walker gives them some building blocks for the future, but the Giants will still have plenty of other issues to address this offseason.    

“Obviously, we played bad on the road,” Wood said. “That was a big factor. You try to stay with the process throughout the whole year. You have highs and you have lows. You look back on everything, and we weren’t good enough to make the postseason. At some point, you have to put it together. Ultimately, we just never did. 

“It sucks. There’s no other way to put it. It’s a long, long, long year. This is kind of the time where it’s supposed to become fun and you make a run at a ring. It stinks that we’re going to be on the outside looking in.”