A month into the season, the San Francisco Giants are not where they hoped to be. Heading into Monday’s off day, they’re only 14-15 with a minus-17 run differential, putting them on track to finish the season with a similar record to last year (79-83, minus-45 run differential).

It hasn’t been all bad, though. The Giants have won seven of their last 11 games, winning three of their last four series. And despite their losing record, they’re still in second place in the NL West behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, manager Bob Melvin reflected on the state of his team at this point in the season.

When asked to give San Francisco a letter grade one month into the season, Melvin initially deflected, saying “I’m not gonna do that.” He followed that up by saying, “We’ve been spotty. I mean, you look at the stats across the board, whether it’s pitching numbers, whether it’s the offensive numbers, it hasn’t been great.”

Having said that, Melvin acknowledged that it’s still early in the season and there’s a lot of time left to figure things out. The Giants still have 133 games left, after all, and have only completed 17.9% of their schedule.

“It’s not a horrible place to be,” Melvin said. “No one’s really running in our division too much…At some point in time we’ll hit our stride.”

On the plus side, it’s encouraging that Melvin isn’t panicking yet. Baseball is a long season, and Melvin knows not to overreact to the ebbs and flows. The 62-year-old skipper is in his 21st season managing and has managed nearly 3,000 games, so he’s not going to lose much sleep over a .500-ish start.

That said, perhaps a greater sense of urgency is warranted. San Francisco has failed to capitalize on the slow starts of its division rivals and is merely treading water. Furthermore, Melvin’s San Diego Padres had a sluggish start last year as well and never fully recovered, ending up at 82-80 and missing the playoffs despite being loaded with talent.

The Giants really need to start hitting, as they’re averaging just 3.65 runs per game over their last 26 contests. They also need much better work from their bullpen, which has been horrendous with a 5.60 ERA and 1,40 WHIP thus far.

Without improvements in those areas, San Francisco’s performance is unlikely to get better.

A teenage child of two tech executives who was reported missing last Monday was found safe in San Francisco Saturday, authorities said.

Mint Butterfield, the 16-year-old child of Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Flickr founder Caterina Fake, was found safe around 11:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Sunday. Mint’s pronouns are they/them.

The sheriff’s office said Mint have been associated with an “adult friend,” identified as 26-year-old Christopher “Kio” Dizefalo of San Francisco. Police said a white van associated with Dizefalo was located in San Francisco, and he and Mint were found inside.

Mint was uninjured and, according to the news release, police confirmed she had run away from home voluntarily.

“After being interviewed by MCSO detectives, Dizefalo was arrested for multiple criminal violations and was booked in the Marin County Jail, where his bail was set at $50,000,” police said in the news release. Mint was returned to the custody of their family.

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Mint was reported missing last week

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release last Thursday that Mint was reported missing by Fake on Monday.

Fake told police she last saw Mint around 10 p.m. Monday at their home in Bolinas, a coastal city roughly 30 miles from San Francisco. According to police, Fake realized the next morning that Mint was not at home, and discovered a note indicating Mint had left with a suitcase at some point late in the night or early in the morning.

The sheriff’s office said it was unclear how Mint left the area, as they did not have access to a vehicle or phone. Police said Fake and Mint also share a home in San Francisco, and Fake indicated that Mint may have left for the Tenderloin District of San Francisco.

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.