ARLINGTON, Texas — Believe it or not, there are still opportunities for this Giants team to reach new lows, and they just might be barreling toward a big one.

Or should we say, the big one hundred.

It’s a black mark only worn once before in the proud-and-storied franchise’s almost century and a half of playing baseball on both sides of the country. 

And yet it might be the most appropriate way for this miserable season to end.

The Giants (48-67) marched one step closer to their second 100-loss season Wednesday. 

For the most part, their pitchers didn’t look like they belonged in the big leagues, and neither did their starting lineup in an uncompetitive 6-0 loss to the Rangers, who had lost six straight before taking two of three from the trade deadline’s biggest sellers.

That’s probably because this Giants roster as currently constructed barely qualifies as major league, to say nothing of the manager who was in college this time last year.

San Francisco’s fire sale left it with MLB’s fourth-youngest roster and a lineup in the series finale that featured players who started the year in the minor leagues in six of its nine spots. Carson Whisenhunt, who started the game and was gone by the end of the fourth inning, also spent a large portion of this season in the minors.

“They’re here, so they’re major leaguers,” said Tony Vitello, the first-year skipper. “They’re in that locker room, and we’ve got the organization to represent. So find a way. … It just might be a great challenge. But that’s why we’re all here.”

Whisenhunt missed the strike zone on 10 of his first 14 pitches and walked three batters before being rocked for three extra-base hits that resulted in an early 4-0 deficit.

Carson Seymour, one of six new players called up this week, took over and proceeded to surrender the biggest hit yet, a solo home run Brandon Nimmo snuck over the left field fence.

Bryce Eldridge, maybe the one rookie who belongs, got ahold of a first-pitch changeup Cody Bradford left over the plate and sent it to the warning track, but it was contained by the biggest part of the ballpark. That was the best piece of contact any Giants hitter made against the Rangers starter who, like most of the hitters he faced, also spent most of this year in Triple-A.

Eddys Leonard ripped a 106.7 mph double for his first career major-league hit, and Rafael Devers lined a single at 106.2 mph. But the Giants failed to drive in either batter, and a toothless lineup was shut out for the 11th time this season. Nobody has been blanked more often.

What it means

The franchise responsible for greats such as Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and the man currently in charge, Buster Posey, has been around in some form dating back to 1883. They’ve been playing 162 games since 1962, four years after the Giants’ move to California.

Yet, the futility of the 1985 team that finished 62-100 has never been matched, before or since.

That’s because it’s a hard thing to do to play that poorly over 162 games. Since the American League moved to the modern schedule in 1961, and the NL a year later, there have only been 96 teams to finish a season with triple digits in the loss column.

For this Giants team to get there, they would have to finish the year 14-33 over their final 47 games, a 114-loss pace that, believe it or not, would be worse than any stretch this season.

That might seem far-fetched, and maybe it won’t transpire that way, but consider the roster that Vitello will manage the rest of the way. 

A pitching staff that was already among the worst in the majors lost its most effective starter and its two filthiest relievers in trades to contenders. Their most exciting and dynamic hitter (Luis Arraez) is wearing a different uniform, their most consistently productive bat (Casey Schmitt) recently had season-ending surgery and Matt Chapman may not make it back, either.

Although Posey did well to bolster the farm system with his five deadline deals, the moves left the MLB roster that was already among the league’s worst seriously depleted.

You have to wonder if they’re capable of avoiding ignominious history.