San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: A Season-Starting Split
With the season’s first series out of the way, let’s take a look back at three positives and three negatives from the San Francisco Giants’ first four games.
1 – Panik and Posey
Joe Panik was the offense in the first two games of the season, hitting game-winning solo home runs against two of baseball’s premier pitchers: Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen. He became the first left-handed Giants’ hitter to homer off Kershaw, and just the third Giant overall to take Jansen deep in 211 plate appearances (joining Pablo Sandoval and Denard Span). Panik owns a .400 average (6-15) after his first four games, all of which were spent hitting leadoff or second in the lineup.
Buster Posey shook off an 0-6 in the first two days and picked up four hits in the ensuing two games, including a double in each game. Posey even showed his baserunning smarts by stealing third base without a throw after roping a double off the wall against Rich Hill.
Obviously the lineup is still struggling to score, a common problem for Giants’ teams. But these two guys are doing their part, and it will certainly help the offense break out at some point very soon.
2 – Johnny Cueto
There were plenty of question marks surrounding Cueto entering his third season with San Francisco after he threw to the second-highest ERA of his career (4.52) and the highest WHIP (1.446) in 2017. He made a big statement in his first start, throwing seven beautiful innings against the archrival Dodgers.
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Cueto took a perfect game into the seventh, but lost his bid at history when leadoff hitter Chris Taylor dumped a bloop single into right field. He would go on to finish his night with seven shutout innings, striking out four without allowing a walk while facing the minimum.
Cueto’s command wasn’t quite perfect in his season debut, but his stuff looked absolutely fantastic. His fastball velocity gradually ticked up as the night went on, topping out at 93.5 mph in the sixth inning. The changeup danced around the strikezone, showing the movement that made it such an impactful offering in previous years. With the rotation missing two of its horses, the Giants need Cueto to show that he’s back, and this was a great first showing.
3 – Tony Watson
First impressions are important, and Tony Watson made the most of his first series with the Giants. Now the top southpaw in the bullpen, Watson made his Giants’ debut on Opening Day and threw a stunning inning, striking out the side to work around a two-out walk. He followed that up the next day with a flawless inning, striking out two more batters to go with a groundout to end the frame.
There was a slight bit of concern for Watson heading into the season after he got a late start to Spring Training and struggled when he did take the mound during Cactus League. He didn’t strike out a batter in 7.1 innings of work. That didn’t stop him from striking out five of the first seven batters he faced in the regular season, however.
With Mark Melancon out for an unforeseeable amount of time and Will Smith still working his way back from Tommy John surgery, Watson is going to be a huge piece of the bullpen moving forward. If these first two outings are any indication, the eighth inning is in good hands.