San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: A Season-Starting Split
3 DOWN
1 – The New Hitters
While Watson made a great first impression, the beginning didn’t go so well for the three offseason acquisitions in the lineup. Center fielder Austin Jackson, right fielder Andrew McCutchen, and third baseman Evan Longoria combined to go 2-43 (.047) with 14 strikeouts against Los Angeles.
Jackson greated fans well, lacing a single off Kershaw in his first at-bat as a Giant, but went on to make outs in his next 11 at-bats. McCutchen picked up a double as his first hit, also off Kershaw, but has gone hitless in 13 straight at-bats.
But the most glaring stats belong to Longoria, who is without a hit in 15 at-bats so far, and doesn’t have very much hard contact to show for his efforts, either. Longoria admitted to feeling the pressure after his first series as a Giant, so maybe getting a warm welcome at AT&T Park will be enough to settle him, and his new teammates, in as Giants.
2 – Defensive Miscues
The defense played two clean, crisp games to start the season, but there were issues on Saturday and Sunday. McCutchen had a game to forget on Saturday, first diving for a ball in right field that he missed and turned into a triple. Later, he almost collided with center fielder Gregor Blanco on a ball in shallow right, allowing the ball to drop and two runs to score.
On Sunday, it was Gold Glover Joe Panik that made a mistake. He had Yasiel Puig caught in a rundown with Corey Seager at third base, and chased Puig back toward first while making sure Seager didn’t break. Panik should have held the ball the entire way or dumped it off quickly to first baseman Brandon Belt , who had Seager in his line of sight. Instead, Panik held on a bit too long before making the toss to first, giving Belt no chance to throw Seager out at home.
McCutchen is going to have to get used to not being the captain in center field anymore, and will have to concede catches to the man in the middle sometimes. Panik made a silly mistake, but it is something that is easily fixable. Those mistakes will have to get cleaned up going foward.
3 – RISPy Business
New-look lineup, new hitting coach, familiar problems. The Giants still just can not come up with that money hit, and even when they do, it’s not enough to score a run. The Giants went 1-28 (.036) with runners in scoring position in four games against Los Angeles.
The one hit came off Brandon Belt’s bat, but Hunter Pence couldn’t get a good jump on the soft, shallow flyball to center field, and therefore couldn’t score. Other than that, the Giants have missed out on opportunity after opportunity to cash in on some runs.
Next: Strickland Making the Jump
There, of course, is some element of bad luck that goes into such a perilous number. Belt hit another ball on Sunday that, according to Statcast had an 86 percent probability of being a hit based on exit velocity (105.6 mph) and launch angle (21 degrees). Instead, Yasiel Puig made a stellar catch in right field to rob the Giants of the rally. Eventually, the tide will have to turn.