San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Interleague Split at Home
The San Francisco Giants split a two-game series with the Seattle Mariners, keeping their record at .500 through the first six games of the year. Here are three positives and three negatives from the interleague series.
3 UP
1 – Sleeping Giants Wake Up
The first six innings of this series went very much the same as the first series. A Joe Panik solo home run accounted for the Giants’ lone run, and the rest of the team could not string hits together. They woke up during the seventh inning on Tuesday.
After a Buster Posey single with one out, Evan Longoria stepped in and broke an 0-17 skid to start the season in a big way. He launched a center-cut mistake for a two-run home run, putting some life in the crowd and in the dugout. They added another run in the eighth on an Austin Jackson sac fly, and though they couldn’t complete a comeback, the Giants had some momentum.
The explosion came on Wednesday. Against a Felix Hernandez that looked nothing like his former self, as well as some reliever, the Giants scored three times in the first and five times in the fifth, adding single runs in the second and seventh innings to give them 10 on the day. They hit four home runs, including a three-run Splash Hit from Pablo Sandoval, and one from each Crawford. Gorkys Hernandez even got in on the action, hitting his first home run since September 13th, 2016 (378 plate appearances ago).
2 – Crisp Defense
Along with the offensive outburst on Wednesday, the Giants’ defense had a stellar performance behind the pitching staff. Andrew McCutchen made a stellar running catch in Triple’s Alley to rob Kyle Seager of what probably would have been a two-run triple. Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez covered ground in left field and center field, respectively, as well.
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Joe Panik turned a great double play in the fourth inning, backing up to field a grounder on a nice hop before making the 180 turn and fire to start the twin killing and erase a leadoff single. Johnny Cueto picked off Jean Segura in the fifth, with Brandon Belt helping out with a lightning-quick tag. Brandon Crawford kept Dee Gordon off base twice with great plays at shortstop.
The Giants’ infield defense looked as advertised on Wednesday, and the outfield defense was mighty good as well. This was the Giants’ best all-around effort so far in the young season, and maybe can be the starting point of a strong run.
3 – Replay Reviews
It’s very early in the 2018 season, but so far, replay has been impeccable. The Giants called for two replays during Tuesday’s game, and the calls on the field were overturned both times. In the sixth inning, replay showed that Austin Jackson beat the throw to first on an infield hit, despite initially being called out. In the eighth inning, Gregor Blanco’s foul ball down the left field line was changed to a double when chalk was seen kicking up from the fair/foul line on replay.
Replay has gotten these calls right, and they’re doing it quickly. So far, it’s been a complete reversal from past years when replays would take ridiculous amounts of time, and it wasn’t even guaranteed they’d get the call right (Crawford is still owed a home run from last season). When “pace of play” is brought up, replay should have always been one of the main concerns. Speeding up the replays is certainly a way to help pace of play.