San Francisco Giants: 2018 Season Already Much Better Than 2017

After a terrible, no good season in 2017, the San Francisco Giants are already having a better year in only six games in 2018.

The expectation from the beginning of Spring Training was that the 2018 San Francisco Giants would be better than they were in 2017. After such a miserably disappointing year, the Giants’ front office worked diligently to improve the team, gaining upgrades in a number of areas and reinvigorating a team that lost 98 games and finished tied for the worst record in baseball.

When the Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on Opening Day a week ago, with Joe Panik hitting a solo home run that provided just enough insurance for Ty Blach and a group of relievers, the 2018 Giants accomplished a few things that the 2017 Giants never did.

First, they had a winning record. Last season on Opening Day, Mark Melancon infamously blew his first save opportunity by letting a one-run lead slip away against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants would go on to win the next day to get to .500, but could never get above that mark, losing their next four games.

This year, new closer Hunter Strickland held the one-run lead, putting away the Dodgers in order after a leadoff single. That gave the Giants their first winning record since the final day of the 2016 season.

Second, the Giants found themselves ahead of the Dodgers in the standings. The Giants and Dodgers briefly tied in the standings last season, with both teams sharing .500 records after two games, but the Giants never were above their nemeses in the standings. They accomplished that feat one day into the 2018 season.

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The Giants would win again in game two (with Panik and the pitching staff making MLB history in the process), pushing their record to two games above .500, a number that was simply insurmountable in 2018. And even though they lost the final two games of the set, they still earned a split in the season’s first set. Last season, the Giants played 11 four-game series and didn’t earn their first split until the third series after losing three out of four games each of the first two times.

Wednesday’s victory against the Seattle Mariners saw the Giants accomplish another feat they didn’t accomplish in all of 2017. They smashed four home runs, the first time they’d done so since August 28th, 2016. Gorkys Hernandez, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval, and Brandon Crawford combined for the Giants’ four dingers. In 2017, the Giants hit three home runs five times, but could never connect on a fourth.

They also hit three home runs in one inning, with Belt leading off the fifth with his blast and Sandoval and Crawford going back-to-back later in the inning. That’s another feat the Giants hadn’t accomplished since 2016.

And Hernandez’s home run was also his first since the season before last. He went the entire 2017 season without touching them all, leading the major leagues with 348 plate appearances without a home run. It had been 378 plate appearances total between home runs for Hernandez.

Johnny Cueto‘s 2017 was sort of a symbol for the team. After a fantastic debut season in San Francisco, he battled through injuries and ineffectiveness to endure one of the worst years of his career. 2018 has been a much different story.

Through two starts and 13 innings, Cueto has allowed just one run, including seven shutout innings against the Dodgers last Friday. Cueto didn’t have a single start last year where he shut his opponents out, and had just three starts where he allowed one run. This is the first two-start stretch during which Cueto has allowed only one run since May, 2016, when he allowed one run over two complete games on May 18th and May 23rd.

The Giants have played only six games this season, and have already accomplished many things that they didn’t in 2017. Even being .500 after six games is a massive step forward from where they were at the same point last season, when they sat 1-5 and in last place. The goal this year seems to be to stay afloat until the big horses come back in the rotation, and they’ve done well in that regard through one week.

Next: 3 Up, 3 Down: Interleague Split

There is no telling how this season will go. Maybe the offense will continue to gel and make this the best lineup the team has had in years. Or maybe Wednesday’s 10-run, 4-homer outburst was a one-off event. Either way, the Giants are already better positioned than they were at any point last year. So, at least there’s that.

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