Showdown with Padres provides big opportunity
It was all enough to make you say “same old Giants.”
Yes, it’s only three games, but San Francisco’s season-opening series loss to the Seattle Mariners was a refrain of several themes of the
2020 season.
The bullpen imploded, helped by some bad defense, to drop game No. 1. Then, in a Saturday evening rubber match, the offense couldn’t plate a run against three righthanded pitchers.
You can’t win or lose a division in the first series of the season, but you can undercut a good deal of a fan base’s optimism heading into a season
when things were supposed to improve.
The good news for the Giants is that they have a chance to get a lot of those good vibes back starting tonight.
The San Diego Padres are a juggernaut — one of two in the National League West this season, along with the Dodgers — and the Giants going to Southern California and winning a three-game series against their upstart rivals would go a long way to restoring some of that lost optimism.
Yes, do that, and Giants fans might be thinking that this year might, indeed, be different.
A strong start from newcomer Anthony DeSclafani tonight could set that tone.
After strong starts from Kevin Gausman and Johnny Cueto (now in his sixth year with the Giants), Logan Webb followed his dominant spring training performance with a roller-coaster of a start.
In some innings he was dominant. In others, the Mariners knew exactly what he was going to throw — they laced him for three doubles in a row in their gamewinning fourth inning. It’s just one game, and Webb deserves credit for working through the first adversity he faced this season — Giants manager Gabe Kapler called Webb’s performance “professional” — but the breakout so many expected from the 24-year-old righty this season didn’t look as if it was upon us.
But what if DeSclafani was the breakout starter that the Giants need this season?
Last year, DeSclafani was one of the worst starters in baseball for the Reds, posting a 7.22 ERA that was in no way a fraudulent byproduct of a shortened season (his fielding independent pitching ERA was 6.10 and he allowed 1.7 baserunners per inning).
He signed with the Giants because the organization has quickly established a reputation as a home for wayward pitchers with a coaching staff that can eliminate a hurler’s negatives and accentuate his positives.
The work the Giants did with DeSclafani in Arizona seemed to back up that reputation. In just shy of 10 innings pitched, DeSclafani had an ERA of 2.79.
Of course, that was against exhibition game lineups. The Padres are something entirely different, boasting one of the best players in the game, Fernando Tatis Jr., and seven others who posted a .940 OPS in their first three games of the season.
If DeSclafani can find a way to slow down the Brown Go-Rounds, it would raise eyebrows not just here in the Bay Area, but also around baseball.
Tuesday’s showdown in San Diego could be a huge game for the Giants. They’ll go up against one of the best pitchers in baseball — Yu Darvish — who, oh yeah, is a righty.
The Giants weren’t bad against right-handed pitchers last year — they had the 11th-best OPS in the majors against them — but that was 74 points worse than their performances against lefties, which was second best in the National League and fourth best in baseball.
The Giants’ idea was that adding Tommy LaStella to the top of the lineup against righties would pair well with fellow lefty hitters Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Belt in the heart of the order.
Again, it’s one game, but Yastrzemski has started the season 1 for 13 with only one walk to six strikeouts and Belt went 0 for 3 Saturday, striking out in all three atbats.
“I’m really confident in the lineup we threw out there today against any righthanded pitcher,” Kapler said Saturday.
That confidence will be tested against Darvish, who had a 2.01 ERA last season. If the Giants can hit against him, they can probably hit any righty in the game.
The Giants are also likely to get another lengthy test of their bullpen in that contest.
Aaron Sanchez is listed as the probable starter on Tuesday, but he threw only 5 2/3 innings in Arizona. That game is likely a Johnny Wholestaff contest. Hold on to your hats.
Oh, and to round it all out on Wednesday afternoon, the Giants will face off against new Padre Blake Snell, another one of those pitchers who can make the claim that he’s one of the best in baseball. At least he’s a lefty.
It’s all a big ask, especially early in the season. The Giants aren’t on the Padres’ level. Not yet, at least. The rebuild might be on track, but that level of success — legitimate World Series contention — is a few years away.
But for Giants fans starved for a reason to believe after four straight seasons of losing ball, getting back to .500 at the six-game mark would be a reason to celebrate — a sign that, even after an uninspiring opening weekend, things are turning around in San Francisco.