Beat-up Giants had 15 losses to Dodgers
The one big number from 2021 was 107.
In 2022, the story of why the Giants weren’t able to replicate that success — or, short of that unrealistic goal, why they regressed by 26 games — can be told by a lot of little numbers. Thirty two of them, exactly, listed below, with some room reserved for the bright spots, too.
2,482,686 fans to pass through the gates of Oracle Park in 2022, the first year since 2019 without pandemic-era restrictions. However, the 30,650 per game was the Giants’ lowest average attendance in a normal season since the ballpark opened in 2000.
Seven losses in a row coming out of the All-Star break, the proverbial end of the Giants’ playoff hopes and one of two seven-game losing streaks in the month of July. The Giants won at least five games in a row seven times, but they also ran losing streaks of five games or more six times.
15 losses to the Dodgers, the most since the Giants moved to San Francisco.
66 players used, breaking a franchise record also set under Farhan Zaidi (64 in 2019). The first, by nature of his first career Opening Day start, was Logan Webb. The last, Andrew Vasquez, was one of 45 players to cycle between San Francisco and Triple-A Sacramento, which shattered the majorleague club’s figure with 97 players used.
1,397 player games lost to injuries, not entirely unexpected when fielding the National League’s oldest group of position players, with an average age of 30.0. While that was the ninth-most games in the majors missed due to injuries, it was actually fewer time on the IL than last season; these Giants just had a harder job plugging the holes.
Two games featuring the Giants’ projected starting infield — Brandon Belt, Tommy La Stella, Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria — in the same lineup. The four never appeared in the field together.
1.63 pinch-hitters used per game, or 133% more than the average major league team. It took until July for the Giants’ first pinch-hit home run — they finished the season with five — after setting a major-league record with 18 in 2021.
197 plate appearances with the bases loaded, more
than any other team in the majors. Despite leading the league in these prime scoring opportunities, the Giants’ 4.42 runs per game ranked a pedestrian seventh place in the NL.
16 home runs by Giants first basemen, the second-fewest in the NL and 32 fewer than last season, when Belt, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Darin Ruf combined to slug 48 homers, the most by any first base group in the NL. Saddled by injuries, Belt and Wade were unable to replicate that production, while Ruf was shipped away at midseason.
183 home runs, sixthmost in the National League but 58 fewer than
last season. Much of their success in 2021 can be attributed to being the best at two things: hitting home runs and keeping their opponents in the park, both of which they led the league in. In 2022, they got only one half of the equation: their pitchers’ 132 homers allowed were the fewest in the majors. In fact, Giants pitchers have the led the majors in home run suppression for consecutive seasons for the first time since they did so in three straight years from 200002. The 67 allowed by their starters will go down as the second-fewest by any majorleague starting staff in the past 30 years.
52 defensive runs saved, the worst run prevention in the majors, according to Sports Info Solutions. Their worst positional culprit: left field, where Joc Pederson manned the majority of the innings. According to FanGraphs’ catch-all defensive metric, 2022 was the second-worst defensive season in Giants’ franchise history, behind only 1984.
2.25 FIP for Carlos Rodón, the best mark in the majors in a metric that defined his electric season in San Francisco: racking up strikeouts while limiting home runs. Pick any number to summarize Rodón’s season: his 11 double-digit strikeout games (a franchise record), 237 total punchouts (second in the NL and most by a Giants pitcher since Madison Bumgarner) or 31 starts, a career-high, but the most important might be 178, his number of innings pitched (also a career-high), which allows him to opt out and become a free agent.
50.4% of the time Jakob Junis threw his slider, the highest usage of any offspeed pitch by any starter in the majors. Rodón’s fourseamer was the most valuable pitch on staff, generating -22 run value, the third-best fastball and seventh-best pitch in the majors. 104 mph, a number Camilo Doval clocked on radar guns twice this season, the two fastest pitches thrown by a Giant in the pitchtracking era (since 2008). Doval added a third pitch, increased his velocity and set career-highs in nearly every statistical category, including 27 saves, sixthmost in the NL and the second-most by any Giants closer age 25 or younger.
21 stolen bases by Thairo Estrada, the first Giants player to reach the 20-steal threshold since Hunter Pence in 2013 and their first infielder to do so since Omar Vizquel in 2006. Combined with his 14 home runs, Estrada was the first Giants infielder to reach both marks in one season since the late Hall of Famer Joe Morgan in 1982.
71 RBIs by Wilmer Flores, the most on the team. Flores became the fourth Giants player since 1920 to lead the team in RBIs while appearing in at least 25 games at three different positions, but it was also the fourthlowest total for a Giants RBI leader since 1920.
$66.9 million coming off the books after this season.
142 days until the Giants’ first Cactus League game of 2023.