Kurtenbach: Dubs’ best closing five.
With more than 20% of the season in the books, the Giants hold the best record in the National League and still lead the West Division by multiple games over the Padres and Dodgers.
Thanks to an excellent starting rotation that includes a dominant trio of Kevin Gausman, Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani and a veteran offense led by the last players with ties to the World Series-era clubs in Buster Posey, Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford, the Giants have been one of the biggest surprises in baseball.
After wrapping up a 4-1 homestand Tuesday and improving to 14-4 this season at Oracle Park, it’s time to recalibrate expectations for what the Giants are capable of achieving in 2021.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler opened spring training by declaring that ending the franchise’s four-year playoff drought was the primary goal. Six weeks into the season, what appeared to be a lofty mission now seems like a much more realistic pursuit.
“I think when we had those good teams back in the day, that’s exactly what we were doing — we had good pitching, good defense, and we got hits when we needed to,” Belt said Tuesday. “I think we have a better offense now. I think we’re going to get going, and we’re going to get better as an offense.”
Much can change over the next four-plus months, but in a brief, 36-game sample size, the Giants have already developed an identity that’s reminiscent of the best teams of the Bruce Bochy era. No one is suddenly predicting the Giants will win a World Series, but a club with an outstanding starting rotation, a solid if sometimes torturous bullpen and a lineup full of hitters who wear pitchers out with long at-bats should at least have a strong chance of hanging around the wild-card race deep into the year.
In 2010, 2012 and 2014, the Giants posted a combined winning percentage of .584 at home and won at least 45 games at China Basin each season. This year, their .777 home winning percentage leads the majors and they’ve found their success thanks to a pitching staff that lowered its ERA at Oracle Park to 2.63 after taking back-toback games from the Rangers this week.
“I think our players will tell you they feel comfortable in this ballpark,” Kapler said. “And I think that’s true on the mound and in the batter’s box. Especially our veteran players, they have such a strong familiarity with every angle and nook and cranny in this ballpark. They have a high degree of comfort and sometimes comfort can lead to confidence.”
Some of the comfort the Giants feel is a result of the energy the crowd has provided after a season played without any fans in attendance.
“Our fans are so great here,” starter Logan Webb said Tuesday. “I honestly do think that has something to do with (our success), having them back here. It’s not a full crowd, but it sounds like a full crowd when good things happen. I think we’re kind of feeding off of that.”
The club has already proved the roster is among the deepest and most formidable in the NL, with all the injuries the Giants have dealt with early in the year. With a pair of series
wins over the Padres and another over the Phillies, the Giants have shown they can go head-to-head with some of the stronger teams in the league and hold their own.
The next steps to becoming a playoff contender? Winning more consistently on the road and beating the reigning World Series champion Dodgers.
Through 18 road games, the Giants hold an 8-10 record and have suffered bullpen collapses that cost the club series wins in Seattle and Colorado. The Giants’ .724 team OPS on the road is only slightly better than the club’s .710 mark at home, but the pitching has been less consistent when playing outside of San Francisco.
Kapler’s staff has a 4.13 ERA on the road, which is respectable but still a full run and a half per game higher than the 2.63 home ERA.
Fortunately for the Giants, the May schedule has presented them with an excellent opportunity to improve their road record. They begin an eight-game trip today that features a four-game series in Pittsburgh and a four-game set in Cincinnati. Neither the Pirates (15-20) nor the Reds (16-17) are off to strong starts. Cincinnati has fared better at Great American Ball Park than it has elsewhere, but the Giants open their trip against a Pittsburgh team that’s lost two leading hitters, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Colin Moran, to the injured list.
If the Giants can play .500 ball away from Oracle Park this year, they should find themselves in the playoff mix come September. If the Giants can give the Dodgers as much trouble as they’ve given the Padres, the club should position itself to remain in the race for a division title.
At 19-17, the Dodgers are off to an underwhelming start and have now allowed the Giants to maintain a tight grip on first place for two weeks, but there’s little doubt Los Angeles will eventually improve. Despite not playing any headto-head matchups yet, the Giants still have an opportunity to take advantage of a Dodgers team that has yet to hit its stride. The clubs will play seven times in a 10-day span near the end of the month.
If the Giants can finish May by taking at least one of their series with the Dodgers and demonstrating they’re able to win on the road against outmatched competition in the Reds and Pirates, they’ll deserve to be taken seriously as a threat to win the West.
For now, the Giants have made a convincing case their roster is deep enough and their winning formula is consistent enough to be viewed as one of the most complete teams in the NL. A lot can go wrong in a 162-game season, but so far, fans have every reason to believe in what’s gone right.