San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Older guys take leading roles early on for S.F.
Sure, it’s still early in the season, and a trend now might not be in evidence a month from now, much less by the end of the year.
Caveat provided, here’s one interesting development over the first weekplus of Giants baseball: The veteran players are stealing the show. The past two games, that’s meant shortstop Brandon Crawford. He played offensive hero again Saturday, this time with a blast over the rightfield wall and onto the walkway. That threerun shot in the sixth was the difference maker as San Francisco downed visiting Colorado 43.
“Craw wants every big atbat, every big moment and for good reason,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “Put plain and simply, I believe in him in those big moments.”
“It’s not a surprise by any means,” said Alex Dickerson, who scored on the homer. “We know what he’s capable of.”
Dickerson — left in to bat against lefty Ben Bowden with the Giants thin on the bench — and pinchhitter Wilmer Flores walked to set up Crawford’s homer, which came on a 32
fastball from Bowden. Crawford’s tworun double in the seventh Friday provided the Giants the winning margin in their home opener.
Another prominent contributor Friday and Saturday: closer Jake McGee, who has appeared in six of the Giants’ eight games and hasn’t allowed a hit or a run while earning four saves. “He’s been great in the ninth, just outstanding,” Dickerson said, saying that the lefty’s fastball is hard to adjust to because he has some deception and it moves so much. “He’s a nightmare to face, to be honest.”
Other older Giants to shine early: Buster Posey is batting .286 and threw out two runners Saturday, with Kapler noting it could have been three with a better placed tag on another runner; Evan Longoria leads the team with three homers, and of course Johnny Cueto just missed a complete game in the home opener one day before, allowing one run in 82⁄3 innings. None except Longoria is firmly in the team’s plans beyond this season, with Crawford and Posey free agents and the Giants holding an option on Cueto.
“It’s just such a great reminder of what experience does for a baseball game,” Kapler said. “It’s composure, experience, ‘I’ve been here before, I’ve seen this before.’ ”
Another trend, the Giants aren’t hitting much, but they’re still winning games. They improved to 53, though they’re batting .198 and have scored only 14 runs over their past six games. That’s mostly because the pitching, particularly the starters and McGee, have been terrific.
One starter, however, has been a little more wobbly than the rest. That’s Logan Webb, who was on the mound Saturday.
Webb was the Giants’ top pitcher during the spring, but his first time out in the regular season, he got a little changeup happy, in his words, giving up three doubles in a row on the pitch at one point in Seattle. Saturday, he might have gone away from his best pitch too much: The biggest hits he gave up against the Rockies came on his slider, including Ryan McMahon’s tworun homer in the fifth.
Still, Webb kept alive the team’s seasonopening roll of starters working at least five innings and allowing no more than three runs, making it through five exactly. He allowed eight hits, two walks and struck out six. His ERA stands at 5.23.
“He continues to have lapses where he’s not able to find the zone for a short stretch,” Kapler said. “Additionally, he can be snakebit at times . ... I wouldn’t say it was lights out by any stretch, but I thought it was a fine performance.”
Caleb Baragar, Reyes Moronta, Tyler Rogers and McGee provided a scoreless inning apiece in relief, allowing one hit and one walk combined.
Kapler said the Giants were short on the bench but would not elaborate; Austin Slater, who was in the dugout, was the one obvious player who was not used. Kapler said that the team will have a full bench Sunday.