The Giants opened their 2023 season on Thursday in New York and it can't come as much of a surprise as to how things turned out.
Facing one of the best starting pitchers in the game on a cold day in the Bronx, you knew runs would be tough to come by and they were indeed. The Yankees beat the Giants 5-0 backed by a dominant outing from Gerrit Cole and a couple of clutch big flies.
Logan Webb pretty much matched Cole pitch for pitch, but unfortunately for Webb, he was the one who had to face Aaron Judge. The guy who flirted with the idea of joining the Giants this winter, and actually was reportedly coming to San Francisco for a few minutes, fittingly homered in his first at-bat against them.
Webb really made just two mistakes all afternoon and both ended up leaving the ballpark. Judge's blast to center, then Gleyber Torres just back-spun a ball over the short porch in right field to make the game 3-0 in the fourth. Neither of those balls are laving the yard if this game is in Oracle, but that's just how the day went.
The outing by the Giants' ace was really the only bright spot of the day. It won't look as good in the box score as it actually was, but as I said, he looked every bit as good as Cole through most of his outing. He ended his day allowing four runs over six-plus innings, but allowed just four hits and struck out 12.
The Giants were just never able to get anything going to support their ace. Cole struck out seven of the first nine batters he faced and the Giants were only able to collect 3 hits over six innings off him. There were times where it looked like the Giants' hitters weren't reading the ball at all out of Cole's hand. Of course we can't get too caught up on one game, they are certainly not going to face guys with Cole's ability most nights. They just looked over-matched and unprepared at the plate, and that is a little concerning.
Thairo Estrada hit a couple balls pretty well and Roberto Perez hit a line drive base hit to center but other than that it was relatively soft contact all day mixed in with a total of 16 strikeouts. Even when Cole left the game after six, the Giants' at-bats did not improve much at all.
Of course we're probably going to hear a lot about the Giants lackluster lineup and how they messed up by not improving it more over the winter, but it's far to early for that. It may be true, but we can't judge them after one game in 40 degree weather against a dude throwing high-90's with filthy stuff.
It was a tough one for sure. But the emphasis is one. It's the first of 162 and despite the lack of optimism coming out of this one they're going to look better than they showed this afternoon. It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments or changes they make before game two on Saturday.
Comments