recap by: @giantschattereric
Game 1
Giants at Padres
The San Francisco Giants season began with the bullpen blowing a lead after a strong start from Logan Webb. The San Diego Padres won their home opener 6-4 over our beloved Giants. It was not the beginning that we’d all hoped for after such an exciting offseason.
Jung Hoo Lee got his first MLB hit and RBI, Nick Ahmed had a strong showing, but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Padres scored late to take the first game of the season.
The Giants got their first hit of the year in the top of the 3rd inning off the bat of Michael Conforto. He rapped a double down the right field line to lead off the frame and immediately put a runner in scoring position. Newcomer Nick Ahmed cashed it in with 1 out by doubling down the other foul line to drive in Conforto for the Giants first lead of the season. It’s 1-0, can we just stop the season now?
It seems that getting Yu Darvish into the stretch was the answer. Unfortunately, the Giants only cashed in with the one run as Jung Hoo Lee lined out and Jorge Soler got under one to fly out and end the threat. Still, taking the first lead of the season was a good start.
Earlier today I wrote about how the Giants are full of new guys for the 2024 season, but in the top of the 4th it was the same old team. Lamonte Wade Jr and Matt Chapman led off the inning with back-to-back singles but were stranded on the bases after Darvis was able to get the next 3 Giants hitters.
Jung Hoo Lee got his first MLB hit in his 3rd at bat. Lee lined a single to center field in the top of the 5th inning that fell just in front of the fielder. Unfortunately, he was immediately picked off 1st base by Darvish. One minute we’re cheering, the next we’re laughing. What can you do? Lee wasn’t even stealing, he just got caught off the bag while extending his lead.
Logan Webb finally got into some trouble in the bottom of the 5th inning. Manny Machado walked to lead off the inning and was moved to 3rd base on Ha-Seong Kim’s single. And as so often happens, the leadoff walk scored when Jurickson Profar softly singled up the middle to drive in Machado and tie the game at 1.
Webb pitched 6 innings, threw 97 pitches and struck out 5. Most of the contact he gave up was weak and he looked much sharper than he did during the spring.
The Padres took the lead after a slow roller to 1st by Tyler Wade was fielded by the Giants Lamonte Wade Jr who tagged out the batter but could not cut down the lead runner at the plate. Thankfully, Thairo Estrada helped get the Giants out of it by cutting a runner down at home on the next play with an exceptional throw home to nail the runner.
The top of the 7th started off with back-to-back 2 strike singles from Thairo Estrada and Michael Conforto before we saw the immediate difference between this year’s manager Bob Melvina nd last year’s skipper Gabe Kapler. With nobody out, Patrick Bailey laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Estrada and Conforto over to set up 2 runners in scoring position with one out. Ahmed singeld to drive in Estrada and tie the game. The Giants took a 3-2 lead on Lee’s sacrifice fly that turned into a double play when Ahmed ran into an out.
The lead was short-lived. There were questions about the bullpen leading into this season and Luke Jackson did nothing to answer those questions as the first man out of the bullpen this year. The Padres singled twice to start the inning and then tied the game on a dumb play by catcher Patrick Bailey. With a Padre runner stealing, Bailey threw off balance to second to try to get the out but the ball ate up Ahmed and skipped off his chest into the outfield and the tying run scored.
Jackson then walked the next hitter and was pulled for what looked like a lower-back injury. I have no other info on that except to say that Jackson hung a bunch of pitches and looked horrible. Ryan Walker replaced him and gave up the lead for good on a base hit by Xander Bogarets to drive a run in and make it a 4-3 game. Jake Cronenworth then delivered the death blow with a double to drive in 2 runs and make it a 6-3 game.
Michael Conforto added a solo homer in the top of the 9th to bring the score to the 6-4 final. No one really cared about that unless you had the over 3.5 Giants runs scored on the day.
Well, the season started yet I feel the same disappointment that was pervasive in 2023. Hopefully the Giants can bounce back tomorrow night in game 2 of this series. LHP Kyle Harrison takes on RHP Joe Musgrove at 6:40 PST from Petco Park.
Glad to be back, folks! Should be an exciting season.
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