By Kavin Mistry (@kavinm95 ):
No ace, no rotation anchor and no closer, but after a 3-3 start, San Francisco Giants fans have no reason to believe that this season will follow the path of 2017.
The Giants have beaten Clayton Kershaw, a seven time all-star and three time Cy Young award winner, Kenley Jansen who is arguably the best closer in baseball over the past two seasons and Felix Hernandez, a six time all-star and Cy Young award winner.
While that list is impressive, for Giants fans, the best sign of an improved 2018 team was on display Wednesday evening at AT&T Park.
The Giants ran over the Seattle Mariners 10-1, behind four home runs by players not named Joe Panik, another brilliant performance from Johnny Cueto and a shutdown performance from the bullpen.
Coming into the season, many people agreed the offense would be improved from a team that finished second to last in runs scored a year ago.
On Wednesday, the new-look lineup showed its ability to grind out starting pitchers showcased with a half-hour home half of the fifth inning, with three baseballs sent to the seats.
According to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, Wednesday was only the third time since 2010 that the Giants have hit two home runs or more in a home game.
Reasons to be excited:
A new ace: Just two starts into his 2018 campaign, Johnny Cueto looks like the dominant right handed ace that toed the rubber for the Cincinnati Reds for eight seasons. He has pitched 13 innings this season, allowed just one run and pitched through a tweaked ankle with no signs of slowing down Wednesday.
Bullpen settling into its role: With late word before the first pitch of the regular season that the Giants would be without their closer for an extended period of time, manager Bruce Bochy made the decision to name Hunter Strickland his new anchor in the pen. Skeptical about his ability to close out games under the stresses of the ninth inning, it’s easy to see why Bochy made that decision as it has been known for some time now that he was destined for that role. He has not disappointed as he closed out the first two Giant wins of the season with ease.
Along with Strickland, Sam Dyson, Cory Gearrin and new arm Tony Watson have been phenomenal out of the pen, all holding a combined 0.00 ERA.
The offense has been awakened: After scoring just two combined runs over four games against the Dodgers over the weekend, the Giants scored 14 runs in two games at home this week. The team is also getting contributions all throughout the lineup including homers from Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval and Gorkys Hernandez.
The power has also begun to emerge as the Giants hit five home runs in the two-game series with Seattle and now seven total in six games this year.
———
The Giants now sit at .500 on the year and will welcome the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers to San Francisco on Friday for a weekend series.