L-R, Casey Schmitt (10), manager Tony Vitello and coatching staff watch the final at bats in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the New York Yankees in their 2026 Opening Day at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. The Giants were defeated 7-0.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Giants pitcher Ryan Borucki, foreground, reacts after allowing a home run to New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, right, during the fifth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello, left, takes the ball from pitcher Erik Miller during a pitching change in the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in San Francisco, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Well, that couldn’t have gone much worse.
The San Francisco Giants’ opening series, and Tony Vitello’s welcome to the big leagues, was as rough as expected. Actually rougher. Historically rough.
The Giants were swept by the Yankees and the scoreless first 20 innings of the season resulted in a futility not seen for the franchise in 117 years. According to the Associated Press, the Giants also became the first team to ever score zero runs and have five or fewer hits the first two games of a season in the 150-year history of Major League Baseball.
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The numbers were ugly. No runs and just four hits in the first two games. A third game where the Giants outhit the Yankees, finally pushed across a run, but fell limply for the sweep, failing to come up with the timely hit.
Sure, it was just three games. Three games against a team considered one of the best in baseball. There are 159 more games to go, including the first road trip to San Diego beginning on Monday. Baseball requires patience and perspective.
However, patience and perspective can still come with alarm bells ringing in the background.
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The biggest concern for the team decision makers has to be how similar everything looked to last year’s sluggishness, when the Giants were often flat and lifeless — especially at home at Oracle Park — and fell into irrelevance as the summer stretched on.
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It was that tedious form of baseball, that lack of fire, more than anything else that prompted president of baseball operations Buster Posey to make a huge change, pivoting on Bob Melvin not long after extending his contract and taking a gigantic gamble by hiring Vitello to manage the team.
Vitello was promised to bring intensity. Energy and fire. But none of that has shown up yet, particularly at the plate.
In his postgame interviews, Vitello has been expansive, willing to share his thoughts. He has a unique style of speech, reflective of his college background. He frequently uses “try-hard” as a noun — as in, “It’s not about the try-hard.”
According to Vitello, the try-hard is there. In fact, he thought the Giants were too amped up. Too emotional. Too high with all the hoopla of not one, but two, opening games, and he said he wanted to ease the tension.
“They’ve been in fifth gear, riding hot, the entire time or too much,” Vitello said, adding that he wanted to see a “relaxed version of this group.”
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“Emotions are a little too high,” Vitello said.
He, in part, blamed himself for giving the team a “fire and brimstone speech” on Tuesday, saying the team wanted to “charge out of the locker room” — the place that most managers call the clubhouse — “and play football or start a UFC fight.”
Really? A Tuesday rally speech caused an emotional spike that unsettled the team for four days? That seems unlikely.
“I don’t think so,” Robbie Ray said, after Friday’s start. “We’re all major league players.”
Vitello may have been trying to deflect some of the blame for his team’s troubling shortcomings. Or, after eight seasons of rallying the youngsters at Tennessee, it may be that he puts a little too much weight into the impact his speeches can have.
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“We can handle the ups and downs,” Ray said.
And there are going to be ups and downs, over many games, with many months to go. College baseball regular seasons last between 40 and 56 games, so a fiery speech can have more impact. In contrast, the major league season is an eternity.
Vitello is finding his way. He’s going to learn a lot: like maybe that walking Aaron Judge is a prudent move. He’s also going to have to get accustomed to losing. One statistic said Vitello’s teams were swept only six times in his eight seasons at Tennessee. The man is said to hate losing, but he’s going to have to get used to it.
The Giants opened in the spotlight, with Wednesday’s season opener on Netflix and Saturday’s being Baseball Night in America. Those national showcases were definitely due to the opponent: the New York Yankees always draw a lot of eyeballs. But the Giants also are a draw because of the curiosity throughout baseball about Vitello.
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(A note about Netflix: after the Wednesday game, MLB was said to be pleased with the number of viewers which peaked around 2.6 million. But with 300 million global subscribers and a “global brand” like the Yankees involved, is that number really a win? Apparently $150 million doesn’t buy what you might expect.)
Now the San Francisco Try-Hards take on the Padres, still looking for that first win.