Giants designated hitter Luis Arráez gestures after taking second base on a throwing error on his squeeze bunt in the eighth inning Wednesday at Oracle Park that scored Willy Adames.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Giants first baseman Rafael Devers gets a hug from Luis Arráez after they scored on Devers’ three-run home run in the sixth inning Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Oracle Park.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Giants shortstop Willy Adames is high-fived by teammates after scoring on a throwing error on a squeeze bunt by Luis Arráez in the eighth inning Wednesday at Oracle Park.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Giants right-hander Tyler Mahle threw 5⅔ scoreless innings Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Oracle Park.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
A three-run bomb by Rafael Devers. A clutch performance by the bullpen. Another shutout, a series win and suddenly the music in the clubhouse is pumping, the laughter is loud and the San Francisco Giants are feeling fine.
“The vibes in here are pretty good,” said Caleb Kilian, whose relief performance in the seventh inning Wednesday contained the scariest part of the Phillies’ lineup and helped the Giants to a 5-0 win.
When you’re dealing with a microscopic sample size, two games can make all the difference. And on Wednesday, the gloom that had hovered around the team the day before burned away under the bright sun of a mini-winning streak. The 3-8 albatross hung on the Giants was replaced by a much more palatable 5-8 record as the Giants headed out on an 11-day trip.
Article continues below this ad
“You start out 0-and-3 and you feel like you’re running in sand,” manager Tony Vitello said. “It’d be awesome to be in a better situation, but I think we found some things out about ourselves that can be valuable in the long run. And also we’re playing pretty decent ball right now.
“So there’s plenty of positives to look at. But we’ve certainly got to be motivated to learn from mistakes in the past and hunt down the best version of ourselves.”
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
For Giants fans, the frustration of the first two weeks is understandable, because for them it didn’t feel like a small sample size. The early woes felt like a continuation of the offensive futility that derailed last season after years of mediocrity.
Article continues below this ad
The Giants just finished about the roughest opening two weeks any schedule-maker could dream up for a rookie manager. All four of their first opponents were star-laden playoff contenders, and it was as difficult as advertised. Now the Giants head to Baltimore, Cincinnati and Washington, where things should be decidedly less daunting.
And the Giants depart on a mini roll of momentum. Devers, who struck out and grounded into a double play in his first two at bats, ended up with four RBIs. His teammates recognize his talent, believe he’s going to come through and were delighted by his straightaway shot into the batter’s eye in the sixth inning.
“I got to see it land right in the net,” said Kilian, who was in the bullpen.
Luis Arráez has been the Giants’ overall best player in the early part of the season, a stark counterpoint to the analytics crowd who ridiculed the Giants’ signing and devalued the defensive skills of the three-time batting champion.
And then there’s rookie Daniel Susac, who — in only two starts — is 6-for-7 with a walk. Just as a small sample size can blow the bad out of proportion, it can also exaggerate the good, and there was a clamor to keep Susac in the starting lineup on Wednesday, even against right-hander Aaron Nola.
Article continues below this ad
“If you catch a catcher a day game after a night game, it’s like the world’s going to end,” Vitello said. “Then Susac has another successful night and it’s like the world’s going to come to an end if you don’t catch him.”
What about DHing the Giants’ hottest hitter? Vitello pointed out that Phillies starting catcher J.T. Realmuto left Tuesday’s game in the first inning because of a foul tip off his foot. He wasn’t in the lineup Wednesday.
“You’re always just one foul tip away from it getting a little scary at that position,” said Vitello, who didn’t rule out pinch-hitting Susac. But he didn’t need to do that.
The bigger message was that it’s way too early for the Giants to go chasing anything: not the hot bat, or the prospects in Sacramento or wholesale lineup changes. Vitello makes it clear in every media session that he’s still learning about this team in the heat of the regular season.
“They’ve got these track records,” Vitello said of his players. “Our staff’s new. You want to go off of spring training, but that’s spring training. It’s not this. So we’re getting to know these guys.”
Article continues below this ad
The bad start created an early pressure cooker, with players trying too hard to change everything in one appearance, and maybe not revealing their true abilities.
“We were trying to make up for lost ground, and this is the wrong sport to be doing that,” Vitello said. “You can’t undo the past … just play and don’t worry about that.”
Vitello and his players know they’re under the microscope. The Giants’ poor start prompted national pundits to begin weighing in about what a mistake Buster Posey made in hiring Vitello, that maybe the Giants made a mistake in putting Posey in charge, on all the flaws of the roster.
“Everyone’s s—ting on us because we started out 3-and-7 or whatever,” pitcher Tyler Mahle said.
The players hear it. Vitello hears it. He joked he hasn’t been out to eat much yet in his new city, preferring to wait until the Giants win a few more games.
Article continues below this ad
It’s a long, long, long season. The first 11 games were demoralizing and ugly. But the Giants just beat a good Phillies team. (In a weird anomaly, Philadelphia has not won a series at Oracle Park since 2018.) They have gained more confidence and cohesion.
Two days earlier, starter Adrian Houser had lamented, “The game doesn’t like us right now.”
But then, for two days, the fickle game decided to favor the Giants. And, just like that, things don’t seem so terrible.