San Francisco Giants: What We Learned This Past Week

I’ve been off for a week, and what do ya know, a lot has happened with the San Francisco Giants in the past week. Well, sort of. The Giants are two games back of the Dodgers, which isn’t much worse than where they were last Monday. But it hasn’t exactly been a straight line from then to now.

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The Giants split the week with three wins and three losses. That’s fine, but they lost the series against the Dodgers, during which they were shut out for the fourth time this month. They then scored 21 runs in winning their three-game series against the Braves. That was nice, but besting the worst team in the Majors doesn’t really indicate whether the Giants are on the upswing.

What have we learned in that time? First off, the Matt Moore is capable of being a dominant pitcher. Going 8-2/3 innings before giving up a hit is heartbreaking, in that it fell one out short of a no-hitter. But to be on the brink of such an accomplishment against your team’s main competition for the division title is highly impressive.

We’ve also learned that Hunter Pence’s hamstring is still a problem, Joe Panik can still hit, and that all this time Denard Span had been harboring a power hitter inside him. Oh, and we also learned that Will Smith still could prove to be a solid pickup.

I’d say we learned the Giants still need another power hitter, but that’s a priori knowledge. I’m on a “what did we learn” kick. Not to mention, their eight home runs in six games made for a nice little power outburst. The Baltimore Orioles and Gary Sanchez aren’t impressed, but Giants World will take it.

While there were probably more positives this past week for the Giants than any other week since the all-star break, they still have a ways to go to look like World Series contenders again.

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To do that, Giants have to handle Arizona in a two-game home series starting Tuesday, then they need a strong showing during their four-game series in Chicago against the Cubs. That’s a tough way to start September, but if the Giants are contenders, then it’s up to them to prove it to be more a tough start to the month for the Cubs.