San Francisco Giants: Closer Look at Offense and Pitching After Two Weeks

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Apr 12, 2017; San Francisco, CA, USA; A general view of AT&T Park as the Arizona Diamond Backs warm up prior to their game against the San Francisco Giants. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Villa-USA TODAY Sports /

The first two weeks of the season have not been pretty for the San Francisco Giants, but as people keep telling me, it’s early.

After a poor opening week to start the season going 2-5, the Giants followed that up by going 3-4 at home.

The week looked promising after winning a 3-game series at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks to start the week.

But after splitting the first two games with the Colorado Rockies, the Giants dropped the last two games of the 4-game series.

They’re now just 5-9 on the season and remain in the basement of the National League West. The Rockies are at the top with an exact opposite record of 9-5.

Last week also included injuries to Buster Posey and Jarrett Parker.

Posey was hit in the head with a pitch and placed on the 7-day disabled list for concussion symptoms. He is expected to be back this week, and the Giants certainly need his bat back in the lineup.

Things don’t look as good for Parker as he crashed into a wall and is expected to be out 8-10 weeks.

Another thing you have to consider is the Giants have only had one off day so far. And that was the Monday after Opening Night.

Most teams have two or three off days in the first two weeks of the season, but the Giants have played 13 straight games.

They do begin week three with an off day on Monday. Hopefully that will give the team time to rest and regroup to get on track.

Before we begin prep for week three, let’s take a closer look at the offense, starting pitching and bullpen through two weeks.

Apr 2, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants (from left) third baseman Eduardo Nunez , shortstop Brandon Crawford , first baseman Brandon Belt and second baseman Joe Panik against the Arizona Diamondbacks during opening day at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

Offense

It certainly didn’t help that Posey was hit in the head on Monday and missed the rest of the week, but the offense certainly took a hit in week two.

They averaged just 3.6 runs per game in their seven games last week. They scored four runs or less in five of those games.

The Giants dropped to seventh in the National League in runs scored, and ninth in average.

Other than Brandon Belt, everyone on the infield is hitting the ball really well. And in the outfield, Hunter Pence is the only one hitting the ball.

Eduardo Nunez leads the team with a .313 batting average, but he has one less hit than Pence who has 17.

Despite his low average, Belt leads the team in runs with nine, home runs with three and is second on the team with 7 RBI.

Brandon Crawford is also off to a very good start hitting .298 with 9 runs, 2 home runs and a team-high 8 RBI.

The Giants hit .241 (15-of-62) with runners in scoring position (RISP) last week, but they failed to get a hit with RISP in three games last week. In two games they only had one chance to get a hit with a RISP.

There is a huge void in this lineup when Posey is absent. I wish that weren’t the case, but it is what it is. This team needs to learn to score without Posey.

I think Bruce Bochy needs to do some tweaking in the lineup — even when Posey comes back — to give this offense a better opportunity to score runs.

We could also use some support from the bottom of the lineup, and I believe the timely hitting will come.

Apr 15, 2017; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Moore throws to the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of their MLB baseball game at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports /

Starting Pitching

The Giants remain near the bottom of the National League as far as starting pitching ERA goes. They rank 12th with an ERA of 4.43 through the first two weeks of the season.

I really didn’t think the starting pitching was that bad in week two. Every starter went at least five innings, And in five-of-seven games the starting pitcher went at least six innings.

Matt Moore was brilliant in his first start of the week, giving up just one run in eight innings. But he regressed in his second start of the week giving up five runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings.

Jeff Samardzija also had two starts last week, and both were good but not great. He gave up 3 runs in 6.2 innings pitched in his first outing of the week, and 4 runs in seven innings on Sunday.

He gave up all four of the runs in his second start of the week in the first two innings, but then settled in nicely.

Other than Samardzija on Sunday, no starter gave up more than 3 runs in any outing.

Madison Bumgarner wasn’t great last week giving up 3 runs in 6 innings. But he did register his third quality start of the season in as many starts. He also leads the staff with 21 innings pitched and a 3.43 ERA.

Johnny Cueto, who gave up 2 runs in 7 innings during his lone start this past week, is the only other Giants starter with an ERA under four at 3.79.

The starting pitching is the least of my concerns at this time. I think they are all pitching well — not great — but they’re giving the team a chance to win every game.

Apr 2, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Hunter Strickland against the Arizona Diamondbacks during opening day at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

Bullpen

The San Francisco Giants bullpen actually has a better ERA than the starters at this point.

In fact, the bullpen was nearly perfect in week two allowing just 2 earned runs in 17.2 innings. They gave up just 10 hits and 1 walk with 18 strikeouts.

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What jumps out to me the most is the lack of walks. That’s much better than the 13 walks they issued in week one.

Hunter Strickland has been dominant so far this year. He’s yet to give up a run in 5.2 innings pitched. Meanwhile, he’s allowed just 2 hits and surrendered 2 walks with 7 strikeouts. He’s becoming a great setup man for Mark Melancon.

Speaking of Melancon, he only got one save opportunity last week and converted it with little stress. As a whole, he pitched two shutout innings last week.

Bochy leaned on Neil Ramirez a lot last week as he pitched in three games. He now leads the bullpen with 6.2 innings pitched. His strikeout rate has been incredible with 11 on the season.

I think some of the concerns from week one were definitely lifted after last week. It helped that the starting pitching went deep into games, but when called upon the bullpen was very solid.

Hopefully this is more of the norm going forward.

Next: San Francisco Giants top-five third-basemen of all time

Check back with Around the Foghorn throughout the week and this season as we keep you up-to-date with news and analysis of the San Francisco Giants.

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The first two weeks of the season have not been pretty for the San Francisco Giants, but as people keep telling me, it’s early.

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