San Francisco Giants Series against the Nationals: Three Takeaways

The San Francisco Giants got their second series win of the season, as they took the first two games from the Washington Nationals. A 15-2 loss in the finale still doesn’t change that fact.

In the first game of the series, Mac Williamson wowed everyone as he broke open the scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning. His 464 foot blast, and a really good performance from Chris Stratton carried the line in game one. Stratton went into the seventh inning and kept the Nationals hitters at bay. Strickland closed out the game and looked a tad nervy to start off, but finished strong.

In the second game, Brandon Belt put the Giants out to a 3-0 lead with a two run home-run in the bottom of the third. But flip the next half inning around and Michael Taylor hit a three run bomb to tie the game. Then, that guy again, Mac Williamson destroyed the ball for a second straight game and put one over the fence in center field. The bullpen was lights out after multiple innings from Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson, and Strickland, who only needed 8 pitches to get the save.

We’ll not speak much of the final game, as the Giants got shellacked 15-2, behind a bad pitching performance, and the Nationals destroying every baseball within an inch of the plate. So what are some things we took away from this series? There is quite a lot, but we’ll do our best to keep it only to three.

Mac Williamson Is For Real

Before the season started a lot of people were originally bullish on whether his new swing was just gimmicky, and a product of being hot in Spring. He started to dispell that notion with his hot start in Sacramento. But for him to show out like he did in the first couple games, including that monster shot in the series opener, was telling.

I have never seen a baseball hit that far by a right hander. Only twice I’ve seen it hit there from a lefty (Pablo Sandoval and Barry Bonds). But Williamson has also been solid in the field. He hasn’t made a mis-step yet, and he’s just fit in as an every day outfielder. The big question is what happens when Hunter Pence comes back?

Pence comes back on Sunday, but will have a few games in the minors to get back into the swing of things. It’s your typical rehab assignment. I’m going to assume that Pence isn’t actually brought off the DL until after Sunday’s game.

Williamson needs to be on this roster. He’s a good player, and has the stuff to stick at the big league level now. But the question goes, do they keep six outfielders?

Mac is forcing them to answer these roster questions. Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez have both done admirable jobs as the fourth and fifth outfielders so far. He’d certainly be ahead of them in the bench depth chart if they really were convinced that Hunter Pence should be playing every day. Six outfielders don’t make sense, especially when Austin Jackson, Blanco, and Gorkys are virtually the same thing. They don’t need three of those guys, especially if Duggar makes his way up here at some point.

We’ve already made our case for Mac replacing Pence as the full time left fielder, and I’m going to give Vince Cestone a ringing endorsement on that opinion.

The Giants Bullpen Is Quite Formidable at the Moment

Look. Yesterday’s game wasn’t fun. But the first two were, and so were the three games over the weekend. The Giants were back to playing good ball. They scored enough runs, and pitched really well, especially with the bullpen in the latter innings.

Let’s take a look though at what the bullpen has been doing during their solid stretch of play recently. So far this season, the Giants Bullpen is actually on pace to do what they did in 2012.

In 2012 they had around a 1.30 WHIP with a mid three’s ERA. That’s exactly where they’re at this year. A middle average bullpen is nice. But what is big here their LOB % is in the top half of the league. That’s better than it was in 2012. They’ve had better bullpens in the past, but the early returns on a bullpen that’s missing two gigantic pieces have been nice.

Hunter Strickland has been good in the closer role, Sam Dyson figured his stuff out this week, and Tony Watson has been lights out all season. With Will Smith coming back potentially next week, and Mark Melancon‘s recovery coming along, we’ll start seeing some of the “problem pieces” in the bullpen, hit the road.

Corey Gearrin and Josh Osich are candidates to be dropped when they come back, while Reyes Moronta and Pierce Johnson have solidified their state in this staff.

Moronta might be my cult favorite reliever at the moment. In 14 innings of work, he’s struck out 14, walked 8, and holds a 0.64 ERA. As long as he can do his best to limit the walks, his stuff is nasty enough to strike people. Being effectively wild is what’s been working with him.

The bullpen hasn’t been the Giants biggest issue, and has actually helped them in multiple games so far this season, and they were huge in the first two games of this series. Here’s to hoping they keep up this trend.