San Francisco Giants Should Chalk up April as a Huge Success

When the Giants started the season with four key players on the DL, the motto was “just stay at .500.” After a rough start to the season, they’ve got themselves in second place in the division, and above .500. We examine what that says about this team.

The San Francisco Giants finished up their tumultuous April by getting themselves up over .500 for the first time since they beat the Dodgers back on April 7th to move to 4-3. They did it on the last day of the month, and in walk-off fashion against a division opponent who has given them plenty of trouble over the last few years.

The Giants have walked off a few so far this year, and have gotten the job done in extras a few times as well. We wrote that this team has a different mentality than last years’ squad, which was evident yet again. They don’t let their mistakes get them out of games.

That was definitely the case in the early part of the season, case-in-point by looking at the series on the road against the Padres at the beginning of the month. The Giants have been fighting off mistakes and bad-starts to earn victories over the last week or so, and it’s incredibly impressive.

They did it twice against the Dodgers, and again against the Nationals. They’ve won three straight series for the first time since 2016. That’s huge.

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The motto going into the season was “STAY .500 UNTILL MADBUM COMES BACK.” Johnny Cueto has pitched like we don’t miss him, and some of the youngster’s have pitched incredibly well, including the bullpen. The Giants bats are back to working, and it’s conceivable to say that the only place the Giants will truly miss Joe Panik is in the field, and not at the plate.

Austin Jackson‘s bat has been playing well lately, and Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Evan Longoria are swinging hot sticks in the middle of the lineup. These are huge things, including the strong play of Gorkys Hernandez and Gregor Blanco off the bench.

This team is now 7-3 in their last ten games, and absolutley rolling. The Dodgers, Padres, and Rockies have dropped down a bit, all plagued with as many key injuries as the Giants.

The Giants started a rough stretch in with a series against the  and D-Backs, Dodgers, with the red hot Angels, and the Nationals. They came out of that stretch with a 9-5 record. This team is playing extremely well right now, and it’s going to cary them until they get everyone back.

Next: Q&A With Giants Prospect Jalen Miller

So the month of April? The Giants did better than survive, the conquered. That immediately shows how different this team is this season. They’re hitting really well and pulling out all the stops to stay in the hunt for when they get everyone back. That’s all you can ask for right now.