San Francisco Giants: Has Drew Pomeranz turned a corner?

The San Francisco Giants took a chance on reclamation project Drew Pomeranz during the offseason. After a rocky start to the season, it looks like he may finally be turning a corner.

Left-hander Drew Pomeranz has been largely abysmal for the San Francisco Giants during the 2019 season. With a 2-8 record and a 6.25 ERA in 15 starts, he does not have a whole lot to hang his hat on.

While a slow start was to be expected after an injury-plagued 2018 campaign, it’s still not a stretch to say that he has underperformed.

However, in his last two starts, he has shown some promising signs that have helped solidify his spot in the starting rotation.

After getting shelled by the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 19, he bounced back nicely against the Colorado Rockies five days later, allowing two earned runs while tying a career-high with 11 strikeouts in five innings.

On Saturday, he proved that performance was not an aberration, tossing five shutout innings with two walks and seven strikeouts against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The most impressive part of his most recent outing came in the first inning. With runners on second and third and nobody out, it was looking all too easy to chalk up his previous start to good luck. It appeared the Pomeranz we have seen for much of 2019 had returned.

Instead, he fought back and struck out the side without allowing either of the runners to score. It was a gutsy showing and his five strong innings gave the Giants a chance to win.

Can we expect more of the same from Pomeranz going forward?

That’s tough to say. But if he can give the Giants a fighting chance going forward, he can be a solid part of the rotation the rest of the way.

He’s not an inning-eater at this point in his career, and he’s only gone more than five innings once all year. To paraphrase Mike Krukow from Saturday night, he’s the quickest guy in the Giants’ rotation to get to one hundred pitches. Not exactly something to be proud of.

Still, if Pomeranz can consistently give the San Francisco Giants five or six innings while surrendering three or fewer runs, he will give their sluggish offense at least a fighting chance to win the game.