3 keys to SF Giants series vs. Mets as Tony Vitello seeks first win at home

The SF Giants will take on a strong New York Mets lineup in a four-game series beginning tonight. The Giants will need their bats to come alive if they want to get their second straight series win after taking two out of three against the San Diego Padres. Manager Tony Vitello is also looking for his first regular season win at Oracle Park after getting swept at home to start the season against the New York Yankees.

San Francisco will face David Peterson and the Mets in Thursday night's series opener. The Giants have started the season 2-4 thanks in large part to their struggles on offense. The starting rotation has delivered some solid performances backed by even better outings by the bullpen so the lineup needs to start picking up the slack.

Here are three things the SF Giants need to do in order to win not only this series, but to prevent the season from going off the rails early.

SF Giants need to clean things up early in the season

1. An offensive surge powered by Rafael Devers

Death, taxes, and Rafael Devers hot streaks. While they may seem inevitable, the 29-year old slugger acquired last year in a trade with the Boston Red Sox, is known to be a streaky hitter. The caveat to this being that when he does get hot he is one of the best bats in the game. In 90 games with the Giants in 2025 he hit 20 home runs. So far this season he has five hits in 22 at-bats and only one of those has been an extra base hit. With the Mets having an elite offense led by Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, the Giants will need to average more than two runs per game in this series.

Tony Vitello said Devers may soon return to first base following his recovery from a lingering hamstring injury. This was a problem when he was first added to the team last year, and he started heating up when he was back playing the field. Originally a third baseman, it was clear there were some growing pains at the position for Devers. But his offense has the ability to offset any substandard defense. Now would be a perfect time for him to get hot and start hitting some dingers.

2. Cleaning up the defense

The Giants can't expect to survive this season if they continue to give up free runs on errors and poor defense.

In the 7-1 loss to the Padres, the Giants allowed two runs on errors which put them at a deficit when the game could have been much tighter with sounder defense

The runs were a result of a pair of errors charged to third baseman Matt Chapman when it really seemed like they were more the fault of first baseman Casey Schmitt.

Chapman was caught mouthing some expressive words to Schmitt on the next mound visit, but the two have cleared the air on the matter. It does not matter whose fault it was, it simply matters that the team as a whole plays cleaner defense.

3. Figure out lefties

This problem spans back to the 2025 season with the team, but for some reason it seems to continue to go hurt them. The Giants hit .214 against lefties in 2025 and so far they are struggling against them again.

Tony Vitello said that backup catcher Daniel Susac may see some playing time in this series, and it would make sense for him to start against left-handed pitcher David Peterson on Thursday night. Susac's first career start could be a timely one since he hit lefties well this spring. This would give Patrick Bailey a chance to get some rest after starting the first six games of the season while also providing a better offensive matchup.

Maybe Jerar Encarnacion could see a start on Thursday night as well since he has been known to do damage against left-handed pitching.

If the Giants can clean these things up, they should have a good shot in what figures to be a tough series against the Mets.