4 takeaways as SF Giants avoid embarrassing sweep in chippy Cincinnati series

The SF Giants took Thursday's game against the Cincinnati Reds to avoid what would have been an embarrassing sweep after a rough start to the season, still dropping another series on their east coast road trip.

The team's struggles seemed to come to a boiling point on Thursday afternoon when Landen Roupp drilled Spencer Steer in the shoulder. It was a result of an altercation between JT Brubaker and Steer the night before.

It seemed to be a physical manifestation of San Francisco's frustrations to start the year, and cheers to Roupp for not wasting any time. While the team's focus should be on winning games instead of petty words, they'll take anything they can rally behind right now and hopefully it spurs them on to more victories.

Outside of all the extracurriculars though, there were several important takeaways from the series for the Giants.

Tyler Mahle Not a Starter

Well, the Tyler Mahle era in San Fransisco has gotten off to a rough start.

He is 0-3 to start the season with a 7.23 ERA and a 1.93 WHIP and had his worst start of the season on Wednesday. With these stats it should be obvious to send him to the bullpen, but the problem is there's no clear fix for the hole in the rotation. Carson Whisenhunt is struggling in his start at Triple-A with a 4.11 ERA, 1.72 WHIP and allowing a .262 AVG. Blade Tidwell has been strong out of the bullpen, but that doesn't mean he will be successful as a starter, having struggled at the position in the past.

There's lots of middle relief talent in Triple-A, however, the starting pitching is incredibly barren. The Giants will need an upwards turn in Mahle's season trend.

Bullpen Remains Strong

Despite the struggles from Mahle the bullpen managed to hold batters to one earned run in the series.

Over the 10 innings pitched by the bullpen, they only allowed two hits and struck out 13.

If the offense can finally get hot, the bullpen will be able to keep them in games. It is very reminiscent of the struggles they faced last year.

Jung Hoo Lee Heats Up

Jung Hoo Lee had a rough start to the year, along with the rest of the outfield. But Lee has turned it around and he showed up this series.

Over the last seven games lee has a .368 AVG and a 1.084 OPS with one home run. In 11 at-bats vs the Reds, Lee recorded six hits and two doubles, including a 3-for-4 day in the series finale.

Lee is finally starting to look like he's getting in to a groove this year, and has been one of the SF Giants best hitters over the past two weeks.

Does Adames Power Surge Warrant Lineup Change?

Willy Adames has been the heartbeat of a weak offense so far this year, and he has been heating up in April.

Adames hit leadoff for the Giants most of the season and has hit three home runs in that spot of the batting order.

While the Giants will benefit from as many solo home runs they can get, they also posses a couple of high-average hitters who are hot right now. With Luis Arraez and Matt Chapman both posting a .350+ BABIP in April, the offense could benefit from getting runners on for Adames. However it could also throw Adames off his groove.

The Giants finished off the series in Cincinnati with a fiery win, and will now look to carry that energy into the next series against the Washington Nationals.

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