The San Francisco Giants have turned their 2023 season around in a hurry lately. As of today, they are currently riding a 10 game win streak and have won 12 of their last 14 games. Aside from a hiccup in their series against the Cubs where they lost two out of three, the Giants have been basically untouchable the last two weeks plus.
This hot streak could not have come at a better time for the Giants. The Dodgers have stalled somewhat over that same time period which is an opportunity you never want to let pass you by. The Diamondbacks remain in first place in the division, but they have also looked more human of late and that has allowed San Fran to regain a ton of ground in the division.
The end result of all of this is that the Giants find themselves in second place in the National League West with no signs of slowing down. Their luck hasn't been perfect in June with some injuries to Mike Yastrzemski and Lamonte Wade Jr. being notable there, but overall Giants fans have to be thrilled.
The questions now are how were the Giants able to flip the switch June and what does this mean for the rest of the season? These are very fair questions and while the answers should always include some version of "it's complicated", here are some of the key takeaways from the Giants' hot streak in June so far.
The Giants' offense is alive and well
If you look purely at the Fangraphs WAR (fWAR) leaderboards, the Giants' position players get a lot of love as a top 5 group in all of baseball this season. Thairo Estrada has been great and they have gotten big time contributions from JD Davis, Mike Yastrzemski, Patrick Bailey, and Lamonte Wade Jr. in 2023.
If you narrow the focus down to since June 6th which is when this torrid stretch started against the Rockies, things look even rosier for the Giants as only the Atlanta Braves' offense has a higher fWAR than the Giants in all of baseball during this time period. The Diamondbacks and Padres are nipping right at their heels, but the Dodgers have been outside the top 20 which is pretty bizarre when you think about it.
It isn't just fWAR, either, as the Giants have been among the best in the league in wRC+, runs scored (the Giants rank first there), and wOBA over this same stretch. Bailey and Estrada have been particularly good with Joc Pederson being right there with them as well.
You don't put together streaks like this without a fair bit of luck on your side to and the Giants are no exception as their team BABIP sits at .335 over their last 15 games. This isn't a knock against the Giants whatsoever as the quality of contact matters a lot when it comes to BABIP, but it is worth acknowledging that they have been awesome AND balls have been finding holes along the way.