Three takeaways from the SF Giants sweep of the Guardians

The SF Giants swept the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend after securing an 8-1 victory. The offense finally got going on Sunday as they took advantage of several Guardians mistakes.

Three takeaways from the SF Giants sweep of the Guardians

The Giants are now 7-2 on the year and are set to face off against a tough New York Mets team in New York. The Mets series will be a good challenge for San Francisco.

The Guardians had won four straight games before the Giants series, but struggled to get anything going with the bat. Cleveland was able to only scratch four runs across the plate and there were plenty of key takeaways from the sweep..

1. The bullpen was excellent

The Giants bullpen had a couple of rough moments in the first week of the season but they found a groove against the Guardians. The Giants have seemingly tabbed Camilo Doval as the closer, but they have the depth to adjust that plan based on matchups.

Tyler Rogers completed a scoreless frame in the eighth inning on Friday night followed by a scoreless outing from Doval to record the save and secure the 4-1 victory. The bullpen was tested on Saturday as Anthony DeSclafani completed just 4.2 frames in his start against.

José Álvarez, John Brebbia, Jarlín García, Dominic Leone, Rogers, and Jake McGee combined to record 4.1 scoreless innings to nab a 4-2 win. The margin of error was low and there were some bumpy moments, but the end result is all that counts.

On Sunday, Alex Wood completed five scoreless innings. The bullpen was called upon to extend itself and close out the win. They did just that as Zack Littell, Tyler Beede, and Sammy Long combined to yield just one run in the final four innings of the series. On a different note, it was nice seeing both Beede and Long get some work, which has been hard to come by for either one in the early going.

The Giants' led basbeall with a 2.99 ERA last season. They returned nearly every reliever with the exception of Tony Watson, and it looks to be a strength for this 2022 team as well.

Three takeaways from the SF Giants sweep of the Guardians

2. The defense has simproved

Given that spring training was only three weeks, there were going to be some growing pains in early part of the season. The Giants experienced that after committing the type of errors or mistakes that are a product of limited repetitions.

The Giants did not commit any errors against the Guardians. On the other hand, the Guardians had some defensive miscues, especially at first base. On Saturday, Guardians first baseman Owen Miller could not get to first base in time to complete a double play on a ground ball hit by Wilmer Flores.

This allowed the Giants to score their third run of the game, which gave them the lead. They added another run in that inning due to a wild pitch. If Miller had been able to complete that double play, the Guardians would have been out of the inning. That play proved to be the difference in the game.

Similarly, on Sunday, the Guardians were not able to complete yet another double play due to an errant throw this time by Miller, who was at second base. This error allowed two more runs to score to give the Giants the 4-0 lead.

San Francisco scored 16 runs in the series with the defense being the difference. The Giants capitalized on these miscues and did not have any of their own. That is what good teams tend to do.