SF Giants’ latest stretch captures the promise and unpredictability of their offense

If a baseball fan not so familiar with this 2026 iteration of the San Francisco Giants asked me how the team's offense has fared over the first month and a half of the season, I would simply describe him the Giants' latest week. From explosive performances to complete duds, the Giants displayed the good as much as the bad.

Fresh off a series win at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants traveled to Los Angeles with the hope of snatching a second series from the Dodgers, and they played like it over the first two games. They collected double-digit hits in both games, knocked four balls out of Dodger Stadium — including two by Eric Haase in the now-called Haase Game — and tagged the latest World Series MVP, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, for five runs. Putting up 15 runs over two games sure helps a team win, and the Giants did just that, taking the first two games of the series.

Then Shohei Ohtani and Emmet Sheehan took the mound for L.A., and the Giants suddenly forgot how to make contact with the ball, tallying just eight total hits over the last two games of the series and being forced to settle for a somehow disappointing split. But the struggles followed them from Los Angeles to Sacramento against the Athletics, in their series opener at a familiar place: Sutter Health Park, the stadium of their Triple-A affiliate, the River Cats.

Though they did put the ball in play in their first game in Sacramento — collecting 10 hits — they failed to do so when it mattered most. The Giants went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in their 5-2 loss to the A's, and a combined 0-for-14 when adding the last two games of the Dodgers series. All four of the runs they scored during that stretch came on home runs — including two from Jung Hoo Lee’s inside-the-park homer — and they batted below the .200 mark over those three games (.184).

Once again, though, the Giants bounced back and put together two complete offensive games to take the series against the A's. Their 10-1 win in the rubber match — which marked just the second time this season they reached double-digit runs — was not so spectacular until a game-swinging eighth inning.

On a very windy day that made every fly ball a challenge, the Giants entered the eighth with just six hits and two runs on the board before starting the inning with four straight hitters reaching base safely.

Rafael Devers drove in the first run, Daniel Susac and Jung Hoo Lee also picked up RBIs, but the dagger came with two outs and Harrison Bader in the batter’s box. In his fifth game back, with the bases loaded, Bader lined the ball over the right-field fence, hitting the Giants’ first grand slam of the year and punctuating an eight-run inning that put the game on ice.

Giants may have found something on offense vs. A's over the weekend

"Coming out of spring training, it (his hamstring injury) was kind of a lingering thing I had to deal with, something I wasn't ever used to or kinda had, where it just didn't go away and I don't regret putting my best effort out there but I just wasn't myself," Bader said postgame. "So, realizing taking the time to just get myself right physically so I can go out and execute what I'm trying to do at the plate, it was my singular focus, I want to be the best version of myself for my teammates, for the fan base in San Francisco, and for my own game."

Bader actually played four games in that same stadium during his rehab assignment with the River Cats and hit two home runs in just 18 at-bats there. The 31-year-old has been red-hot since coming back from his hamstring injury. In his first five games since April 11, he has homered three times, doubled once, and driven in six runs. He was batting just .115/.145/.193 with a .338 OPS in 15 games before going on the injured list.

The Giants have gotten contributions from up and down the lineup since the calendar turned to May. Rafael Devers has batted .328/.385/.586 with a .971 OPS through 16 games in May and has already homered more times (3) and drawn more walks (6) than he did over his 26 outings in April. Meanwhile, Willy Adames’ batting average has risen from .176 in April to .303 in May.

Casey Schmitt put together the second multi-homer game of his career and responded nicely after ending the series in Los Angeles on a rough note. His eight long balls and 21 RBI both lead the club, and he even got some reps in the outfield after Heliot Ramos had to leave the game with a quad injury.

Luis Arraez hit his first two homers of the season against the Athletics — with one getting a little push from the wind — and now owns the fourth-highest batting average (.328) in the National League and the lowest strikeout rate (3.6%) in baseball. While the Giants somewhat expected that out of him, his defense has been the real surprise, in a good way. After another solid performance against the A's on Sunday, he now ranks third in the league in Outs Above Average with nine, trailing only two of the league's best defenders in Pete Crow-Armstrong and Bobby Witt Jr.

Amid a very rough start to his 10th big-league season, Matt Chapman also showed signs of life over his last two games in Sac Town. He collected at least a double in back-to-back games for the first time this season and drove in a run in back-to-back games for the first time since April 17-18.

Not only was Bader's grand slam the first by a Giants player this season, it also allowed Chapman to do something he hadn't done yet in May: cross home plate. By finally scoring a run, Chapman snapped a 15-game drought without touching the plate, the longest of his career. However, a couple of productive outings won't erase his alarming lack of production so far in May, as Chapman is still batting .123 with a .391 OPS and a 32.8% strikeout rate across 15 games. But breaking out of a slump has to start somewhere, right?

Another hitter who has had trouble settling in is Bryce Eldridge, figuratively but also in terms of finding a clear position. The 6-foot-7 slugger has appeared in just nine games since being called up on May 4 — five as the designated hitter and three at first base — and has gone just 2-for-24 (.083) in his limited time at the plate. His strikeout rate has not meaningfully gone down since his stint last season — from 35.1% in 2025 to 33.3% in 2026 — and his fit in this lineup is a riddle that gets harder to solve every day.

The encouraging sign from that latest week, and the month of May as a whole, is that the Giants may have finally found the power they had desperately been looking for. Just 16 games into May, they’ve already surpassed their home run total from April. After hitting just 16 of them in 26 games and 885 at-bats last month — the second fewest in the majors — they’ve already cleared the fence 18 times in 560 at-bats this month.

Now the question becomes: which version of the Giants will show up in Phoenix to take on the Diamondbacks? The hitter-friendly air in Arizona could hint at a series full of power, but with this group, it has become impossible to tell.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow