San Francisco Giants Month in Review: April 2019

Beginning their 2019 campaign and final season under skipper Bruce Bochy with an aging roster and a new general manager in Farhan Zaidi, the San Francisco Giants would open the year with a 7-game road trip against division rivals San Diego and Los Angeles. Expected to take a leap forward and improve upon their 2018 season, the Padres welcomed the Giants into town by taking 3 of 4 from San Francisco to kick start their best start to a season since 2012 as Bruce Bochy's ball club was asleep at the wheel on offense and was held to a whopping 5-runs in the four-game set. San Diego managed to quiet the Giants' bats and set a new franchise record for the most consecutive scoreless innings to begin a season with 17, before a solo home run in the ninth inning by third baseman Evan Longoria stopped the bleeding and finally put San Francisco on the board nearly two full games in.

To put their woes and inexperience into perspective, Bochy's Opening Day outfield which consisted of rookie Connor Joe in left field, Steven Duggar in center and Michael Reed playing in right, the starting pitcher for that day -- Madison Bumgarner, began the season with 15 more career home runs than the trio of outfielders combined. The Giants ace would add another long ball to his career total (18) in the series against the Dodgers with his 18th career dinger which moved him into 20th on the all-time home runs list among pitchers. However, the Giants would suffer a similar fate during their first trip to Chavez Ravine, claiming the series-opener against the hated Dodgers, before dropping the next two. In the series-opener, the lone game of the series that the Giants would reign victorious, both Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt notched career double No. 200. The team would also make one of their first moves of the season by acquiring outfielder and defensive wiz Kevin Pillar from Toronto via trade in exchange for right-handed pitchers Juan De Paula, Derek Law and infielder Alen Hanson. Pillar, who grew up just a stones throw away from Dodger Stadium in nearby West Hills, California, and was the longest tenured Blue Jay at the time of his trade at 6+ years, would make his presence felt in the Giants' first home stand.

After dropping 2 of 3 in the Giants' home-opening series against the Tampa Bay Rays, Pillar smashed his first career grand slam in the team's next series against the Padres. It would also mark the first grand slam for the Giants since April 7, 2017 as they went all of last season without one. Unfortunately, the grand salami which gave the Giants a 5-0 lead, wouldn't be enough to fend off a Padres comeback, even with Bumgarner on the mound as the Friars stormed back to steal the victory, 6-5. In the same game, Bumgarner moved up the ranks and surpassed Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry for the 7th spot on the franchise's all-time strikeout leader board with 1,607. The Giants would redeem themselves the following day with a 7-2 win aided by another 4 RBI day for the recently acquired Pillar. With back to back games with 4 RBI's, Pillar would continue to make an immediate impact and joined some elite company by becoming the first Giant since Barry Bonds to drive in 4+ runs in consecutive games. But after losing the rubber-match to the Padres the following day, the Giants' dismal start would mark the first time in 36 years that they dropped each of their first four series to begin a season.

Better results would come in their next series as San Francisco played host to a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies. Taking each of the first three games, including an 18-inning marathon that finished with a walk-off celebration, the Giants failed to complete the sweep, but were satisfied with their first series victory. In the 18-inning win, the first for the Giants since 1933 when they still called New York home, both teams saw a combined 501 pitches thrown as the Giants set a franchise record with the most combined strikeouts in a game with 24, surpassing the previous mark of 22 K's during a 23 inning affair on the road against the Mets in 1964. Backup catcher Erik Kratz who caught all 18 innings, served up the deciding blow by driving in Brandon Belt with a bases loaded fielders-choice and becoming the first catcher to catch at least 18 innings and deliver the game-winning RBI in the same game since Bob Boone of the Angels on April 13, 1982 against Seattle. The game also tied the longest game in Oracle Park history, an 18-inning match against the Arizona Diamondbacks back on May 29, 2001. The team's first road trip out east, would see stops in the nation's capital and the Steel City before heading up north to Canada for a visit with the Blue Jays. The Giants were able to bookend their meetings against the Nats and Bucs with wins. And in the first of which, a 7-3 victory in Washington D.C., the Giants clubbed three homers off of Nats All-Star Stephen Strasburg, a rare feat as the former number one overall pick had only allowed three homers in a game on two other occasions in his 209 previous starts.

Dropping the next two against the Nationals, the Giants began play in rainy Pittsburgh where the Pirates handed the Giants another pair of losses, including a rain-shortened game that was called after only five innings played and a 3 hour rain delay. San Francisco would avoid being swept in Pittsburgh for the first time since 2008 with a win on Easter Sunday behind pitcher Dereck Rodriguez who improved to 3-0 on the road thanks to a 3-run homer to center field by Buster Posey which ended a homer-less drought that would span 236 at-bats and marked his first HR since June 19, 2018 vs Miami. The homer that came in the fifth inning would also be the first of Posey's career hit against the Pirates. A short two-game stop in Toronto saw the return of fan favorite Kevin Pillar in front of a Blue Jays fan base that serenaded him with a standing ovation. The Giants bats would awake for four homers in the first game, before Drew Pomeranz pitched a shutout as the G-Men pulled off the two-game sweep. A return home to host the New York Yankees for only the second time in Oracle Park history, the Giants were rudely greeted by a banged up Bronx Bombers team that still managed to pull off the three-game sweep. However, one positive would be that the Giants would finally put an end to their dubious National League record of 25 games without a first inning run to start a season, second in baseball history to only the American League's 1948 Chicago White Sox who went 28 consecutive games to start a season without. With a sacrifice-fly in the first inning to drive in Tyler Austin, Buster Posey would put a dagger in the unwanted distinction.

The Giants would get a chance to redeem themselves as the Dodgers came into town for a three-game set. And in a hard-fought Game 1, the Giants rallied against their archrivals as Evan Longoria connected with his biggest hit in a Giants uniform, a bases-clearing double in the 7th inning that led to the 3-2 come-from-behind victory. After the Dodgers slugged their way to a 10-3 victory in Game 2, the Giants took two of three from their bitter rivals as Buster Posey supplied the game-winning hit with an RBI single that scored Steven Duggar from second base and lifted San Francisco over the Dodgers in walk-off fashion. For the Giants, the walk-off victory was the second of the season for Posey and company and was the eighth of Buster's career, third against Los Angeles which tied him with Matt Williams for the most walk-off hits as a Giant against the Dodgers since both teams relocated from New York to California. And though ace Madison Bumgarner received a no-decision in the win, the outing which saw him toss 6 innings of 1 run ball and strikeout 8, was a welcoming sight considering he was coming off a bad start against the Yankees in which he surrendered a career-high 11-hits.

Following their series-victory over L.A., the Giants improved to 13-18 on the year, but remain in last place in the NL West. The first week of May is likely to be a tough one for the Giants who begin a 7-game road trip with four games in Cincinnati before heading to the Mile High City to face the Rockies. And while the Reds are also cellar dwellers in their respective division at 12-17 entering the month of May, we all know how unfriendly the Reds' home of Great American Ballpark can be to opposing pitchers and the same could be said for the high altitude at Colorado's Coors Field. The Giants will look to turn things around in both places as they try to right the ship.


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