Not so long ago this season, it looked hard to hope for much from the San Francisco Giants. They weren’t able to get past their losing record. It just didn’t look like they had it. But now, they’ve put up a 10-game winning streak. While their unfortunate loss on Thursday ended the drama, they still took over a lot of ground in the NL West.
Nobody expected that they could ever come close to, say, getting ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But that’s exactly what their three-game sweep of LA over the weekend accomplished.
May we have your a🔟tion, please? pic.twitter.com/207ZvgC5SX
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 22, 2023
Giants 10-Game Winning Streak
Offensive Performance
Since the start of the season, the Giants have shown the ability to rally with the bats on certain days. But, although they put together some glamorous blowout wins, they struggled to maintain offensive consistency on a day-to-day basis. And you can’t “spread out” the runs you score over multiple games. If the pitching isn’t consistent, and the bats can’t back it up, your team may just not be a winning one.
Things didn’t improve overnight. It was a process. It seemed that every time the Giants appeared to have figured things out, they would fall back into their old way of playing. But the progress gained wasn’t wasted. Slowly but surely, the team started to improve. They worked around their setbacks and put together a winning record. And then, they really went wild.
Extra-Inning Games
This concept has a lot of significance when it comes to the Giants’ recent performance. In a sense, it seems as though the automatic runner rule brings out the best or worst in teams. The Giants faced three key extra-inning situations over their 10-game winning streak.
Perhaps most phenomenal was the 11-inning win over the Dodgers. The Giants made a comeback in the 8th and then found themselves trying to close out a one-run game in the ninth with closer Camilo Doval on the mound. Freddie Freeman tied the game with a single, and the Giants were in a tight spot where a single could have walked it off. But they made a key play in nabbing Mookie Betts on a steal attempt. Ultimately, Doval got through the inning. Neither team scored in the 10th. In the 11th, Brandon Crawford and Austin Slater both singled in runs. Jakob Junis closed it out in the bottom half, and the Giants won the game.
Their win on Monday night over the San Diego Padres was also a day to remember. The Giants executed in critical situations. In Tuesday night’s game, they barely prevented the game from going to extras. Joc Pederson faced the very same situation at the plate as he had the night before two outs and the bases loaded with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth. Whether because he refined his approach or just because he was due for success this time, he walked to end the game instead of striking out as he had done on Monday night.
The Division Race
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It will continue to be a tight race. The Giants are in a good position, but their competition will be fierce. This weekend, they will be playing a three-game series over the Arizona Diamondbacks. There won’t be a single serious Giants fan who isn’t nervous all the way through. But it had to happen sometime. There’s no better time than the present for them to plunge into this fight.
All good things must come to an end. It is sad that the Giants’ 10-game winning streak ended on Thursday. But this isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning.
Main photo credits:
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Players mentioned:
Camilo Doval, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Brandon Crawford, Austin Slater, Jakob Junis, Joc Pederson
