The fanfare at the beginning of Netflix’s production on opening night was spectacular. The San Francisco Giants’ play on Wednesday night was nothing short of horrendous. The first inning was fairly cut and dry for the Giants, but errors and poorly placed first pitches by Logan Webb led to the Yankees busting the game wide open in the second inning. New York cruised from there with a stellar outing from southpaw Max Fried.
Though it was a loss for the Giants, there were some bright spots, and there were obviously some bad things as well.
Pitching
While it was obviously not a good performance from Webb, I thought it was not the worst I have seen. Aside from getting smacked around in the second inning, Webb only allowed two runs and four hits. He allowed no home runs to the team that took 274 balls out of the park in 2025. His stuff also looked solid, and due to that, he had 7 strikeouts.
Although Webb got hit around a bit, he had his pitches working. Out of the five pitches he threw against the Yankees yesterday, he struck out batters with four of them, including 3 strikeouts with his changeup that saw an average of 42.1 inches of vertical break and another 11.2 inches of arm side horizontal break.
Ironically, out of his nine hits given up, 4 of them were on the changeup. I believe if he can put these pitches in better spots, he will be in a good spot at the top of the San Francisco Giants rotation.
Worst Group?
Another key takeaway from opening night was the Giants’ bullpen playing well. Though the Yankees hit Webb pretty hard in the first five innings, the bullpen locked up the Yankees’ offense, putting up four scoreless innings on 1 hit, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Expected to be the worst group on the Giants, the bullpen played like the best, and if they are this good moving forward, it will lead to more wins for the San Francisco Giants.
Arraez Leads Off
Luis Arraez looked poised in his first game with the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. He only went 1-of-3 with a walk, but he averaged about 4 pitches per at-bat, which is one of the reasons the San Francisco Giants wanted him. He makes at-bats harder for pitchers and boosts the pitch count. With Arraez on the team, I am confident that other players will start to follow suit. Leading this lineup, Arraez will battle and get pitchers out of games sooner rather than later.
Tony Vitello
Vitello’s team had about as bad a performance as you can have on Opening Day. They had several self-inflicted problems that led to this game getting out of hand early. “Aside from them just playing bad, a more competitive effort would’ve been better,” Vitello said after the game. He also made comments on the lack of baserunning aggressiveness, throwing errors/decisions.
Overall, Vitello’s performance as manager in the first game was good. He let his pitcher pitch and figure it out. He was poised in the dugout.
Gold Glove In Center
One of the best things to see for the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the season was sunshine in center field. Of course, I’m not talking about the sun; I’m talking about the flowing locks of Gold Glover Harrison Bader. While some of the other defensive players looked lost, Bader looked right at home in center field. He made a couple of difficult plays look routine and had a sick sliding catch in the top of the fourth inning.
Seeing as he is healthy now after a spring training scare, Bader will be a star in the outfield, and I believe he could win his second Gold Glove for the San Francisco Giants.
