The Yankees had a much-anticipated Opening Weekend series against the Giants and took two of three games.
Even for an early season series, we got a very good idea of just who these teams are. The Yankees are ready to run it back and looked sharp despite some key injuries. The Giants, while talented, need a lot to go their way if they’re to replicate 2021’s 107-win season. Competing with the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West makes for even more of an uphill battle.
Even so, there’s still a remote probability that the Yankees and Giants face off in the World Series. That said, how do they match up?
Hitting. The pitch clock and shift ban mean baseball is back in the hands of the hitter. The Yankees scored nine of their 16 runs via the home run in the series, but had 25 total base hits. They also did a good job taking walks and only a few at-bats in the series looked generally bad.
The Giants, not so much. Their win Saturday was an anomaly, even though they got plenty of base hits and were carried by Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford’s home runs. In the other two games, San Francisco seemed to live and die by three true outcomes.
The fact that former Yankee Thairo Estrada and rookie Blake Sabol were the only ones not swinging for the fences all series speaks volumes. If the Giants want to be a contender, they’ll need to remember not all base hits need to leave the ballpark.
Pitching. Advantage Yankees, especially because of the injuries to their pitching staff. Gerrit Cole dominated as expected and Rookie Jhony Brito was excellent in his MLB debut on Sunday. Even Clarke Schmidt wasn’t bad. His rough finish on Saturday was more because he threw 32 pitches in the second inning and got tired early.
But let’s give the Giants their due credit too. Logan Webb had 12 strikeouts on Opening Day and just made two fatal mistakes to Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. Ross Stripling’s bad outing Sunday was just that: A rough start. He will rebound and be a mid-rotation anchor if he stays healthy.
How do the teams match up? The Yankees were as advertised and the Giants are missing that one big arm and bat. Maybe they’ll get one of the two when Mitch Haniger comes back from his oblique injury. Until then, they’ll need to keep pace in the NL West and if they can acquire a starter at the trade deadline, a playoff run isn’t out of the picture.
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