Giants overcome mistakes, take advantage of mistakes, and win series

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At the beginning of the season, when the San Francisco Giants were winning more than expected, the simplest explanations were also the correct ones. They were playing clean defense. They were executing with runners in scoring position, especially two outs. It all had to be nearly perfect, and it was, for the most part. It was the blueprint for how the 2025 Giants needed to play if they were going to win.

That kind of baseball is satisfying when it works, but there was a nagging voice echoing in the distance. Most teams can win when they’re executing on multiple levels, but the really good teams can screw something up and win anyway. The best teams don’t have to be perfect; they just need to be better than their opponents. Were the Giants one of those teams?

It’s still too early to know for sure, but in Thursday afternoon’s 6-5 win against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants screwed up. And how. Starter Landen Roupp walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, leading to a first-inning run. He walked the leadoff batter in the second inning, and that runner scored on a wild pitch with two outs and two strikes. In the fourth inning, there was a walk, a wild pitch and an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt, all of which contributed to a three-run Brewers rally. Two different Giants relievers walked the leadoff batter of an inning. Camilo Doval walked his leadoff batter on four straight pitches, none of them close, with a one-run lead in the ninth inning. For good measure, the Giants were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.

They won anyway, and their 17-9 record is their best start to a season since 2003. They’re one of only two Giants teams (1973) to have a start like this without Willie Mays or Barry Bonds on the roster. Pretty wins are good for the soul, but ugly wins count just as much. This one came about because of a burgeoning superstar (Jung Hoo Lee) reaching base three times and driving in a first-inning run, as well as Matt Chapman hitting a two-run homer off a triple-digit fastball.

Matt Chapman homered on a 100.4 mph pitch

That’s the fastest pitch a Giants player has homered off of under pitch tracking (2008)

Surpasses Heliot Ramos off 100.2 mph on 9/15/24 https://t.co/3bXBthY1NB

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 24, 2025

It’s only fair to point out that the Brewers also screwed up. A lot. They forgot to catch baseballs and got thrown out trying to steal third base with two outs. The Giants’ game-winning rally in the eighth inning also started with a leadoff walk. Giants pitchers walked six on the day, but Brewers pitchers walked seven. Both teams fell out of the ugly tree before the game, but the Brewers’ side had more branches on it.

Still, the Giants won the four-game series because they can win a low-scoring game with a superior starting pitcher and clean fundamentals, like they did on Wednesday night, and because they can make enough positive things happen around the mistakes, like they did on Thursday afternoon. They moved to 13-4 against teams with a record over .500, which is the best in baseball by a wide margin. The New York Mets, who currently have the best record in baseball, are 4-2 against over-.500 opponents. The Seattle Mariners are the only team in the American League with a winning record against over-.500 teams, at 8-7. The Giants’ overall record is impressive, but they’re doing it against winning teams.

It’s always risky to highlight one moment in a win that had several contributing factors, but here’s one that’s too easy to overlook. It deserves special attention, not just because of its importance in this isolated game, but for how it describes what the Giants are trying to do in general.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Giants down 5-4, there was one out and runners at second and third. A left-hander was on the mound, and Mike Yastrzemski was due up. The Giants desperately needed contact, and manager Bob Melvin had a choice to make. They could send Yastrzemski up against the lefty, or they could use David Villar to pinch hit, with the Brewers countering with right-hander Trevor Megill. Or, considering that Melvin was willing to bring Patrick Bailey into the game as a defensive replacement, he could have been the pinch hitter, with the Brewers likely sticking with the lefty in order to force Bailey to bat right-handed.

There isn’t a clear-cut, computer-preferred solution, but it’s hard to imagine Yastrzemski getting the chance in previous seasons. He’d hit a solo homer earlier in the game, but lefty-vs.-lefty is strategic poison, especially when contact — any kind of contact — was almost as important as hitting the ball hard.

At the same time, Yastrzemski has been seeing the ball well all season, and he’d hit a single and drawn a walk in his other plate appearances. Also important is that he’s a heady enough player to understand the assignment, even if he was unlikely to see the left-hander well.

Here’s what Yastrzemski saw, courtesy of Baseball Savant:

He fouled the first two off, and then fought for his life. The contact he made on the sixth pitch isn’t going to spawn a YouTube tutorial with a million views, but it was remarkable in its own way. The only pitch Yastrzemski didn’t swing at was the third pitch, a sweeper that bounced in the other batter’s box. He fouled all of the other ones off before putting it in play. And while it wasn’t exactly a line drive into Triples Alley, it was enough to tie the game.

That’s the swing of a batter trying to make contact above anything else, and while it might sound simple, there are a lot of hitters who wouldn’t have taken that much out of their swing. For some hitters, they simply can’t, and it isn’t just an issue with fringe players. There are All-Stars who know only one way to succeed at the plate, and it works for them overall. It wouldn’t have worked for the Giants in this situation, though. Yastrzemski was the right desperate batter at the right time.

It’s easy to read too much into a weak chopper to the right side, especially when we don’t know if Villar or Bailey would have hit the Coke bottle, or if a good throw would have gotten Tyler Fitzgerald at home, but it was a vote of confidence that paid off. There have been a lot of those this season. Willy Adames followed up the game-tying fielder’s choice with a liner to left that got the winning run in, and he worked the count full to get there. He had some of his best at-bats of the season on Thursday, but he might have been lower in the lineup or even resting without a similar vote of confidence.

The Giants entered the game 25th out of 30 teams in pinch hitters used. Their batting orders have been remarkably consistent from game to game, with the only changes typically being when a left-hander is starting against them. Correlation isn’t causation, but continuity and confidence just might be contagious.

The early returns are encouraging. You never thought it was possible to get romantic about a chopper to the right side, but here’s your opportunity. The 2025 Giants are currently in the business of changing minds like that.

(Photo of Tyler Fitzgerald: Kelley L Cox / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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