Giants opt out of playing offense in Game 1

Im not mad at the San Francisco Giants. Theyre their own team, and they can make whatever choices they want. Its just that the choice to not play offense is a slightly bizarre . Whats the end game here? Is it fun? Doesnt seem to be. Is it effective? Not if you have the goals that I always imagined a professional baseball team has. Is it easy? Well ... maybe thats it.The Giants are halfway through a four-game series with the Washington Nationals, and its becoming abundantly apparent that their bag of offense got lost at the airport. After a -run performance on Friday , the Giants got shut out in the first seven-inning affair of Saturdays doubleheader Kevin Gausman Face Mask.Not scoring happens. It happens a lot. Usually when it happens it feels like a little bit of bad luck is involved. It often requires poor sequencing, where the team can get a hit when it doesnt matter, and cant get a hit when it does. Or it requires bad luck, where hard-hit balls repeatedly set their heat-seeking missile settings to opposing gloves https://www.sanfanstoreonline.com/Buster_Posey_T_shirt-14.In the Giants case its just been a solid scoop of no offense. A generous scoop.The Giants actually had more hits in Saturdays short shutout lossthan in Fridays win . But n of them were extra-base hits, and they struck out 10 times, just as on Friday, while walking no times, just as on Friday. And so, after two games, heres where the Giants offense stands: 16 innings, 9 hits, 8 singles, 0 walks, 20 strikeouts, 1 run.20 strikeouts. 0 walks. 20 strikeouts. 0 walks.TWENTY strikeouts. ZERO walks. Like I said, theres no poor luck here. The Giants are a team that prides themselves on making pitchers work, drawing free passes, and being patient. Yet two games in, the team has struck out in 35.7% of their plate appearances, and Washingtons pitchers are averaging fewer than 15 pitches per inning. They only threatened once all game, when back-to-back -out singles by Wilmer Flores and Mike Tauchman put runners at the corners, but Jason Vosler hit into a double play. This is bad offense. Offense so bad that not even Kevin Gausman could save them, though he did account for 20% of the teams hits. Gausman hadof his more pedestrian games of the season. A leadoff homer to Kyle Schwarber just the sixth home run Gausman has allowed this year set the t , and while the soon-to-be first-time All-Star settled into the game, he was far from great Buster Posey Hoodie. With the team trailing 2-0 and only single-digit outs remaining thanks, silly doubleheader rules Gausman was lifted for a pinch hitter in the fifth inning, ending his day early with a mediocre line: 4 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, 4 strikeouts. I think the Giants were smart to use Gausman today, but the danger of using your ace in a seven-inning National League game is you run the risk of only getting four innings out of them, which is exactly what happened.Not like the outcome would have been any different. Jos lvarez was strong for two innings, but unless youre Madison Bumgarner https://www.sanfanstoreonline.com/Kevin_Gausman_Pet_Jersey-463, theres only so much you can do when your hitters arent doing anything for you.And so the Giants lost 2-0, and Gausman picked up his first loss of the season, in his 13th game.