BRONX, NY — Teams get 27 outs every baseball game, meaning the Giants had 81 outs in their three-game series to open the 2023 season.
More than half of them ended in a strikeout, a staggering total that leads Major League Baseball in a way-too-early sample to start the year.
The Giants struck out 41 times in their first three games, the most in a season-opening series in the San Francisco era. Two of those games were shutout losses, the first time in franchise history that the Giants got blanked twice in their first three games.
It’s just the 11th time ever the Giants have struck out at least 40 times in a three-game span.
“You go through a three-game stretch or a five or a ten-game stretch, and you’re going to have times where you strike out more,” manager Gabe Kapler said after Sunday’s loss. “We always want to be putting the ball in play with authority. That’s the number one goal. We weren’t able to do that as much as we needed to in this series.”
In the season-opener, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole fanned 11 — a Yankees Opening Day record. Logan Webb also set an Opening Day franchise record with 12 strikeouts of his own, but the Giants fell, 5-0 and finished with 16 Ks.
Then on Saturday, San Francisco’s first victory of the year, the Giants struck out 13 times. And in the finale, a 6-0 shutout defeat, San Francisco struck out 12 times, struggling against rookie Jhony Brito.
At one point, Brito fanned five straight Giants batters in his debut.
Outfielder Michael Conforto leads the team with six strikeouts so far. He’s 1-for-12 in three games at Yankee Stadium.
Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford have each struck out five times.
The Giants’ 41 strikeouts as a team is tied for the MLB lead with Miami, but the Marlins have played one more game than SF.
“I think it’s the goal of every one of our hitters to look for a pitch to drive hard to the middle of the field,” Kapler said.
“Low line-drive trajectory. Those guys are going to go up to the plate with that mentality every time. Obviously, they know that they need to put the ball in play as much as they possibly can, and put the ball in play with authority. Work deep counts, see pitches and be selective. It’s always going to be something that we’re working on. I think you’re going to find times when we don’t do it as good as we can, and I don’t think we did it as good as we can in this series.”