© Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — The San Francisco Giants escaped with only a Joe Panik home run to take Opening Day from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, they’ll need more from their offense if they hope to start the season 2-0. Additional runs against Dodgers’ starter Alex Wood, specifically getting to him early in the game, and a strong 2018 debut from Johnny Cueto, are the ingredients for another Giants win Friday night.
Cueto is one of several players hoping for a rebound this season. After setting high expectations in 2016 when he finished 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA, Cueto struggled to an 8-8 record and 4.52 ERA the following year. His tough season came, in part, thanks to several blisters that bothered him throughout the season. In his last appearance of the spring, he held the Oakland A’s to one run over 5.2 innings and looked incredibly sharp
Cueto is 6-8 lifetime against Los Angeles with a 3.44 ERA while the Dodgers boast a .272 batting average against him.. It’ll be critical for Cueto to silence the bats of Cody Bellinger, who is 5-for-11 against him, and Corey Seager, who is 10-for-27. It’ll also be important for Cueto to keep Matt Kemp, who owns three home runs against him, in the confines of Dodgers Stadium.
As for Wood, he’s coming off the first breakout season of his career. Last year, Wood went 11-0 before losing his first game in late July. He went on to finish the season 16-3 with a 2.72 ERA, which was second only to Clayton Kershaw in the starting rotation.
More recently than last season, Wood is fresh off a 3.63 ERA over five starts in spring training. He showed consistency this spring with his 8.9 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, and 0.9 HR/9, numbers similar to those he put up last season.
When it comes to besting Wood, it’ll be important for the Giants to strike early. Hitters tagged Wood with a .216 average in the first inning, but in the second they batted .300 with four home runs. From there, Wood limited his opponents to a .207 batting average in the third, .189 in the fourth, and .213 in the fifth.
If the Giants are to get to Wood on Friday evening, they’ll need to take advantage of his second-inning struggles and rely on those with a successful history against him to fuel their offense.
Although the Giants were one of the teams to struggle against Wood last season, Buster Posey is 7-for-15 in his career against him; along with Brandon Crawford, who is 4-for-9 with two home runs, and Hunter Pence, who is 4-for-15 with a double. Nonetheless, the Giants went 2-1 with a .232 batting average, .254 OBP, and one home run in three games against Wood.
Here’s a full breakdown of how each team has fared against tonight’s respective starters via our friends at Looker.