First one down

At least 40 more to go!

Even after the Giants got swept by the Yankees over the weekend, it’s not like I ever thought they’d go 0-162 this year. I mean, not seriously. Barely considered it at all, honestly. Really, when you consider how many hours I was awake between the end of the Yankees series on Saturday afternoon and the start of the game last night, the percentage of them in which I thought about it was very low. And even when I did, I gave it a 10% chance of even happening. 15%, tops.

But with last night’s 3-2 win in San Diego, we don’t have to think any of that anymore. The 2026 Giants have proven themselves capable of Winning One Game, and no one can ever take that away from them. They will win more games over the remainder of the season. Presumably, they will win several dozen more games. But what does this opening weekend mean?

I’m gonna do a “Subscribe!” widget and then say “Nothing,” aren’t I? Ugh, I’m already disgusted by me. I am getting way too predictable.

It means nothing!

I hope you’re applauding. I want the audience to be happy, so I’ve got to play the hits.

Four games cannot possibly define a season, and you know this. Massive disappointment due to a few bad games aside, any four-game stretch, whether it goes well or not, is nothing more than that, which every baseball fan in the world knows intuitively. It’s not very likely that Logan Webb finishes the season with an ERA over 10. Rafael Devers will almost certainly have a scorching hot stretch sometime this year that improves his current unsightly batting line. The Giants, as a whole, will hit better than .154/.230/.211 (that’s a team OPS+ of 28) this season. It’s going to get better.

But when a team comes out of the gate so poorly, there will always be a feeling of panic. Is this who these guys are? Is this what they’re going to do all year? Why is this happening to them, but also and more importantly, to me? Could a good team look this bad in the first series of the season? How long are we supposed to wait to see something good, because three games is already pushing it?

The answer to those questions, which has never helped anyone in the history of the world and also happens to be correct here, is this: Calm down. Just relax. Take a breath. It’s really not that bad.

I know, I know. I got mad at myself for writing it too. Unfortunately, there’s no way to delete text once you’ve typed it, so it’s just going to have to stay like that.

Nobody wants to be patient during the first series of the year. What you want, even if the team doesn’t win, is a positive sign that the team has something to offer you. You want the validation that this team, which you’ve spent months waiting to watch in actually meaningful games, will reward that dedication with an entertaining performance. Even if the games don’t go their way, you want at least some of the team to do really well, and some other guys to look like they belong on the field. You want them to be worth not only the time that you are currently spending watching them, but also the time you spent waiting to watch them.

Against the Yankees, the Giants didn’t do that. Robbie Ray had a nice start, though he was left in too long. Some guys in the bullpen had strong outings. Heliot Ramos hit an entire double all by himself at one point. Everyone else embarrassed himself, his team, his uniform, his city, his parents, his siblings, his grandparents, his cousins, his great-grandparents, his friends, his godparents, his pets, his acquaintances, his former acquaintances, his ancestors who fought in that one war everyone forgot about, and Buster Posey.

From the outside, the Giants have not had good vibes for years now, and the Tony Vitello era was supposed to erase that trend. Instead, at the very beginning, it amplified it. The vibes got worse. The aftertaste got more rancid. Also, there were really weird off days in there, one in the middle of the series and one on a Sunday, which really shouldn’t ever happen. The whole thing was just a mess.

So it was important for the Giants to win in San Diego last night, not just to end the understandable sense of panic among the fanbase, but also to show that yes, this team is actually capable of doing something good. Harrison Bader can hit a home run. Multiple guys in the lineup can get a hit with a runner in scoring position. Landon Roupp can have a legitimately excellent start. Ryan Walker was also there. Lots of good stuff!

Not to get too technical here, but good stuff is better than bad stuff. Giants fans watch the Giants to see said good stuff from them, and the earlier that good stuff shows up, the better. This was later than anyone would have expected or hoped for, but it did still eventually happen. That’s a good sign. A successful season is built on good sign after good sign, so the team needs to start chaining them together, but to do that, you have to start with one.