SAN FRANCISCO—The 2015 San Francisco Giants are playing-out a script that has haunted many defending champions.
The post-championship hangover, an affliction plaguing this season’s edition of the Bay Area Bombers havetaken firm hold of the Giants, who, at 4-10 have gotten off to the fourth-worst start of any defending champ in the history of Major League Baseball.
Questions about how the departure of names such as Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse have been answered with mounting losses and mounting frustrations, culminating in Saturday’s 9-0 beatdown and Sunday’s 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Owning an 1-6 home record, even the seemingly invincible Maddison Bumgarner has been roughed-up, an outcome that appeared unthinkable when the big lefty was blowing-away Kansas City Royals en route to winning a title and World Series MVP.
But if recent history has taught us anything about Bruce Bochy-led Giants teams, it’s never about how they start, but how they finish. The silver lining in the dark cloud of the team’s first 12 games is exactly that, they were the first 12 games.
A lineup that has been sorely lacking last October’s timely hitting and pop will soon benefit from the return of Hunter Pence and Travis Ishikawa. Pence, the wild-eyed slugger, will provide a lift as an intimidating force in the heart of a lineup that has struggled mightily in his absence.
“I wish we had a magic wand to wave right now, but we don’t,” Bochy said. “The only thing we can do at this point, and we have no choice, is to come out and keep pushing.”
The first opportunity for redemption will come tomorrow against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as the Giants will look to make a statement against their oldest and most hated rival.
“Anytime you start out of the gates stumbling a little bit, it’s just really important to understand there’s a lot of baseball left, and hopefully a lot of good baseball left,” said pitcher Tim Hudson.
“Understand that the folks that we’re chasing, for the division and the wild card, there’s going to be times when they’re playing just as bad a baseball as we are right now.”
