The SF Giants 8 greatest moments of their disappointing 2022 season
After a tumultuous and underwhelming season, the SF Giants are sitting out of the playoffs, bitterly watching division rivals duke it out instead. But between games 1 and 162, the Giants had their fair share of moments that ranged from historic to heartwarming. Here, in no particular order, are eight of the Giants' best moments from the 2022 season.
Best moments of the SF Giants season
8. Darin Ruf is on the move
Let's start by going back to where it all started. Opening Day, where the smell of fresh-cut grass in the not-quite summer sunshine brings with it all the memories of years past, and the optimism of an unmarked slate. Anything could happen. You could find or trade for the next big superstar. You might see a perfect game. You could even see Brandon Belt riding a boat into Oracle Park, because hey, baseball's back, and with it, the promise of endless possibility and fun.
You could see a 35-year old man chugging around the bases while the voice of a generation thrums with the sheer, ridiculous, magical joy of a sport that offers itself time and time again to new beginnings.
Because, hey. It's baseball. Here's to another year of it.
For those who have forgotten the specifics, the Giants started the season at home against the Miami Marlins. Coming off their 107-win season, the Giants went into extra innings on Opening Day and Darin Ruf tied the game in the bottom of the 10th with a single. With Ruf on first, Austin Slater pulled a walk-off double down the left-field line, and Ruf chugged around the bases.
SF Giants infielder David Villar takes a swing. (2022)
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
Best moments of the SF Giants season
7. David Villar's late-season breakout
Kyle Harrison. Heliot Ramos. Luis Matos. Marco Luciano.
2022 was full of angsty speculation about when these, and other, ultra-talented prospects will finally emerge from the depths of the Giants' minor-league pipeline, and deliver breakout performances to a major-league team in need.
Unfortunately, none of those names made the jump this season. But one young player emerged and put himself firmly in the mix for a starting role next year: David Villar.
Villar, an 11th-round draft pick by the Giants in 2018, got his call-up on Independence Day, and he's been a valuable contributor for the Giants ever since.
The right-handed third baseman split time with Evan Longoria and J.D. Davis soaking up 181 plate appearances in the final three months of the season, and even moving around the infield to second and first base when needed. He started his career off strong, roping a double off of Giants legend Madison Bumgarner.
Despite his quick start, Villar struggled for a couple weeks, and was sent back down to AAA a month after being called up. Then, when the Giants needed reinforcements in September, they were quick to recall Villar, who caught fire over the final month of the season. Villar raised his average by nearly 60 points, and got his OPS up to a respectable .787 mark, buoyed by a few standout performances.
With 9 multi-hit performances in the final month, Villar certainly had a September to remember. But his brightest moment (with apologies to his two-homer game against the Dodgers) came in the final game of the season, when Villar's two-homer game lifted the Giants to a victory that prevented a losing season.
While the Giants didn't finish nearly as high up in the standings as they would've liked, Villar's breakout gave Giants fans some hope for next year and beyond.
Best moments of the SF Giants season
6. Sep 19 - 30: Giants stave off elimination
The Giants were doomed by a brutal stretch coming out of the All-Star Break in which they went 3-15, including two four-game sweeps at the hands of the Dodgers. By late September, the Giants found themselves far outside of contention, and were resigned to set themselves up as best they could for 2023.
So they did.
I mean, they tried.
When your manager comes out and calls reaching .500 by the end of the season a goal, that's not usually when a team turns on the gas. But faced with 11 straight games against weak division rivals, that's exactly what the Giants did. For two full weeks, the Giants walloped the Rockies and Diamondbacks, going 10-1 to end September and somehow, some way, ending the month still mathematically in playoff contention.
To put this another way: on September 18, after limping through their final game of the year against the Dodgers, the Giants' postseason elimination number sat at 6. That's any combination of 6 Giants losses and the greatest number of Padres, Phillies, or Brewers wins until the end of the season. On September 30th, that number was 2.
Two!
Holding off fate that long is in and of itself a minor miracle. And though they'd officially be eliminated from playoff contention after a loss to the Diamondbacks in early October, the G-Men still made a heck of a run to get back up to .500 and give Giants fans something to smile about at the end of a long, wearying season.
SF Giants closer Camilo Doval throws a pitch. (2022)
Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Best moments of the SF Giants season
5. September 23: Camilo Doval's 104 mph heater
Camilo Doval's explosive entrance onto the big-league stage in 2021 was a highlight of the team's success. But after a season in which Doval dropped his ERA from 3.00 to 2.53, is it too early to say that the Giants have found their closer of the future?
Doval ranked 11th in saves this year, finishing the season with 27 in 67.2 innings pitched. His high-octane, high-spin stuff has wowed at every step of his career, and his fastball ranked in the 99th percentile of MLB pitchers by velocity, per Baseball Savant.
If you ask the Giants, he's only begun to scratch the surface of his potential. This year, he incorporated a devastating sinker into his arsenal, but it was his cutter, long known as his best pitch, which had a highlight of the season in this late September game:
That 104 mph cutter was the fastest pitch by a Giants pitcher in the Statcast era. In fact, it was tied for the fastest pitch in MLB this season. If he can continue to improve his command and fill up the strike zone with high-movement, high-velocity stuff, Doval will be an elite member of the bullpen for years to come.
Best moments of the SF Giants season
4. Joc Pederson's explosive season
If Carlos Rodón was the prize of the Giants' 2022 offseason, then runner-up has to go to Joc Pederson, the pearl-wearing, blonde-mohawked, All-Star outfielder who put up a .874 OPS with the Giants this year. His season, explosive at times and silent at others, perfectly encapsulates the ups, downs, and weirdness of the Giants' season.
On April 25, a Brewers fan let Pederson hear about it, heckling him loudly from behind home plate. Pederson stepped out to glare at the fan, earning a chorus of boos from the Milwaukee crowd. Two pitches later, when Pederson crushed a 435-foot go-ahead home run, the fans weren't cheering anymore.
SF Giants outfielder Joc Pederson takes a swing at a high pitch. (2022)
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
But things would get even more bizarre the next month when Reds outfielder Tommy Pham approached Pederson before a game in Cincinnati. Pham, angered by a fantasy football dispute, did the rational thing to express his frustration: he walked up to Pederson and slapped him. This led Pham to get suspended amidst endless media circulation of the incident and the bewilderment of pretty much everyone involved.
Thankfully, neither of these situations will end up as the enduring memory of Pederson's stay in San Francisco. Instead, credit for that will go to Pederson's trio of home runs in one of the wildest games in franchise history.
Facing New York Mets starter Chris Bassitt, the Giants raced to an early 8-2 lead with the help of two home runs from Joc. Afterward, Pederson recounted a pregame run-in with Barry Bonds, which culminated in a conversation so engrossing that Pederson completely forgot to do his usual pregame routine. But that discussion helped lock him in so effectively that he had his best game of the year against the Mets.
But in a cruel twist of fate, Tyler Rogers suffered the meltdown to end all meltdowns (apologies to Sergio Romo circa 2016), allowing 7 runs in the top of the eighth to give New York an 11-8 lead. What had once been a surefire victory had seemed to turn into a nightmarish loss.
Before that could happen, though, Pederson had another chance at the plate. He delivered. With two runners on, Pederson put a charge into the ball, sending it sailing into McCovey Cove for his third home-run of the night to tie things up at 11 and set the stage for a Brandon Crawford walk-off single against trumpet-touting closer Edwin Díaz. That 13-12 victory will live on in Giants lore as one of the wildest comebacks in team history because of Pederson's heroics.
Best moments of the SF Giants season
3. June 10 - 12: Giants sweep the Dodgers
The Giants ended 2022 with a dismal 4-15 record against their hated SoCal archrivals, a far cry from the 10-9 record they had in the season series last year. But in June, the Giants had their lone series victory against the Dodgers, sweeping a three-game set against them in front of a rocking home crowd at Oracle Park.
The first matchup pitted Dodgers ace Walker Buehler, against Jakob Junis. Yet, Junis outpitched Buehler alongside a multi-homer night from Ruf in route to a 7-2 Giants win. It was a particularly uplifting performance for Ruf, who had just come off the bereavement list following his father's death.
That feel-good beatdown gave way to a heart-pounding nailbiter against Clayton Kershaw. Despite notching 13 hits on the day, LA trailed for most of the game. They managed their first run on an RBI double in the top of the eighth. But the Giants responded with an insurance run to extend their lead to two. That run proved vital when Freddie Freeman crushed a home run off Doval in the ninth. Ultimately, Doval settled down, and the Giants closed out a 3-2 win.
Finally, on the 10th anniversary of Matt Cain's perfect game, the Giants secured their first series sweep of the Dodgers since 2016. Rodón a gem, allowing no runs over six innings. Buoyed by home runs from Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski, the Giants went on to win 2-0.
SF Giants ace Carlos Rodón throws a pitch. (2022)
Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Best moments of the SF Giants season
2. July 9: Carlos Rodón's complete game
In an offseason where the front office failed to reinforce the roster for a playoff push, they made one move that was an undeniable success: signing Carlos Rodón.
Rodón left the Chicago White Sox after solid career of effective but injury-marred seasons. Rodón had only pitched more than 150 innings twice. But the Giants gambled on him, and he consistently lit up the home crowd at Oracle Park. He completed 178 innings and recorded a 2.88 ERA with 237 strikeouts against just 52 walks.
Rodón was sensational from his very first outing, striking out 12 hitters in five innings against the Marlins. But perhaps his best performance in the orange and black came in early July, with the Giants tilting towards .500.
In a crucial division series against the Padres, the Giants found themselves facing a series sweep after two losses in San Diego. Rodón hurled a complete game that saw him cruise through nine innings of three-hit, one-run ball, matching his season high with a 12-strikeout performance.
Rodon set down 21 straight batters to finish the game, punching in three straight fastballs to end it: 98 mph up and in, 98 mph up and in, and 99 mph right down the middle.
Rodón's future, be it in San Francisco or elsewhere, is for now shrouded in mystery. He's slated to receive a massive contract via free agency but has shown interest in returning to the team. Regardless of what happens, he had one of the best seasons by any pitcher in franchise history.
The SF Giants celebrate a walk-off grand slam by Mike Yastrzemski. (2022)
John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Best moments of the SF Giants season
1. July 15: Mike Yastrzemski's walk-off grand slam
In mid-July, the Giants were on a bit of a roll, going into a rubber match against the Milwaukee Brewers having won four of their last six after a rough start to the month. But down 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth, the Giants needed a miracle to pull off a series win against a contending Brewers team with closer Josh Hader on the mound.
Hader had entered the month with a 1.09 ERA on the season alongside 41 strikeouts and just eight walks. But something was beginning to unravel for him, and the Giants took full advantage. Joey Bart and Ruf, both of whom were struggling fiercely at the plate, both took him deep to bring the lead to 5-4. Two singles and an HBP later, Mike Yastrzemski stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, trailing by a run.
I mean, come on! You can't not smile at that! Unless you're Josh Hader, that is.
Yastrzemski's grand slam became instantly etched in the fabric of Giants' history; in addition to ending an unusual 689-day walk-off home run drought in San Francisco, it was also the first walk-off grand slam by a Giant since Bobby Bonds crushed the Dodgers' hearts in September of 1973.
Yazstrzemski's slam also preceded an impressive spate of walk-off, come-from-behind home runs in 2022: Thairo Estrada upended the Pirates with a game-winner on August 14, and Brandon Crawford followed two days later with a walk-off blast of his own. Brandon Crawford just so happened to score Thairo Estrada on his walk-off. The man on base Estrada drove in? Yastrzemski himself.
Hopefully, the SF Giants find themselves back in the postseason next October. But for now, fans will have to cherish the highlights from the 2022 season.
