Giants Must Hope Awful Home Start is Portent of Good Things to Come

The San Francisco Giants are not off to a good start in the Tony Vitello era.

The first-year manager, who has no pro baseball experience but coached at the University of Tennessee and won a national championship, has presided over the franchise’s worst start at home in more than a quarter-century, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic.

San Francisco started the season at home and lost all three games against the New York Yankees, including an epic failure to score runs that set franchise and MLB records. Following a short trip to San Diego, the Giants then hosted the New York Mets, followed by their current series with the Philadelphia Phillies.

San Francisco won the series opener with the Mets last Thursday, but lost the next four games, including Monday’s series opener with the Phillies. That left the Giants with a 1-7 record at Oracle Park through eight games.

One must go back a ways to find that awful a start at home for the Giants, and it has an interesting history.

The Giants’ Last 1-7 Start at Home

San Francisco Giants former left fielder Barry Bonds. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Back in 2000, the Giants moved from Candlestick Park to what was called Pacific Bell Park for their first season in the city since they played at Seals Stadium in the Mission District from 1958-59.

Those Giants opened the season on the road with a seven-game road trip on the east coast, first to the Florida Marlins and then to the Atlanta Braves. San Francisco christened its stadium on April 11 with a 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants lost their first five games at the stadium — three to the Dodgers and two more to the Arizona Diamondbacks — and were 0-5 before hitting the road again.

That trip went to three cities — Cincinnati, Arizona and back to Florida to face the Marlins again — before returning home to lose two out of three to the Montreal Expos to close April. At that moment the Giants were 1-7 at home and 10-13 for the season.

Here’s the good part for the 2026 Giants, if you believe in history. The 2000 Giants ended the campaign with a 97-65 record, the NL West title and a playoff berth before losing to the New York Mets in the NL Division Series.

That team was filled with sluggers, including Barry Bonds, the game’s all-time career home run leader, and Jeff Kent, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July. Dusty Baker, who could be in the Baseball Hall of Fame as early as next year, was the manager.

Will this Giants team follow suit? Only time will tell. History doesn’t always repeat itself.