One Number Tells Story of Giants’ Awful Offensive Start to Season

The San Francisco Giants have an offensive issue. That’s clear to anyone that has watched any of their first 10 games.

While a baseball season is a marathon and it’s not wise to draw massive conclusions after 10 games, the Giants (3-7) are last in the National League West Division for a clear reason — runs. San Francisco isn’t scoring enough of them.

After Sunday’s action, the Giants are tied for the fewest runs scored (26) of any team in baseball. San Francisco is tied with Cincinnati, which also has 26 runs. There are two caveats. First, the Reds have played one fewer game. Second, the Reds are 6-3 after sweeping the Texas Rangers on Sunday.

The Giants’ Offensive Issues

San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez hits a baseball with his bat — San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez (1) hits a single during the second inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

A non-offensive player, starting pitcher Logan Webb, preached patience to reporters after Sunday’s loss to the New York Mets, as gathered by KNBR radio.

“There's 152 games left in the season ... I think before anyone hits the panic button you just gotta take a deep breath,” he said. “We've played some good teams, just go out there tomorrow and try to compete.”

San Francisco has scored 16 runs in two games — a 7-2 win over the New York Mets in their series opener on Thursday and a 9-3 win over the San Diego Padres last Tuesday. That means the Giants have scored just 10 runs in their other eight games. The Giants have been shut out three times already. San Francisco lost its first two games to the New York Yankees by shut out and then were shut out again by the Mets on Saturday.

Incredibly, the Giants only have the sixth-worst batting average in baseball, with a slash of .208/.269/.292. The teams behind San Francisco in batting average include the Chicago Cubs (.206), the Los Angeles Angels (.204), the Cleveland Guardians (.198), the Seattle Mariners (.198) and the Minnesota Twins (.192).

Not surprisingly, only one qualifying hitter is batting close to .300 for San Francisco. That happens to be second baseman Luis Arraez. He has played in all 10 games and slashed .275/.286/.350 with three RBI. But, Rafael Devers is batting .211. Heliot Ramos is batting .205. Willy Adames, who provided a brief surge as the leadoff hitter, is batting .184. Two other regular are batting under .200 — Jung Hoo Lee and Harrison Bader.

Where San Francisco goes from here isn’t clear. The lineup is baked in. Bryce Eldridge could be an option as he continues to work his way back from Triple-A Sacramento. The offense needs a jolt. After 10 games, a sparkplug hasn’t emerged.