The Giants are coming off of their first homestand of the season where they split the 6 games down the middle, going 2-1 against the division rival San Diego Padres, and dropping two out of three to the young and feisty Washington Nationals. The team did end the homestand on a positive note, taking the final game against the Nats by a final score of 7-1.
On the road, we go! it’s time for a three-game series in warm and sunny St. Petersburg, Florida, as the Giants stroll into town for a 3 game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Generally speaking, we see more two-game series for interleague matchups, but we’ve got ourselves a good old-fashioned three-gamer here. The Giants don’t play many games indoors, and when they do, the roofs or walls are open. That won’t be the case at Tropicana Field, as it is a true dome. With that being said, it’s surely going to be interesting to see what the team can do in the somewhat unusual conditions.
Over the last 20 years, these two teams have only faced off a total of 12 times, with the Giants being victorious in 7 of those 12 games. However, Tampa has won 4 of the last 5 head to head matchups.
We will surely get to see a lot of the Tampa pitching staff, as they are known to use openers and long relief guys rather than the traditional 5 man rotation. With that being said, let’s dive into the pitching matchups. We don’t know for sure who will start the 3 games for Kevin Cash and the Rays, but we know who will take the mound for the Giants, so let’s start there.
In game 1, we get Keaton Winn. Winn is off to a rough start here in 2024, coming into this start with a record of 0-2, posting a 5.73 ERA and only 7 strikeouts in 11 innings. Part of the ERA could be from his fastball. He had good velocity but had very little run on his heater, meaning it was a true and straight pitch. He does induce fairly low exit velocity, which he has going for him.
In game 2, we get to see Logan Webb, who is also off to a sluggish start this year. The 2024 Opening Day starter has been knocked around a bit in his three starts so far. Webb holds a 0-1 record with a 4.86 ERA in 16.2 innings with 13 Ks to go with it. Webb was tagged by the Dodgers in the Korea series a few weeks ago, only lasting 3.2 innings and surrendering 7 hits and 5 earned runs. His two starts against the Padres were better than that, and he looks to improve yet again in this start against Tampa.
Finally, we arrive at the getaway day, where we get to see the most recent off-season acquisition again, and that’s Blake Snell. Snell threw the ball fairly well in his first start of the season with his new team. As expected, though, it was a short outing. Snell only went 3 innings against the Washington Nationals, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks, and 3 earned runs, while striking out 5. With Snell signing a contract so late into spring training and not having a true ramp-up for the regular season, a short outing was expected. over the next few starts, we should see him getting more stretched out and hopefully pitching late into ballgames, where the team could really use him.
As of this article, the Rays don’t have any starters listed for the upcoming series, which isn’t uncommon as they do tend to use openers on a regular basis.
All three games of the series are on the early side as far as start times go. Game 1 on Friday will start at 6:50 pm ET, game 2 on Saturday will start at 4:10 pm ET, and the finale will get kicked off at 1:40 pm ET.
