Sandy Alcantara was hitting 100 with crazy movement on opening day. Luckily for the Giants he was a bit wild, which allowed them to generate some base runners and put a few on the board against him before chasing him out after five. They didn't have that same success Saturday afternoon vs. Pablo Lopez.

Lopez's stuff, while maybe not impressive with velocity, was maybe tougher on the Giants hitters because he was pinpointing where he wanted throughout his start. He wasn't walking guys, he was getting ahead of hitters and the Giants were never really able to get anything going against him.  They did manage to get a run around on him a single from Thairo Estrada followed by sort of a bloop RBI double from Steven Duggar. 

The Giants were able to get into the Marlins bullpen after five though, thanks in large part to the early season workload management teams will use with their starters, but that didn't work out so well either. Wilmer Flores connected with one that on many days would have left the ballpark and tied the game in the seventh but it was the wrong time of day. That was the last runner the Giants would get in scoring position and they only had one more base hit after that as well, a bullet off the bat of Joc Peterson in the 9th.

After a couple games to start the season, granted they've ran into two upper echelon starters, the hits have been a little tough to come by for San Francisco. They collected six hits in their 10-inning victory on opening day, but three of those left the ballpark. On Saturday though, we saw what happens when they aren't able to get that big home run or two. They had just five hits and only twice put a runner in scoring position. There was a little bit of tough luck though, Peterson hit one ball 113 mph off the bat into shallow right but the Marlins shift ate it up. Joey Bart also hit one right on the screws over 100 mph off the bat but right at shore handed shortstop Miguel Rojas.

I know on days like this, fans will go on twitter and call KNBR with the narrative that this is what happens when you lose a couple premium bats to free agency/retirement and don't go outside the organization to replace them with equal or better talent. However, like I said at the top of this post, the Marlins are set up to have one of the best rotations in baseball, and we got a good look at why. 

While the offense had a tough go of it Saturday, we can't overlook the great starting performances the Giants have gotten from their starters this series. Logan Webb did typical Logan Webb things on opening day and it was a shame the Giants bullpen coughed up the lead and cost him a victory. 

Carlos Rodon followed Webb up with about as dominant as performance as you will see, punching out 12 batters in his five innings of work. Rodon was in the high-90's all afternoon and displayed his crippling slider a few times too. There was one at bat in the fifth where he was overthrowing his fastball a little to Jorge Soler where I would have liked to see him drop a few curve balls in, but he got out of the situation unharmed and provided exactly what the Giants had in mind when they inked him last month.

They head into Sunday behind Anthony DeSclafini with a chance to take 2 of 3 from Miami and that's ultimately the goal for each series. Yes, Saturday's game was tough because Rodon was so brilliant and they just needed one big hit to tie the game, but that's how it goes when you face elite pitching. And it won't get much easier for them Sunday either as Trevor Rogers, who led that staff in ERA last season takes the mound for the Marlins. With the lefty on the hill, I expect to see Austin Slater get the call in the outfield instead of Duggar and slotted into the leadoff spot with Yaz dropping down.

Setting aside wins and losses, the key for me these first couple games have been the starters have been great and have looked very good working with Joey Bart. Also, Joey Bart has looked like he's taken huge strides at the plate already. He worked a walk in a clutch situation late in the game on a couple of close pitches that he undoubtedly would have chased prior to this year. I have a good feeling about Joey Bart in 2022 if that continues. He may not be a Buster Posey-like presence in the lineup, but this dude is dangerous and if he's not taking himself out of at-bats by waiving at pitches out of the zone, he's going to be moved up out of that 9 spot very quickly.