SAN FRANCISCO – One of the more surprising stats to come out of the Giants’ 9-3 start is how many roster moves that president of baseball operations Buster Posey has made since Opening Day involving the Major League squad.
Zero.
Compare that to last year, when Farhan Zaidi made 10 roster moves before the Giants played their seventh game.
Granted, Zaidi had different issues to solve, like a pitching staff that was anything but set and the need to find ousted catcher Joey Bart a new home via trade. That, however, is only half the explanation.
From Day 1, Posey made it known his roster would not be a revolving door. Manager Bob Melvin has made a similar point with his lineups, which rarely change.
“We’re going to make subtle moves -- you know, lefty and righty -- but I think Buster is trying to just create some stability here,” Melvin said. “So far, so good.”
Case in point was Wednesday’s 8-6, 10-inning victory against the Reds, which ended with one out in the 10th on Mike Yastrzemski’s homer into McCovey Cove, allowing the Giants to avert a sweep and sending them on their longest trip of the season -- 10 games -- on a high note.
The same lineup that got shut out by Cincinnati on Monday night was given another chance Wednesday, and Melvin’s faith paid off with San Francisco's biggest comeback of the year. The Giants were down 5-0 by the third inning.
After Melvin’s designated lineup against lefties got shut out as well Tuesday night, one could imagine the skipper tossing the plan aside Wednesday, resting his struggling regulars in a day game after a night game and sticking some names into a blender to devise a batting order.
Instead, LaMonte Wade Jr., Patrick Bailey and Tyler Fitzgerald (all hitting below .200) found themselves in their familiar spots in a lineup that scored four runs in the sixth off starter Nick Martinez and reliever Taylor Rogers, tied the game on Wilmer Flores’ first-pitch homer in the eighth and then won in the 10th when Yastrzemski launched his second splash homer of the year.
Yastrzemski provided the Giants a third walk-off win among their four wins on the homestand.
Not that Melvin is robotic with his lineups either.
Yastrzemski does not hit Martinez well. In Cincinnati on March 30, Melvin sat Yastrzemski against Martinez, a rare benching against a righty, but changed his mind for Wednesday’s rematch.
Yastrzemski has been one of the Giants’ best hitters and Melvin could not bench him.
“He told me last night, ‘You’ve got your boy,’ and I was like, ‘Great. I’ll go out there and do my best,” Yastrzemski said.
His double off Martinez in the sixth was the first of four consecutive two-out hits that cut the Giants’ deficit to 6-4. Two of the hits came from sub-.200 hitters Bailey and Fitzgerald, who each got an RBI, with a triple and a single, respectively.
When the Giants closed to 6-5 on an Elly De La Cruz throwing error, Melvin said he and the rest of the dugout were confident the Giants would win.
They needed their biggest comeback of the year because Justin Verlander, still winless as a Giant, gave up six runs (five earned) and five hits in a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like performance.
All of the hits and earned runs against Verlander came in the third inning, after he retired the first seven Reds on 27 pitches. Along the way, he struck out the middle of Cincinnati's lineup in order in the second. Verlander was money after the third inning, too. He finished with nine strikeouts over his 5 2/3 innings and said he felt as good as he had in any game since 2022.
Unlike the home opener last week, when Verlander did not survive the third inning, Melvin let him finish it this time after five runs had crossed the plate, largely on seeing-eye hits. Verlander lasted into the sixth inning, which allowed Melvin to set up the bullpen the way he preferred in the later innings.
The conversation Verlander had with himself in the third inning “went like this,” he said. “I need to get some depth in this game. I can’t come out of the game right now.
“I’m glad they kept me in. I’m glad I was able to get a few more outs and give us the opportunity to come back. Obviously, the rest is history.”