Teams playing the 2024 Dodgers basically have to play perfectly in order to win. In the San Francisco Giants' first game against the rival Dodgers this season, the Giants did not play perfectly and so they lost. The Giants stranded a ton of baserunners and were sorely lacking the big hit. The SF Giants' bullpen continued to struggle overall, with young players failing to establish themselves and even the likes or Tyler Rogers—ground ball and home run prevention machine—allowing a 430-foot three-run blast that broke the game open.

The Giants are allowing over seven runs per game on average through five games this season. That's obviously way too many, and it's actually impressive that they've managed to go 2-3 despite allowing so many runs. What's startling is that SF Giants starters Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, and Jordan Hicks combined to allow just four runs in 17 innings, while Keaton Winn added a respectable three runs in five innings against the juggernaut Dodgers lineup. It was Daulton Jefferies' start and the bullpen that has been the run prevention culprit. Thankfully, there are several sustainability/"luck" indicators that strongly suggest that the Giants will improve at preventing runs. Their HR/FB ratio, left-on-base percentage, and BABIP allowed are all unsustainably bad and will improve.

Another way the SF Giants will improve is by getting Blake Snell into the rotation, and the Giants say he will make his season debut on Monday at home against the Nationals. Alex Cobb doesn't seem to be too far behind Snell, and once he's ready to go, that could push Keaton Winn into a long relief role, making the bullpen that much better and deeper. Winn flashed excellent stuff in his outing that was better than the ERA over 5.00 would suggest.

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The best daily San Francisco Giants podcast. Whether the Giants are winning championships or retooling for another title run, Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick—a lifelong Giants fan and former contributor for RotoGraphs and Beyond the Box Score—breaks down every game, rumor, and transaction in a way that's data-driven and rational but also simple, passionate, and accessible to all.

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