SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS NOTES:
VAMOS MÉXICO: The Giants open their five-game road trip south of the border, taking on the division-rival Padres for a two-game series in México City…these games are considered Padres home games so SF will only make one visit to the city of San Diego in 2023…that visit comes Aug. 31-Sept. 3.
WHO ACTUALLY HAS A GOOD PASSPORT PHOTO?: These two games in México City are the first two regular season games played internationally in team history…the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox went on a Baseball World Tour way back in 1913-14 but those games were all exhibition games and did not count in the standings…SF also played a series vs. the Expos in Puerto Rico in 2004 but that is a United States territory.
International Giants Games (excluding Canada)
Year Location
1913 Japan, Hong Kong, China,
Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka,
Italy, Egypt, France, England
Year Location
1953 Japan
1960 Japan
1970 Japan
UNO MÁS: The Giants gain a 27th player, IF/OF Brett Wisely, for this two-game series…Wisely is 1-for-14 (.071) with an RBI in seven MLB games…in 12 Triple-A games, he is batting .304 with 11 runs, nine doubles, eight RBI and a .967 OPS.
¡ADIÓS, PELOTA!: Saturday’s game could be a slugfest… Giants LHP Sean Manaea is second in both home runs allowed (34) and home runs per nine innings (1.76) since the start of last season…the Giants and Padres bullpens also rank inside the top-10 in home runs allowed with SF ranking sixth(15) and SD standing tied for eighth (12)…the Giants offense has the fourth-most homers in the Majors (38), and third-most against right-handed pitchers (29)…To give pitchers even more nightmares, Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú has a short porch down both foul lines (325 feet).
WATCH IT FLY: In addition to the walls, Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú sits at over 7,000-foot elevation-wise…that’s nearly 2,000 feet higher than the hitter’s paradise that is Colorado’s Coors Field…San Diego hitters lead MLB with a 42.6% fly ball rate, but only 10.4% of their fly balls are home runs (22nd)… SF batters are ninth with a 39.2% fly ball rate, and fourth with 16.5% of their fly balls going out of the park.
HOME RUN DERBY: The Giants are one of three teams this season with at least nine players having three or more homers in March/April, TB and LAD being the others (Stats, LLC)…the three teams are among six in MLB history to achieve the feat. MLB, Most Players with 3+ HR in March/April –
All-Time (Stats, LLC) Team Year Players Cardinals 2000 12
Rays 2023 10
Brewers 2019 10
Team Year Players Giants 2023 9
Dodgers 2023 9
Blue Jays 2018 9
STEALING HEARTS: IF Thairo Estrada has had an excellent season on the bases…he ranks second in Sports Info Solutions’ base-running metrics, trailing only Baltimore OF Cedric Mullins, going 8-for-8 on stolen base attempts, while taking the extra base on a single on eight of 12 chances (SIS)… Estrada has stolen a base in three straight games…with a stolen base today, he will have done something only OF Barry Bonds (four in a row in 1996), OF Reggie Sanders (four in a row in 2002) and OF Rajai Davis (five in a row in 2007) have done for the Giants since 1955 (Stats, LLC).
KEEP IT LOW: Giants pitchers have the highest home run per fly ball percentage in MLB (17.4%), but a silver lining is that they have been excellent at keeping the ball on the ground, with an MLB-leading 50.4% ground ball rate…the Padres have allowed 12.8% of their fly balls to leave the yard (12th), with a 45.6% ground ball rate.
STARTING RIGHT: SF Starters have been excellent since April 22, posting a 2.16 ERA while the team has gone 5-1 in that stretch…the six consecutive starts of two earned runs or fewer, paired with one walk or fewer, is tied for the franchise’s longest streak since 1912 (Stats, LLC), last doing so Sept. 12- 17, 1987…they also lead MLB with the fewest runs allowed over the first two innings this season, with 13 (Stats, LLC).
GOOSE EGG: SF was silenced last time out by St. Louis’ AllStar righty RHP Miles Mikolas, who had been struggling prior to Thursday…the defeat marked the fourth time the Giants have been shutout this season, which is tied for third most… only the Padres (five), Mets (five) and Royals (six) have been held scoreless more.
CRAWFISH JACOS: SF IF Brandon Crawford and OF Joc Pederson have long been enemies of the Padres…among active players vs. San Diego, Crawford has seven triples (second-most), 75 RBI (fifth) and 14 home runs (tied for 13th)…Pederson has 20 home runs (sixth) and 53 RBI (ninth)…
both have also had success vs. today’s starter RHP Joe Musgrove…Crawford is 6-for-23 (.261) with three doubles, a triple and a homer while Pederson is 8-for-24 (.333) with two doubles, a triple and four big flies.
WALK IN THE PARK: IF/OF LaMonte Wade Jr. is second in the Majors with a career-best 21.2% walk rate…his previous career-best was 15.9% in a 26-game spell with Minnesota in 2019…Wade has a .429 on-base percentage (fifth in MLB), and a career-best .889 OPS (tied for 26th).
TODAY’S STARTER – SEAN MANAEA LHP #52
2023 RECORD: 0-1, 6.61 ERA
WITH THE GIANTS: His first season with Giants…signed two-year, $25 million contract with San Francisco this offseason after spending 2022 with San Diego.
LAST OUTING: Partially due to the dangerous right-handed bats in the Cardinals’ lineup, the Giants opted to bullpen their game on April 25, and used Manaea as a reliever to get through a pocket mostly made up of the Cardinals lefty hitters…he allowed a solo home run to IF Tommy Edman in 1.1 innings while striking out two.
VS. SAN DIEGO: The southpaw has solid numbers vs. his former team, going 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA, 19 strikeouts and a 0.94 WHIP in 22.1 innings over four starts…Due to pitching for the Padres in 2022, Manaea’s last start vs. San Diego came late in 2021 where he allowed five runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings for Oakland… four Padres have at least 10 at-bats with a batting average over .300 against Manaea…IF Xander Bogaerts is 6-for-11 (.545) with a home run and two doubles…DH Nelson Cruz is 8-for-25 (.320) with four home runs, seven walks and nine RBI.
BACK AND FORTH: This will be Manaea’s second move to the rotation after starting the year in the bullpen…he has his best start of the season when coming off a relief outing, striking out eight while allowing one run on three hits and a walk in 6.0 innings vs. Kansas City on April 8…since 2022, Manaea is 8-10 with a 5.10 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 166.0 frames as a starter, while posting a 5.40 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 8.1 innings out of the bullpen.
HIGH, HOW ARE YOU: The home run, which has burned Manaea this season with five in five games, has been a trend for two seasons…since the start of 2022, he is second in both home runs allowed (34) and home runs per nine innings (1.76)…CBS sports notes Mexico City’s elevation, which is almost 2,000 feet higher than Colorado’s Coors Field, a prolific home run ballpark due to its elevation…in a 2017 Ringer article, a baseball physics expert noted that “A ‘standard long fly ball’ with a 103 mph exit speed and a 27.5 degree launch angle would travel 398 feet at sea level…at Coors, it would fly 427 feet. And in Mexico City, it would cover 438 feet.”
Highest HR/9 since 2022
Name HR/9
Josiah Gray (WSN) 2.14
Sean Manaea (SD/SF) 1.76
Patrick Corbin (WSN) 1.61
Name HR/9
Eric Lauer (MIL) 1.61
José Urquidy (HOU) 1.59
Germán Márquez (COL) 1.52
FAST AND FURIOUS: Manaea worked out at Driveline Baseball in the offseason and saw an increase in velocity this spring, reaching 96 MPH after averaging 91.2 MPH in 2022…Eno Sarris of The Athletic wrote on April 26 that Manaea has the largest gain in fastball average velocity this season, sitting at 94.1 MPH.
FAR FROM HOME: Manaea has a .261 opposing batting average and .747 OPS in 442.1 career road innings compared to his solid .239 opposing batting average and .698 OPS in 459.0 innings at home…in 5.1 road innings in 2023, Manaea has allowed five runs and a home run.
APRIL SHOWERS: The early struggles are off-trend as Manaea has normally been hot to start his season…Despite his inflated 2023 numbers, Manaea’s career April/March ERA is 3.41 with 143 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP in 148.0 innings…two of Manaea’s three career shutouts have been in April, including his no-hitter vs. Boston on April 21, 2018.
MLB, Lowest Career Opponent BA in March/April Since 1920 (min. 20 starts) – Stats, LLC
Name Opp. BA Bob Feller .189
Trevor Bauer .189
Pedro Martinez .191
Name Opp. BA Jim Maloney .192
J.R. Richard .193
Sean Manaea .193
FROM DIEGO TO THE BAY: All eight seasons in the Majors have been with California teams, pitching for Oakland 2016-2021, and San Diego in 2022…despite the Giants being his third team, Gabe Kapler is Manaea’s second MLB manager as former Oakland skipper Bob Melvin also left for San Diego in 2022…when Manaea was traded from Oakland to San Diego, Melvin told media “I’ve always called him the world’s best teammate…He has an infectious personality…He always has a smile on his face. Yet, when he’s on the mound, he’s a competitor.”
CALIFORNIA LOVE: Manaea was 8-9 with a 4.96 ERA (87 ER, 158.0 IP) in 30 games (28 starts) with San Diego a year ago… he struck out 156, the second highest mark of his career, in his first National League season…allowed 29 home runs, a career-high…his 1.65 home runs per nine innings were the most among pitchers with at least 150.0 innings.
SAN DIEGO PADRES NOTES:
Padres and Giants play the 1st regular season series in Mexico City in MLB history
• The Padres continue their 11-day, 9-game trip that includes this 2-game “home” series in Mexico City at Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium against the Giants…after the Padres took 3 of 4 games against the D-Backs in Pheonix, the Padres lost the series against the Cubs at Wrigley 2-1…San Diego had an off day yesterday, and following this Mexico City series, they’ll host the Reds the next day on Monday, May 1st.
• This will be the 1st regular season series in Mexico City in MLB history (previous games were all in Monterrey)…the series will also be the 1st MLB games to be played in the newly built Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium.
• This is the Padres 4th regular season appearance in Mexico, more than any other team…the Padres played in the 1st-ever Mexico Series in 1996 against the Mets in Monterrey (won 2-1), and they played their 1999 season opener in Monterrey vs. Colorado (lost 8-2)…the Friars returned in 2018 for a 3-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers (won the series 2-1)…the Padres overall regular season record in Mexico is 4-3 in 7 games.
• This will mark the 6th time MLB teams have played regular season games in Mexico, and 3 of the previous 5 have involved the Padres…in 2016, the Padres and Astros played in a 2-game exhibition series in Mexico during Spring Training, and in Dec. 2019, MLB announced that SD and the D-Backs would play a 2-game series in Mexico City in April 2020 (cancelled due to the pandemic).
Past series against the Cubs
• San Diego lost the series 2-1 to the Cubs in Chicago, dropping Thursday’s rubber match 5-2…in Game 3, Seth Lugo was saddled with the loss, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits in 5.0 innings…Manny Machado went 2-for-4 with a home run, but it was the Padres’ sole XBH in the game.
• The San Diego offense went just 3-for-24 with RISP in the 3 games (.125), including a hitless, 0-for-6 performance with RISP on Thursday.
Oh, we’re up there
• Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú will be the highest altitude ever for a Major League Baseball game, as Mexico City’s elevation is 7,349 feet above sea level…in previous trips to Mexico (1996, 1999, and 2018), San Diego played 7 games and hit 11 home runs at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey (elevation 1,772 feet).
• Coors Field in Denver, by comparison, is 5,280 feet above sea level.
Batting with runners in scoring position
• In their last 7 games since the start of their roadtrip on April 20, the Friars have hit just .191 with RISP (9-for-47).
Los Padres versus Los Gigantes
• The Padres have won 7 of their last 8 games against the Giants and have gone 29-19 (.604) versus SF since 2020…their .604 winning percentage is the Friars’ 4th-best record against any of their opponents since 2020. Friars have the best fielding percentage in baseball/stolen base problem
• San Diego ranks 1st in fielding percentage in 2023, having made a MLB-low 6 errors (.994%)…the Giants’ .980 fielding % is 28th in MLB (19 errors).
• However, SD has allowed 28 stolen bases so far this year, tied for the 3rd most of any team with the A’s (behind the Dodgers’ 41 stolen bases allowed).
STARTING PITCHER – JOE MUSGROVE 44
Musgrove set for Mexico City start vs. SF
Joe Musgrove is set to make his 2nd start of the season in Mexico City tonight vs. the Giants…last season, Musgrove was quality in all 5 of his starts vs. SF, going a combined 2-0 with a 1.07 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and .142 opp. AVG…SD won each of his 5 starts vs. SF last season, and have won 6 in a row vs. SF in Musgrove’s starts since Oct. 2, 2021 @ Oracle Park.
Four SF hitters have 20+ at-bats vs. Musgrove…Wilmer Flores is 2-for-24 (.083), Mike Yastrzemski is 3-for-24 (.125), Brandon Crawford is 6-for-23 (.261) with 1 HR and Joc Pederson is 6-for-22 (.273) with 2 HR.
Breaking bad
Yu Darvish (2,754 rpm) and Joe Musgrove (2,717 rpm), the Padres 2 starters in this series, have the 5th and 6th-highest spin rates on breaking balls among all NL pitchers since the start of last season (min. 750 pitches)…they trail only Charlie Morton (3,067 rpm), LAD’s Julio Urias (2,898), MIL’s Corbin Burnes (2,775) and STL’s Adam Wainwright (2,767).
Musgrove makes season debut in the desert
Two days after the Padres got Fernando Tatis Jr. back in their lineup, right-hander Joe Musgrove returned to the Friars’ starting rotation and made his season debut in Game 3 of of the 4 game set vs. the Diamondbacks last Sat @ Chase Field…Musgrove is now 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA and 22 SO vs. 0 walks in his last 3 starts vs. ARI @ Chase Field.
Musgrove’s weight room incident
On Feb. 27, Musgrove dropped a 35-pound kettle bell and fractured his left big toe, causing his first trip to the IL since the 2020 season, and his 1st as a Padre…Musgrove did everything in his power to return to the Padres rotation as quickly as he could, including driving 40 minutes each morning and then again after workouts at the Padres complex in Peoria, Ariz, to lay in a hyperbaric chamber…he took trips back to San Diego to check on his mechanics in a pitching lab to see if he had tweaked his mechanics to overcompensate for the injury, to a low sodium diet and simulated games/minor league rehab outings, and the Padres dieticians prescribed him a low-salt diet intended to help in the healing process.
Musgrove makes 2 rehab outings
Made 2 rehab outings for SD’s minor league affiliates…1st on April 6 @ Sacramento for Triple-A El Paso, he allowed 2 ER across 4.1 IP, striking out 6 while hitting 3 batters…he suffered a setback in the outing, attempting to barehand a comebacker, then threw off-balance to 1st base and landed awkwardly…an MRI on his shoulder came back clean, but he received a cortisone injection and was shut down for a couple of days…on April 10 for Single-A Lake Elsinore @ Inland Empire on April 16, he allowed 4 ER across 5.0 IP with 8 SO.
Summer to Remember
Nearly two weeks after appearing in his first All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium on July 19, 2022, the San Diego native signed a 5-year extension with the Padres through the 2027 season on August 1, 2022…during the press conference, Musgrove said: “There’s so much uncertainty in where you might end up in your career….It’s kind of the last thing you expect to get to come back and play in your hometown and especially at a time when there’s an opportunity to compete for a championship.
