SAN FRANCISCO _ The San Francisco Giants spent the first month of the season giving their fans more reasons to complain than cheer, while empty seats at Oracle Park provided a rough visual for an organization in the midst of change.
After manager Bruce Bochy yanked starter Jeff Samardzija following five scoreless innings on Monday, it appeared fans would have a chance to sing an all-too-familiar tune following the series-opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Instead, with the Giants trailing the Dodgers 2-0 in the seventh inning, third baseman Evan Longoria drilled a bases-clearing double into the left field corner to give the Giants the lead in a 3-2 comeback win.
Longoria's go-ahead double ignited an announced crowd of 32,212, which erupted as soon as the ball bounced on the outfield grass and curled into the left field corner. It also took the spotlight off of Bochy's decision to remove Samardzija and highlighted another choice the manager made.
Longoria initially began the game on the bench, as the struggling third baseman was left out of the lineup in favor of Pablo Sandoval for the second straight day.
Longoria ultimately replaced Sandoval as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning, shortly after reliever Tony Watson allowed RBI hits from a pair of left-handed Dodgers sluggers, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy.
Samardzija was not tired after throwing just 79 largely stress-free pitches on Monday. He didn't suffer an injury requiring an early exit, either. The Giants starter had simply faced each Dodgers hitter twice and the numbers indicated the club would increase its chances to win by turning the game over to their bullpen.
Bochy has rarely yanked a starting pitcher cruising through a strong outing, but the 2019 Giants are embracing modern baseball and all the analytically driven decisions that come with it. Doing so has forced them to abandon some longstanding habits and on Monday, Bochy leaned on hard data instead of his gut.
The Giants may have boosted their odds of winning by pulling Samardzija, but they could not guarantee a victory. Any time the club bucks conventional methods and loses, the decision is magnified.
After Watson entered and allowed two runs to score in the sixth, Bochy's decision came into sharp focus. So did his choice to lean on Longoria in the later innings, as the Giants finished just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Samardzija's best performance of 2019 revealed plenty about his early-season resurgence. The veteran starter lowered his ERA to 2.53, proved that his new approach to throwing more off-speed pitches is making him more effective and showcased how the Giants don't yet trust him to work deep into games.
After battling a shoulder injury that limited him to just 10 starts a season ago, the Giants and Samardzija agreed he would no longer set a 200-inning threshold as a goal. But even Samardzija must be surprised the organization doesn't want more out of him when he pitches as well as he did Monday.
While the move to pull Samardzija appeared to frustrate the pitcher in the middle of the game, his five innings played a key part in a win, which was the desired result all along.
