Why Tony Vitello shoulders blame for Giants’ historically slow offensive start

SAN FRANCISCO — When the Giants found out they were selected for Major League Baseball’s first game of the 2026 season, they quickly learned that it would mean some pretty significant changes to the ways they have always done things for home openers. MLB and Netflix took over much of the planning for the Wednesday evening game, so the Giants found a workaround. As the season approached, some team employees started calling their first game “MLB Opening Night” and referring to Friday’s second game as “Giants Opening Day.” If you saw their graphics promoting Friday’s game and didn’t know any better, you would think it was their first of the year. However you want to refer to it, the reality is that there’s an ugly result through 72 hours: The Giants have more “opening” games than extra-base hits right now. They managed just an Heliot Ramos double in Friday’s 3-0 loss to the New York Yankees after notching just three singles in Wednesday’s loss. They always knew they would make history this week with Tony Vitello in charge, but this isn’t exactly what they had in mind. For the first time in franchise history, the Giants have been shut out in back-to-back games to begin a season, and their four hits are a franchise low for the first 18 innings of a season and the second-lowest total in MLB history. Since moving to San Francisco, they had never had fewer than nine hits in their first two games. Vitello was nothing but calm as he looked down at a box score filled with zeros — except in the strikeout column, where the Giants got up to 13 after Camilo Doval whiffed the side in the eighth — and said that he wanted to shoulder some of the blame. When the Giants returned home earlier this week, they met to go over some last-minute details before the start of the year. Vitello said that ended up bringing out some “fire and brimstone” as he spoke, and he thinks his group is just trying too hard right now. Baseball is not a sport where you can generally run through walls. “If I had to guess, to be honest with you, I’d blame myself,” Vitello said. “Maybe it’s time to maybe do what I can to ease some tension in there so some guys can be free and go out and play. I think everybody that was on the field or in the stands knows those guys can play.”Vitello did his best to shift the blame, but this is one case where his new players are much different than his old ones. This lineup is filled with guys on nine-figure contracts, but through 18 innings there hasn’t even really been a whiff of a threat. “We’re all Major League players. I think we can handle it. We can handle the ups and downs,” lefty Robbie Ray said. “It’s just one of those things that’s happened the first two games. It’s not ideal (but) you’ve got 162 games left. What are you going to do with it?”If you prefer your glass to be half full, the Giants might not face a tougher duo over their next 160 than Max Fried and Cam Schlittler, who have completely overwhelmed them early on. Fried finished fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting last year and Schlittler averaged 98.5 mph with his four-seamer while striking out eight in just 5 1/3 innings Friday. Nobody is in the mood to tip their cap after the second game of a season, though, and the Giants thought they were equipped to handle even the game’s best.Vitello spoke Friday morning of how you could sit down at a bar and come up with dozens of different combinations for how to line up his first six hitters. Through two games, that group has done zero damage, with Willy Adames (0-for-7, four strikeouts) and Rafael Devers (1-for-8, three strikeouts) taking particularly big swings. Vitello said the lineup would look different Saturday, but that was going to be the case anyway. It’s a different matchup against Will Warren, and the staff had already talked about mixing some things up. The answers will mostly have to come from within, because this isn’t a roster built for change. The expectation is that the starting nine — when healthy — will be far more consistent in terms of playing time than in some previous years. Vitello had one chance to play a different card Friday when lefty Tim Hill came in to face the 3-4-5 hitters. After strikeouts from Dever and Adames, Vitello stuck with Jung Hoo Lee in a left-on-left matchup and said there wasn’t really much talk of using Jerar Encarnacion instead of Lee.The staff met briefly after Friday’s loss, but that was mostly to blow off steam as solutions were discussed. The hope, Vitello said, is that everyone will look a bit more composed in the box on Friday. There will be no “Opening Mid-Afternoon,” so perhaps everyone can settle in for the series finale.“They’ve been in fifth gear and riding hot the entire time,” Vitello said of his hitters. “Whether that weight falls on me or it’s more of a group effort, I think a relaxed version of this group probably makes the score and the outcome more competitive.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Why Tony Vitello shoulders blame for Giants’ historically slow offensive start

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