Photo credit: @sfgiants_fanly

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Looks like “Shark” has his bite back.

Giants starter Jeff Samardzija has been off to a fantastic start this season and he only accelerated that Thursday night. A guy who is known for going deep into games and eating up innings did not do that nearly enough in 2018, but he has seemed to reverse that trend this season, although it has only been two starts.

He threw seven shutout innings and gave up three hits in getting his first win of the year, struck out seven batters and walked only one. He allowed only one guy to get as far as second base all night, using up only 90 pitches in the process.

It has been a far cry from a 2018 campaign that saw him struggle with his command as well as dealing with assorted injuries that further damaged his effectiveness. He has shown no remnants of that for the first two weeks of this season, and Colorado found that out the hard way.

“He was on top of his game, which you have to do against that lineup,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He just did a beautiful job of pitching. It was fun to watch. He’s been throwing the ball well.”

“It was a long road that he had to come back from. He was a warrior through all that, trying to pitch, and we shouldn’t have had him out there a few times that we let him pitch. He was battling a lot of pain, probably more than what he was telling us. But he put in a lot of hard work this winter, and you can see.”

As locked in as Samardzija was, however, Colorado Jon Gray was just as good. The two hurlers traded zeroes for the first six innings, and it appeared that the Giants could not catch a break at the plate despite garnering some early momentum.

Kevin Pillar changed that with one swing of the bat in the seventh inning.

It’s said that the first pitch is the best one a batter will see during the entire at-bat, and Pillar took advantage of that. He led off the seventh by nailing the first pitch he saw from Gray, sending it over the Bank of America sign in center field to give the Giants a 1-0 lead and make Samardzija eligible for the win.

“It’s great to do your job and throw a quality start, but there’s nothing like getting a win,” Bochy said. “I was really happy that he got the win tonight, with the effort he gave us.

“We needed some help (in the outfield),” he said of Pillar. “We got not just an outfielder, but an elite center fielder, a guy with some pop. This park is more of a pitcher’s park, but he’s shown that if you square up on it, it will go out. On a cold night, that’s pretty impressive.”

The Giants had a couple of chances earlier against Gray but could not cash in. Second baseman Joe Panik lined a two-out double over left fielder Raimel Tapia’s head, but the rally was short-lived as Buster Posey – who otherwise had a very nice night at the plate with a single and a pair of walks – whiffed to end the inning.

They really had something going in the fourth, when Brandon Belt led off the inning with a double and Brandon Crawford advanced him over to third with a well-placed grounder to the right side of the infield.

However, Pablo Sandoval’s groundout back to the pitcher put a serious dent in the rally, which was officially put to death when Pillar grounded out to third.

The Giants had an opportunity to expand the lead in the eighth, after getting the first two batters on via the base on balls. With Belt up, a pitch got past Colorado catcher Tony Wolters and momentarily allowed both runners to advance with nobody out.

However, what TV replays clearly showed as a passed ball that bounced off Wolters’ mitt was actually ruled as a foul tip by home plate umpire C.B Bucknor, as he determined that the ball had struck Belt’s bat as he checked his swing. The play was non-reviewable, and both runners were forced to go back to first and second, respectively.

Belt ended up striking out, and the two ensuing batters, Sandoval and Crawford, each grounded out softly to first, one of which would have brought a runner home had the passed ball been correctly called.

Fortunately for the Giants, that did not become a turning point, as Will Smith came in and pitched a perfect ninth, thanks to a sparkling play by Panik to rob Charlie Blackmon of a hit.

The Giants next play the Rockies on Friday night at 7:15 pm.