Willy Adames gets to face off against his old team as the Giants host their first four-game series of the season.
The Milwaukee Brewers are a great example of why one shouldn’t read too much into early season results, whether tragic or magic. They arrive in San Francisco with a positive run differential (+11) on top of a winning record despite starting the season 0-4.
You might’ve heard about their tough opening weekend against the Yankees. After a normal 4-2 loss on opening day, they got blown out in the following games 20-9 and 12-3, and the Yankees hit 15 home runs in the series. Then, to real make the pain hurt, they lost their home opener to the Kansas City Royals 11-1.
But that was March! Here in April, the Brewers are back to their winning ways with a 12-6 record and +43 run differential. After enduring a trio of blowouts in the early going, they’ve dispensed their with an 8-2 win against the Reds at home, 7-1 and 17-2 wins against the Rockies in Coors, and a 7-0 blasting of the Diamondbacks in Arizona. In their last game, they obliterated the Athletics 14-1.
They’re back to their old tricks, competing even after trimming payroll and jettisoning players. The San Francisco Giants have one of those castoffs: Willy Adames, who shortstopping has been far from the MVP candidate the Brewers. In the three seasons prior to joining the Giants, Adames hit .236/.314/.443 with 87 home runs with a 2.6 K/BB ratio. With the Giants, he’s slashing .202/.273/.281 in his first 99 PAs sporting a 2.9 K/BB.
Even now, as the Giants play 17 games in 17 days, Adames hasn’t quite acclimated to being in this new lineup on a new team. He’s shrunk that strikeouts to walk ratio down to about two (5 walks against 11 K) and he has 3 extra base hits (2 doubles and a homer) — he’s also avoided hitting into any double plays. Not quite the 25+-homer pace Buster Posey hoped for when he signed him to the largest deal in team history, but there’s still time to turn that around, and against his former team seems as good a time as any.
The Giants, meanwhile, will host their first four-game series of the season as they kinda-sorta lick their wounds from losing two out of three in Anaheim over the weekend. This is the third consecutive season that the Angels have won the season series, so, it’s maybe not such a surprise. On the other hand, watching Ryan Walker struggle (and record his first career blown save yesterday) is tough and potentially panic-inducing, as the bullpen depth is a little shakier without Walker being near-automatic. Of course, a 5-5 road trip is not a disaster.
That said, the Giants will have their hands full this week against a team that has surged back into the contention tier they were expected to be in all season long and they have a young and hungry roster that could very easily frustrate the Giants’ veterans. The Reds didn’t seem to struggle with keeping the Giants down at Oracle in the last homestand and that’s one of the Brewers’ competitors in the NL Central. I daresay their lineup might be more talented.
21-year old Jackson Chourio is a face of the league-level star who has gotten off to an okay-ish start to the season. A .260 average is good, but the .273 on base is not, so he has to make up for it with a .521 slugging percentage. 25 year olds Brice Turang and Sal Frelick are pesky on base guys from the left-handed side of the plate. By the way, their pitching here in the month of April (18 games)? 12-6, 161.2 IP, 13 home runs allowed, 2.51 ERA.
Series overview
Who: Milwaukee Brewers vs. San Francisco Giants
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 6:45pm PT, Thursday at 12:45pm PT
National broadcasts: MLB Network (Monday)
Projected starters
Monday: Quinn Priester (RHP, 1-0, 0.90 ERA) vs. Robbie Ray (LHP, 3-0, 4.19 ERA)
Tuesday: Jose Quintana (LHP, 2-0, 0.71 ERA) vs. Jordan Hicks (RHP, 1-2, 6.04 ERA)
Wednesday: Freddy Peralta (RHP, 2-1, 1.91 ERA) vs. Logan Webb (RHP, 2-1, 2.40 ERA)
Thursday: Tobias Myers (RHP, season debut) vs. Landen Roupp (RHP, 2-1, 4.09 ERA)
Where they stand
Brewers, 12-10 (2nd in NL Central), 112 RS / 101 RA | Last 10: 4-6
Giants, 14-8 (3rd in NL West), 111 RS / 80 RA | Last 10: 5-5
Brewers to watch
Besides Jackson Chourio, of course…
Abner Uribe: He’s basically their Camilo Doval. His sinker averages 98 mph and he throws a high-spin slider.
Rhys Hoskins: He missed a full season (2023) recovering from an Achilles surgery and given that he’s a Northern California native, there was a segment of Giants fans who thought the team should pursue him. The Giants did not, he wound up on the Brewers in 2024 (with an option for 2025 that he exercised this offseason), and he wound up making very few memories for them. Yes, the 26 home runs were nice, but the .214/.303/.419 line wasn’t. In 20 games this season (71 PA) he’s slashing .262/.352/.426 — much closer to his career norms. He has just 3 home runs, but none on the road so far.
Quinn Priester & Jose Quintana: Priester might be one of those former Pirates pitching prospects they’ll regret trading later on. After being drafted by them in 2019 (1st round!), they traded him to the Red Sox at last year’s deadline for IF Nick York. Three weeks ago, the Red Sox traded him to the Brewers for a pair of prospects (technically, one prospect and one PTBNL). He’s made two starts for the Brewers already and has a line of 0.90 ERA in 10 IP with 8 strikeouts and just 1 earned run allowed (on the road in Colorado). Worth noting: he has 5 walks against those 8 strikeouts and he carries a 4.23 FIP. Will he regress to the mean in San Francisco, or will a tired lineup be wrangled? Same thing for ultra veteran and former Giant Jose Quintana, who has been a quality starter (3.31 ERA in 424.1 IP) since his brief stint with the Giants in 2021 (9.2 IP).
Giants to watch
Willy Adames: I mean, obviously. Can he really get the bat hot against his former team?
Robbie Ray & Jordan Hicks: Both have struggled to be efficient with their pitches. Will they be able to be consistent in the zone but not throw meatballs?
Matt Chapman: Leads the team with 21 walks and has a .290/.500/.516 line in this 10-game stretch.