© Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — More often than not, spring training numbers must be taken with a grain of salt.
Take Randy Elliott, for example. He batted .547 (29-for-53) in the spring of 1977, but went on to bat .091 in April before finishing the year with a modest .240 batting average.
That hasn’t been the case, however, for the San Francisco Giants bullpen.
The unit has been perfect through eight innings of the 2018 regular season, with 12 strikeouts in the first three games. After the bullpen’s strong spring, Giants manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t surprised that his relievers carried their success into the regular season.
After this spring, Bochy isn’t surprised by his bullpen’s hot start. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/HHrjegNICe
— Keaton A. Moore (@KeatonAMoore) April 1, 2018
The Giants had six relievers remain scoreless in over three innings of work this spring, including Josh Osich and Hunter Strickland. Osich struck out 16 batters over 11 innings, while Strickland, who will fill in as closer until Mark Melancon returns, allowed only one hit with eight strikeouts in 7.1 innings.
Pierce Johnson, who was added to the roster after Melancon hit the disabled list, held his opponents to a .045 batting average in seven scoreless innings this spring. Cory Gearrin wasn’t perfect during spring training, but he posted an impressive 1.04 ERA with eight strikeouts over 8.2 innings.
“I really thought they all had a good spring,” Bochy said. “You know, Sam [Dyson] was the one guy to have a rough spring. But he had his good moments, especially that one game against Arizona.”
Dyson was the only reliever to finish the spring with swollen numbers. There were flashes of dominance, but he finished spring training with a 11.25 ERA. His best outing came against the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 21, when he allowed only one hit and struck out two in one inning.
Nonetheless, Dyson quickly put his spring numbers aside.
He made an impressive 2018 debut on Saturday by limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to one hit in the seventh inning.
Bochy on Dyson’s 2018 debut. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/USgZAXfIcA
— Keaton A. Moore (@KeatonAMoore) April 1, 2018
“His stuff was what it normally is,” Bochy said. “It was a great sign. This spring, he was working on things, so it was kind of up and down each outing. But the first outing, I thought, was really impressive.”
Keaton Moore covers the Giants for KNBR.com. Follow Keaton on Twitter at @KeatonAMoore.