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The blazing start to Trevor Story’s major league career continued Friday.

The Colorado Rockies rookie shortstop hit his fifth and sixth home runs during his team’s game against the San Diego Padres, becoming the first player in the last 100 years to hit six homers in his team’s first four games of a season, per StatsCentre.

Story’s first homer of the day came in the bottom of the fourth inning, shortly after the Padres had scored six runs in the top half. His blast cleared the left field wall and cut San Diego’s lead to 6-5.

Though the Rockies lost 13-6, Story hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“I’ve said it before,” Story said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), “I’m not trying to hit home runs, sometimes it kind of happens.”

Rockies All-Star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez said it’s “legendary” what Story has done so far.

“He’s fearless,” Gonzalez said, per the AP. “He’s playing like a Hall of Famer right now.”

Story came into Friday’s game batting 4-for-14, with all four hits coming via the long ball. He went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs in the loss to San Diego.

The Irving, Texas, native is quickly becoming another offensive star for the Rockies, joining Nolan Arenado and Gonzalez to form an exciting young trio in Colorado. It’s unfair to expect these numbers to continue for Story, but he’s showing glimpses of what’s to come in the future.

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The San Diego Padres are finally on the board in 2016.

Jon Jay hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning during Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, ending San Diego’s scoreless streak of 30 innings to begin the season, an MLB record, per ESPN Stats & Info.

That was the first of a six-run inning for the Padres.

The Padres’ rough start was not only evident at the plate but also on the mound.

The Los Angeles Dodgers swept them at Petco Park, and San Diego allowed 25 runs in those three games. The Padres only mustered 11 hits. Through four innings Friday, San Diego had recorded nine hits.

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune thinks it’s time for the Padres to focus on more important things:

Sports on Earth felt it was appropriate to celebrate a monumental occasion at Coors Field:

While the Padres pitching staff has not been up to par, the biggest problem for San Diego was the lack of production it was getting from the No. 2 through 4 hitters in the lineup. Those who started in those slots batted a combined 5-for-33 against the Dodgers. Star slugger Matt Kemp recorded two of those hits in the series finale Wednesday but went 2-for-10 overall.

It took three-plus games for the Padres offense to finally come to life, but it wasn’t due to a shortage of talent. San Diego has talent in the middle of the lineup with Kemp and Wil Myers, and Jay has had a solid start to the season at the top of the order.

San Diego has plenty of time to turn it around, but now the test will be sustaining consistent offensive success.

Follow Danny Webster on Twitter.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers started off the season a perfect 3-0 both straight up and on the run line, sweeping the San Diego Padres and winning each game by three runs or more. The Dodgers face a much tougher opponent in their weekend series against the San Francisco Giants.

Los Angeles is a plus-100 road betting underdog in Friday’s game against the Giants, according to sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark. San Francisco (-120) sends Matt Cain to the mound to face Dodgers rookie Ross Stripling.

The Dodgers couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season than their season-opening series against the Padres, as they shut out their lowly division rivals in three straight games.

Clayton Kershaw’s dominance was to be expected, but the fact that newcomers Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda pitched so well in their team debuts bodes well for a Dodgers team that lacked pitching depth last season and lost Zack Greinke this offseason.

Including Thursday’s loss in the opening game of this four-game series, the Dodgers are just 2-9 in their last 11 road games against the Giants, per the Odds Shark MLB Database.

After winning the first two games in their season-opening series on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants were unable to complete the sweep Wednesday, getting edged out in a 4-3 loss.

The offseason acquisitions of Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija give the Giants one of the deepest starting rotations in all of baseball, with veterans Jake Peavy and Cain now slotted in at the bottom of the rotation instead of the middle. San Francisco is 19-11 in its last 30 games at home.

Friday’s total is set at eight runs. The under is 5-2 in the last seven games between these two National League West rivals.

Since the start of spring training, the odds to win the NL West have been among the closest of any of the division races, as the Giants are just slight favorites over the Dodgers. This race could go all the way down to the wire, so even head-to-head games in early April are important.

Staff aces Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw are projected to meet Saturday, and Sunday’s game will feature Johnny Cueto and Scott Kazmir.

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It’s high noon in the NL West. Into a deserted clearing step Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Madison Bumgarner. A breeze rolls tumbleweeds across the ground.

What happens next?

Clearly there’s going to be a damn good fight for the not-so-official title of the division’s best ace. Kershaw, Greinke and Bumgarner have been three of the National League’s top pitchers over the past three seasons, and are certainly head-and-shoulders above all other NL West pitchers.

As for which of them will be the last ace standing, that part is complicated. Let’s break it down.

The Case for and Against Madison Bumgarner

On either side of his historically awesome postseason in 2014, Bumgarner has been remarkably consistent. Since 2013, the San Francisco Giants ace is the only pitcher to top 200 innings with an ERA under 3.00 each year.

What’s more, Bumgarner is still just 26 and seemingly only getting better. As I highlighted last week, he’s gained complete control over his unusual delivery and has further baffled hitters with an approach that calls for fastballs up and off-speed pitches down. As a result, he’s improved as a strikeout artist and as a walk artist.

So, color us unsurprised that the projections expect more of the same from Bumgarner in 2016. At FanGraphs, for example, Steamer and ZiPS both see another season of 200-plus innings with an ERA under 3.00 in his future.

The thing is, though, the left-hander hasn’t started 2016 off on the right foot.

Bumgarner was slowed by injuries in spring training, and he posted an 11.12 ERA in four starts. The hard times continued in his 2016 debut at the Milwaukee Brewers, as he surrendered three earned runs on five hits (including two home runs) and five walks in five innings.

Since Bumgarner was supposedly battling the flu, his poor performance may prove to be a one-and-done affair. In particular, better health could help his fastball velocity, which was roughly two miles per hour below its 2015 norm in his debut.

Unless said velocity loss is something that’s about to be unveiled as permanent, that is. According to this Brooks Baseball chart of Bumgarner‘s velocity over the past year, it’s a distinct possibility:

Ever since it peaked last June, his velocity has been on a downward slope. And though he’s still plenty young, research by Bill Petti at FanGraphs suggests Bumgarner is right around the age when he would start losing velocity.

Because Bumgarner still has a delivery that makes it incredibly tough for hitters to track the ball as well as an approach to pitching that further ups the difficulty level, he should still be able to pitch like an ace even if this velocity loss is for real. But since smaller velocity readings tend to mean a smaller margin for error, it’s fair to wonder if his ceiling for 2016 only goes so high.

The Case for and Against Zack Greinke

In case anyone missed it, Greinke is no longer a Los Angeles Dodger. They were open to bringing him back this winter, but instead he followed the scent of a $206.5 million contract to Arizona.

The Diamondbacks aren’t wrong to view Greinke as the ace their rotation sorely lacked in 2015. He’s posted a 2.30 ERA across 602.2 innings over the last three years, culminating in an MLB-best 1.66 ERA in 222.2 innings last season.

Sure, the 32-year-old Greinke isn’t young anymore. In a related story, the electric stuff he had in his Kansas City Royals days is long gone. But without his best stuff, he’s basically become Greg Maddux. Through pinpoint command and expert sequencing, Greinke is in control of hitters at all times.

Or most times, anyway. Greinke wasn’t in a lot of control in his 2016 debut against the Colorado Rockies. He lasted only four innings, giving up seven runs on nine hits, three of which exited the park.

The bright side, such as it is, is that Greinke has the same excuse as Bumgarner for his poor debut. As Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports found out from his sources, Greinke was also battling the flu:

Another bright side is that Greinke‘s stuff didn’t suffer as much as Bumgarner‘s did. His fastball velocity was only down 0.8 miles per hour from where it was in 2015. To boot, his velocity in his debut was actually better than where he was last April.

With this being the case, Greinke is probably right in thinking that subpar command is to blame for his poor first impression.

“I know I probably threw too many pitches away early in the game and didn’t throw in enough,” he told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. “Sometimes that’ll let the other team feel more comfortable in the box.”

Another thing that didn’t help is that Greinke didn’t get many called strikes outside the strike zone. That’s something he excelled at in 2015, as Baseball Savant reports that 10.9 percent of his balls were called strikes. Only four of his 53 balls, or 7.5 percent, got that treatment in his debut.

But just as Bumgarner‘s lesser velocity may be a trend in the making, Greinke struggling to get favorable calls could be in the same boat. As noted by Brad Johnson at FanGraphs, Greinke is making the switch from an elite strike-framer in Yasmani Grandal to a mediocre strike-framer in Welington Castillo.

The odds of Greinke posting another 1.66 ERA are slim no matter what. But if Castillo’s catching doesn’t allow him to pitch like he’s used to, Steamer and ZiPS may be right about his ERA being likely to fall in the 2.75-3.00 range.

The Case for and Against Clayton Kershaw

HOT TAKE INCOMING: Kershaw is really good. 

As in, really good. The Dodgers ace led the majors in ERA each year between 2011 and 2014. And even in breaking the streak in 2015, he still posted a 2.13 ERA, struck out 301 batters and was rated as baseball’s top pitcher by several advanced metrics.

And where Bumgarner and Greinke began 2016 with a thud, Kershaw did this to the San Diego Padres:

Seven shutout innings? Only one walk and one hit allowed? A sharp 93-95 fastball? A disappearing high-80s slider? A mind-bending curveball? 

Yup, that all sounds like Kershaw.

And there’s more! Though it’s not pictured above, Mike Axisa of CBS Sports captured a look at a changeup that Kershaw used to make Alexei Ramirez look silly:

That’s something you don’t see often, as Kershaw‘s changeup has accounted for less than 3 percent of the 28-year-old’s career pitches. And for the most part, his changeups haven’t been good.

That one sure was, though. And that may not be an accident. Though Kershaw has struggled to master the pitch, he hasn’t given up on learning the changeup. And this spring, he sought advice from a guy who had a great changeup in his day.

“He came up to me and asked how I threw my changeup,” former Dodgers closer and Cy Young winner Eric Gagne told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. “He’s never satisfied with whatever his numbers are. He just wants to get better. That’s the difference between a good pitcher and one-of-a-kind.”

If the changeup that Kershaw broke out in his 2016 debut is the result of his one-on-one with Gagne, hitters may be screwed. He’s only needed a fastball, slider and curveball to become the best pitcher of modern times. If he now has a changeup too, he might literally morph into Superman.

As for the catch…well, that’s actually a good question.

Kershaw is still in his prime years, and it’s hard to spot red flags. His velocity is fine. He’s gotten good at pounding the strike zone. Between that and his stuff, it makes sense that he excels at walks, strikeouts and contact management.

The only concern may be whether Kershaw will be hurt by the Dodgers defense. With an offense-first shortstop in Corey Seager and older defenders at first, second and third, Kershaw‘s tendency toward ground balls might not be an automatic recipe for success.

But since that’s basically it, it’s hard to disagree with Steamer and ZiPS projecting Kershaw for well over 200 innings and an ERA in the low 2.00s. That’s just what he does.

The Grand Conclusion

Let’s return to our homage to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. If it’s a shootout that Kershaw, Greinke and Bumgarner are getting into this season, who’s the man to beat?

Here’s how I’d rank ’em:

1. Kershaw
2. Greinke
3. Bumgarner

Shocking for a guy who just ranked them the exact same way a week ago, I know. The only difference this time is that I’ll admit that Bumgarner vs. Greinke is probably a push. If Greinke regresses from last year’s 1.66 ERA as much as he should, his production will end up looking a lot like Bumgarner‘s.

But regardless, it’s difficult to imagine either having a better year than Kershaw. He’s been dominating more than any other pitcher for a half-decade now. And going into this season, you practically need a microscope to find nits to pick with his potential.

Put another way, the best pitcher in baseball can probably handle being the best pitcher in the NL West.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Hunter Pence is excited about an Opening Day victory and the rest of the month of April.

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Get used to the ear-to-ear grin Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Kenta Maeda flashed for almost the entirety of his major league debut against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.

We saw it before his second at-bat in the fourth inning. A late arrival to the on-deck circle prompted a Little League-like jog to the batter’s box. He beamed as he took his stance.

His lips widened even further moments later when he smashed a home run off opposing starter Andrew Cashner.

That homer came before Maeda gave up his first major league run. In fact, we’re still waiting for it after the Japanese rookie allowed five hits and no runs in six innings of work.

By the way, he also smiled when manager Dave Roberts told him his night was done.

“I was a little nervous at first,” Maeda told Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. “But my teammates scored four runs for me. That really relaxed me a lot.”

Maeda’s debut was just the latest installment in an opening series in which the Dodgers have looked as good as any team in baseball. Not only did Los Angeles sweep the Padres, but it held San Diego scoreless in all 27 innings.

Sure, the streak has come against the Padres, who are likely to be one of baseball’s worst offensive teams. But it’s difficult to shut out any major league club over the course of three games.

The Dodgers take that streak, a franchise record to begin a season, into a four-game set with the division rival San Francisco Giants that opens on Thursday in the Bay Area.

But among a litany of positive developments in the Dodgers’ first series of the season, Maeda’s ace-like performance should draw the most applause. Prior to Opening Day, there were concerns about Maeda. He doesn’t have an overpowering fastball. That much was confirmed as the right-hander flirted with the low 90s all night.

But his complement of breaking pitches, which twist and turn like a roller coaster, preliminarily answered any questions about whether he had top-of-the-rotation stuff. Of course, he will have to consistently play to that level over several more starts.

As debuts go, however, the Dodgers couldn’t have asked for a much better outing.

And Wednesday’s performance put distance between the Dodgers and the memory of Zack Greinke, who spent three seasons in Los Angeles before signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks this offseason.

Ace Clayton Kershaw and Greinke had formed one of baseball’s best pitching duos, and Los Angeles had the money to sign Greinke. It has more cash than any MLB team, thanks to a multi-billion dollar television deal. But the Dodgers decided not to increase their offer for Greinke, allowing him to go to Arizona.

That left questions about who might fill the void.

But after Wednesday’s performance, one that saw Maeda allow only one baserunner through the first three innings, concerns over who will complement Kershaw could begin to dissipate.

After putting runners on the corners with one out in the fourth inning, Maeda induced two straight outs to pitch out of his most threatening jam of the night.

The Dodgers still have to overcome a litany of injuries to their starting rotation. Brandon McCarthy (recovering from Tommy John surgery) and Brett Anderson (herniated disc surgery) are on the 60-day disable list. Hyun-Jin Ryu is out after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder.

Further performances like Wednesday’s by Maeda would help alleviate some concern while the Dodgers await the return of some of their starters.

While Wednesday night was about Maeda, the Dodgers have been baseball’s headliner this week. The entire team seems to be clicking. A season ago, hamstring issues limited Yasiel Puig to just 79 games. Questions about his commitment and attitude also followed him, underscored in this piece by Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller.

But through three games this season, Puig is hitting .600/.692/1.300. He has four RBI, a homer and two triples—just one shy of his triples total in 2015. Wednesday, he was on the steps of the dugout and enthusiastically cheering on his teammates. That should help abate any questions about commitment or clubhouse chemistry for the time being.

Three games is a small sample. Puig will need to prove he is a more committed teammate over the course of the next couple of months. But he seems to be on the right path, given his performance and demeanor these last three outings.

Rookie shortstop Corey Seager has been immune to the hype that follows baseball’s No. 1 prospect. He is hitting .357 with two RBI for a Dodgers team that has scored 25 runs in three games.

The team’s offensive performance has overshadowed its defense.

The Dodgers have committed only one error in 2016. That came Wednesday when Maeda overthrew first base on a bunt single by Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte in the second inning.

“They didn’t really stress him at all,” Roberts said of Maeda pitching with runners on base, per McCullough.

So far, that’s all that hasn’t gone as planned for the Dodgers. Apparently, Maeda isn’t the only player who should be smiling.

Seth Gruen is a national baseball columnist for Bleacher Report. Talk baseball with Seth by following him on Twitter @SethGruen.

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To say the San Diego Padres started their 2016 in uninspiring fashion would be an understatement. 

According to Elias Sports Bureau (via SportsCenter on Twitter), the Padres became the first team in Major League Baseball history to get shut out over the course of the first three games of the regular season.

The 1943 St. Louis Browns owned the old record after they opened their season with 26 straight scoreless innings, per STATS (via the Associated Press‘ Bernie Wilson). 

The Padres appeared in line to avoid the futile mark when they had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth inning, but Cory Spangenberg was controversially ruled out on a play at the plate that was upheld upon review, per MLB Replay on Twitter: 

San Diego encountered more bad luck earlier in the sixth inning when Jon Jay was ruled out at second base after initially being deemed safe: 

Not only were the Padres outscored 25-0 during their season-opening three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they mustered a combined total of 11 hits—good for an average 3.7 per game. 

A year after finishing 23rd in total runs scored (650) and last in batting average (.243), San Diego has been even worse. 

If there’s any good news, though, it’s that the scoreless streak should be coming to an end soon. The Padres will open a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, and the series will take place within the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. 

With the ball set to fly in high altitude, the Padres shouldn’t take long to plate a runner or two against a Rockies team that surrendered 19 runs in three games this week against the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

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It’s been a little while since Colorado Rockies fans could associate hope with the shortstop position.

If you want to circle a date, go with July 28, 2015, the day Colorado traded franchise shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays for a package that included Tulo’s ostensible replacement—Jose Reyes.

Eight months and a glut of Reyes-related problems later, a potential Tulowitzki heir has emerged.

It’s too early to anoint Trevor Story anything. The 23-year-old rookie is a scant two games into his big league career, which is hardly enough to even be called a small sample.

But boy, howdy—so far, so great.

On Monday at Chase Field in Arizona, Story launched a pair of home runs off $206.5 million man Zack Greinke in a 10-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. He followed that smashing debut with another dinger Tuesday—this one off the D-Backs’ Shelby Miller.

No, Story probably won’t hit 243 home runs this season, though he is on pace to do just that. But the Rockies must love what they’ve seen.

Story’s teammates have, too, as they showed by playfully hazing the rook following his Greinke-slaying performance.

“Right when I walked into the clubhouse, they threw me into a laundry cart and rolled me into the shower and sprayed me with who knows what,” Story said Monday, per the Denver Post‘s Patrick Saunders. “It was cold. It was great.”

Story won the shortstop job Reyes left vacant—more on that in a moment—by hitting .340 with six home runs and showing solid glove work in the Cactus League.

A supplemental first-round pick out of Texas‘ Irving High School in 2011, Story posted a .279/.350/.514 slash line between Double-A and Triple-A in 2015 and was ranked No. 8 among Colorado’s prospects by Baseball America in November.

His opportunity to start on Opening Day, however, arose from his teammate’s off-field issues. After posting an anemic .659 OPS in 47 games with the Rockies last year, Reyes was allegedly involved in an altercation with his wife at a Hawaii resort during the offseason.

Prosecutors may drop the domestic abuse charge against Reyes, per ESPN.com, but Major League Baseball could still suspend the four-time All-Star under its new domestic violence policy. Reyes, who is owed $22 million this season, is currently on paid leave and not with the team.

That could have cast a pall over Story winning the job, and it could have made his accomplishment feel like a Band-Aid over a festering wound.

Quite to the contrary, skipper Walt Weiss insisted.

“I wanted him to know he earned this,” Weiss said Saturday, per Mike Cranston of the Associated Press (via CBS Denver). “I always say it’s tough to predict even a week out in this game. So we tend not to go there. [But] I expect him to play really well.”

Thus far, he’s played historically well, as ESPN Stats & Info noted:

Yes, to repeat, we’re talking about two measly games. The list of players who’ve gone supernova for two games—or a week or even a month—and never sniffed greatness is too long to recount.

Still, what a cool story (pun sort of intended). A rebuilding team searching for sparks getting an eye-opening performance from a fresh-faced kid at a position that has lately been nothing but heartache and consternation. What’s not to like?

To dredge up Tulo’s name again—which is something Story might as well get used to—here’s another striking fact, courtesy of C.J. Nitkowski of Fox Sports 1:

No, that doesn’t mean Story will do what Tulowitzki did in a Rockies uniform. Tulo made four All-Star teams, won two Gold Gloves and enjoyed three top-10 MVP finishes with Colorado. That’s quite a legacy.

The only thing Story’s great start means is he’s off to a great start.

Actually, here’s something else it means: If and when Reyes returns from his exile and any suspension MLB hands down, the Rockies should keep starting Story indefinitely.

Will sending Reyes to the bench cause friction behind the scenes? Maybe. Would releasing him outright mean eating an absurd amount of cash and wiping some egg off some faces? Most definitely.

But Colorado needs to focus on what’s best for its future. Now is the time to find out what pieces can boost the franchise in 2017, 2018 and beyond. Story could well be one of those pieces, and he’s shown enough early to earn a lot of rope.

Mostly, Rockies fans should rejoice. From the ashes of a painful trade and Reyes’ alleged misconduct, something special has materialized.

Hope.

All statistics accurate through Tuesday and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The first time the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, they scored the fewest runs of any team that made it to that postseason. They won the National League Division Series in October 2010 despite scoring just 11 runs in four games and won the National League Championship Series with just 19 runs in six games.

They were built on brilliant pitching, and it worked.

And even as the Giants have changed, even as they have won games and championships with slightly different formulas, it’s hard to get that image out of our mind.

The Giants win in even years, and the Giants win with pitching.

Remember Madison Bumgarner in 2014?

Bumgarner is still there, it’s an even year and the Giants have geared up to try to win again. But you wonder if we’re now at the point where the formula really has flipped—that it has to flip.

You wonder if the four-homer, 12-3 Opening Day win over the Milwaukee Brewers is what the Giants are going to be—or what they’re going to need to be if the every-other-year thing doesn’t end this year.

When I was working on Bleacher Report’s bold predictions for 2016, one Arizona-based scout texted to say the “Giants’ pitching [is] not nearly as solid as people project.”

He wasn’t talking about Bumgarner, who overcame an awful case of the flu and bad travel to make a creditable start against the Brewers on Monday. But this isn’t the 2014 World Series, and the Giants can’t get by with one dependable starter the way they did then.

The Giants tried for Zack Greinke, but they didn’t get him. There’s a reason that during that failed chase, one scout who follows the Giants closely said Greinke was the lone “difference-maker” the Giants could sign.

They didn’t get him, and they ended up with Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, who will start the next two games against the Brewers. They’ll start Jake Peavy and Matt Cain in the first two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers later this week.

Cueto, Samardzija, Peavy and Cain all have good resumes. But it’s 2016, and all four of them come with big questions.

That’s why we come back to the offense. That’s why we come back to Denard Span, who might have been the most important player the Giants signed this past winter.

Of all the things that went wrong with the 2015 Washington Nationals, the injuries that limited Span to just 61 games may have been the most damaging. The health questions no doubt hurt Span in free agency, and if he stays healthy, the three-year, $31 million deal he signed with the Giants in January will turn out to be a bargain.

Span is a true leadoff hitter in an era when those can be hard to find. He’s a true center fielder, too. He’s not often going to hit three-run home runs and drive in five runs in a game, as he did on Monday, but he can do that once in a while, too.

Incidentally, the five RBI were the most ever by a Giant in his debut for the team, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. They were also the most by any Giant on Opening Day since Barry Bonds drove in five in 2002 at Dodger Stadium.

If you’re looking for omens, the Giants went to the World Series in 2002. But who’s looking for omens? The Giants have the ultimate omen: an even-numbered year on the calendar.

They won in 2010, 2012 and 2014, so why not 2016?

Why not, if Span stays healthy? Why not, if the young infield that looked so good last year keeps developing—third baseman Matt Duffy had a big day on Monday, too—? Why not, if Buster Posey is Buster Posey?

Why not, if they can look the way they did on Monday?

“Not that we needed a reminder, but it shows how good we can be,” Span told reporters.

They’ll play better teams than the Brewers. They’ll face better starters than Wily Peralta, starting this Saturday when they face Clayton Kershaw for the first time this season.

The rotation beyond Bumgarner will need to contribute. The bullpen can’t look as old as some fear it will.

But the Giants don’t need to be all about pitching. They need to be about their lineup, and there’s a real chance that lineup can deliver.

On Opening Day, it did.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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It must be an even year.

The San Francisco Giants put together a dominant Opening Day performance against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, slugging three consecutive home runs in the top of the eighth inning.

Center fielder Denard Span cracked things open for the Giants, driving in his three-run blast on a 3-2 offering from right-hander Ariel Pena. 

Second baseman Joe Panik followed suit, crushing his solo shot to right field, while catcher Buster Posey rounded the trio out with a first-pitch homer.

San Francisco came away with its first win, trumping the Brewers 12-3.

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