The SF Giants will face off with the New York Yankees on Opening Day Wednesday, and fans who aren’t attending the game at Oracle Park will need to subscribe to Netflix to watch, plus a slew of other streaming channels throughout the season.

As the Chronicle reports, Major League Baseball's first game of the 2026 season will be a momentous matchup between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees, taking place at Oracle Park Wednesday evening. Fans who aren’t attending in person will need a Netflix subscription to watch the broadcast, part of a broader shift toward diversifying the platforms that MLB games can be seen on throughout the season.

The opener will be streamed globally in multiple languages, with play-by-play from sportscaster Matt Vasgersian, who hails from the Bay Area, alongside CC Sabathia, a Baseball Hall of Famer from Vallejo, and former Giants star Hunter Pence, as the Chronicle reports. Barry Bonds is set to appear on the pre- and postgame broadcast team.

Aaron Judge, who grew up in San Joaquin County, is expected to be the starting pitcher for the Yankees, while Logan Webb will take the mound for the Giants, coming off recent appearances in the World Baseball Classic that coincided with increased ticket demand, according to Rachel Heit, chief marketing officer for the Giants, per the Chronicle.

Ahead of Opening Day, the San Francisco Giants played a Sunday exhibition in Sacramento, as KPIX reports, followed by two games at Oracle Park on Monday and Tuesday against Sultanes.

As Sports Illustrated reports, Manager Tony Vitello told reporters that Robbie Ray is set to start the second exhibition and Tyler Mahle the third, after Mahle opened the exhibition slate Sunday. Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp are also expected to start, though the order has not been finalized.

The Chronicle reports that the season’s 162 regular games will stream partially on Netflix, Peacock, Apple TV+, plus a cable or live TV platform like YouTube TV carrying NBC Sports Bay Area, ESPN, and Fox. The league’s MLB.tv app, via Giants.tv, will stream all but 13 games this season.

"Sunday Night Baseball," as well as the wild card round of the playoffs will move to NBC/NBCSN/Peacock the season — and this is the first time since 2000 that the larger NBC organization has partnered with the Major Leagues.

MLB reset its broadcast deals to new three-year contracts, adding Netflix and NBC/Peacock while maintaining partnerships with Apple TV, Fox, ESPN, and TBS, in a combined package valued at about $800 million, per the Chronicle.

Longtime Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming says that for many diehard fans, the value of being able to watch every game outweighs the cost.

“It is absolutely amazing that Giants fans all over the globe — no matter where they live, no matter what time zone — can pull up a device in their hand and watch a game,” he told the Chronicle.

Flemming added that he had "an eye-opening moment" in recent years when he discovered fans were watching games in real time around the globe. “I just thought, you know, for all the hand-wringing about, ‘Is it too expensive and is it too fragmented?’ it is amazing the technology that allows you to follow your team no matter where you are," Flemming tells the paper.

Vasgersian recalled how the A’s games weren’t completely televised when he was growing up in the East Bay’s Moraga.

“The idea that every game is on TV is something that I didn’t grow up with,” he tells the Chronicle. “So to have these rights piecemealed together now, I understand the fans’ frustrations. (But) I think the league is aware of not pricing people out. That’s nobody’s idea of good.”

Fleming told the Chronicle local broadcasts on NBC Sports Bay Area will continue this season, with expanded use of drone footage after its debut last year drew strong fan response.

The Chronicle reports that Netflix is focusing on select marquee events rather than a full schedule, building on recent live sports programming that has included NFL Christmas games and boxing events (some involving Jake Paul).

“It really comes down to characters,” said Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s vice president of live sports. “You’re telling a story, whether you’re watching a live game or you’re doing a documentary. It comes down to that access and authenticity we talk about on Netflix all the time.”

Image: TEMPE, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 24: Logan Webb #62 of the San Francisco Giants  pitches during the spring training game against the Los Angeles Angels  at Tempe Diablo Stadium on February 24, 2026 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo  by Ric Tapia/Getty Images)

Previously: Giants Hire College Coach Tony Vitello as New Manager, First College Coach to Jump Straight to MLB Manager

SF Giants president Buster Posey is taking a big swing by hiring the first ever college coach with no MLB experience whatsoever as the team’s new manager, as University of Tennessee coach Tony Vitello will now manage the Giants.  

When the San Francisco Giants fired manager Bob Melvin after two mediocre seasons, it was on Giants longtime All-Star catcher and now team President Buster Posey to pick the replacement. And now exactly 24 days after Melvin was fired, the Chronicle reports that the Giants have hired the University of Tennessee’s college coach Tony Vitello as the team’s new manager. The Chron describes Vitello as “the first manager in baseball to jump from college right to the top professional coaching job.”

“Tony is one of the brightest, most innovative, and most respected coaches in college baseball today,” Posey said in a prepared statement. “Throughout our search, Tony’s leadership, competitiveness, and commitment to developing players stood out. His ability to build strong, cohesive teams and his passion for the game align perfectly with the values of our organization. We look forward to the energy and direction he will bring, along with the memories to be made, as we focus on the future of Giants baseball.”

The 47-year-old Vitello most recently turned Tennessee’s program from a perennial doormat to making the College World Series three times, and winning it all in 2024. He was previously an assistant with Arkansas, TCU, and his alma mater Missouri.  

As the New York Times points out, though, Vitello has no Major League Baseball experience whatsoever, as he went straight from playing college baseball to being a college assistant coach. The 162-game schedule will be quite the adjustment for him, as college teams only play 56 games.

But Vitello got quite the endorsement from Toronto Blue Jays All-Star pitcher Max Scherzer, who’s heading to his fifth World Series on Friday, and had Vitello as an assistant coach at Missouri.

“It’s the competitiveness. It’s the fire. It’s the intensity,” Scherzer told the Times. “And it’s the communication skills. He makes it so relatable. He’s such a players’ guy. He makes you want to run through a brick wall for him.”

Technically, there have been a couple college coaches who went straight to being an MLB manager, but all of them had at least some Major League Baseball experience. As the Times points out, New York Yankees hired Florida State coach Dick Howser as their manager in 1980, and the California Angels hired Arizona State coach Bobby Winkles as their manager in 1973. But both had previously been assistants with Major League teams, while Vitello has never held any position in Major League Baseball.

The Giants will introduce Vitello as their new manager at a press conference next Thursday, October 30.

Related: Only Netflix Subscribers Will Be Able to Watch the Giants’ Opening Day Next Season [SFist]

Image: FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - JUNE 08: Head Coach Tony Vitello of the Tennessee Volunteers during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium at George Cole Field during the NCAA Baseball Super Regional - Fayetteville on June 08, 2025 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Volunteers 11-4. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Giants president Buster Posey has decided that .500 baseball is not going to cut it in the same division as the star-studded Dodgers, firing manager Bob Melvin Monday morning just as the Giants wrapped up their 2025 season.

If anyone even noticed, your San Francisco Giants ended their 2025 season Sunday with a 4-0 win over the Colorado Rockies. That left them with a very average 81-81 record for the year. Meanwhile, their NL West rivals LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres are off to the playoffs, while the Giants will sit home and have now missed the playoffs in eight of their last nine seasons.

That is not good enough for Giants team president Buster Posey. NBC Sports reports that on Monday morning, the Giants fired manager Bob Melvin, who has posted a ho-hum 161-163 record over his two seasons managing the team.

"After careful evaluation, we determined that making a change in leadership was in the best interest of the team," Posey said in a statement. "The last couple of months have been both disappointing and frustrating for all of us, and we did not perform up to our standards. We now turn our focus to identifying a new leader to guide us forward."

Melvin was an easy guy to root for, being a Menlo Park native who once played for the Giants (1986-88). His managing career peaked in the 2010s when he took the Oakland A’s to the playoffs six times. But he never clicked with these Giants to make them a consistently winning team.

Sure, they had a few winning streaks here and there this season, but this year's Giants were a Jekyll and Hyde team that swung between being good and being totally lousy. They swung for the fences with a June trade for the Red Sox’s Rafael Devers when they were 11 games above .500. And then they appeared to be giving up on the season when they traded closer Camilo Doval a month and a half later after losing six straight games at home. A late August/early September hot streak gave the team Wild Card hope, which ultimately fizzled.  

The rumors are inevitably swirling that the Giants could bring back Bruce Bochy, who guided us to three championships between 2010-14, before he retired in 2019. Bochy then went right back to managing the Texas Rangers in 2023, and won a World Series for them that year. Bochy’s Rangers contract has now expired, so he is technically available, though could re-up with the team.

I’m not sure if another nostalgia shot is the right direction for this team. And one would hope Posey does a little broader of a search for a replacement, no matter how much the fans clamor to just hire Bruce Bochy and just pretend it's 2012 all over again.  

Related: SF Giants Season Preview: It’s the Dodgers’ World, Can Buster Posey Ruin It for Them? [SFist]

Image: PHOENIX, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 16: Manager Bob Melvin #6 of the San Francisco Giants looks on during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on September 16, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Giants 6-5. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

• Great news for 49ers fans, as the injured Brock Purdy is highly likely to return as starting quarterback in this Sunday’s home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Purdy has been out the last two weeks with shoulder and toe injuries, and while the team has not made an official announcement, several media outlets are reporting that Purdy probably will start for Sunday’s 1:05 pm game. [SFGate]
• Oh, christ. You will not be able to watch your San Francisco Giants 2026 Opening Day game against the New York Yankees unless you’re a Netflix subscriber, as Netflix has acquired “exclusive” broadcast rights to the game. The Giants' March 25, 2026 home opener is one of a handful of games the MLB has sold to streaming services Netflix and Peacock, and you’ll have to get used to arrangements like this, because the two streaming platforms got a three-year contract for exclusive games. [NYTimes]
• More hard times for legacy and decades-old Fisherman's Wharf seafood restaurants, as the 79-year-old Capurro’s has been threatened with foreclosure over an unpaid $1.5 million bank loan. On top of that, Capurro’s is still saddled with a bunch of unpaid rent debt to the Port of San Francisco that was incurred during the pandemic. [SF Business Times]

National:

• Once again we are just days away from another possible federal government shutdown, and Trump’s Office of Management and Budget seems to want to use this as a precursor to another round of mass firings of federal employees. [Politico]
• Defense Secretary Pete Hesgath has puzzlingly called in hundreds of the nation’s top military leaders to Quantico, Virginia for a mandatory in-person meeting next week, despite that many are stationed overseas and have duties, and he gave no reason for the order. [ABC News]
• For your daily dose of Ugh, New York Magazine is reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump operative Corey Lewandowski are having an extramarital affair, with Noem often sitting on Lewandowski's lap during private events, and one source saying, "Everybody knows they're together. Can I prove it? No, but they're together." [New York Magazine]

Video:

• Some woman with apparently too much money on her hands has put up billboards all along 101 on the Peninsula desperately asking someone/anyone to marry her (we say he has too much money on her hands, as KRON4 reports, “She hasn’t added up the cost” of buying the billboards). These promote her website MarryLisa.com, on which she is taking applications. We do feel bad, in that she was once engaged and her fiance died, and sure, the dating scene is tough. But honestly, is there any chance this does not end in a quick divorce?

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

Your San Francisco Giants are suddenly red hot and back in the Wild Card race, after a Tuesday night game that developed into a bench-clearing brawl just two batters into the game.

Tuesday’s Major League Baseball highlight of the day was a home run by San Francisco Giants third baseman Rafael Devers, in a 7-4 Giants win against the Colorado Rockies that was the Giants’ third win in a row, and eighth win in their last nine games. But it was the highlight of the day not because of the Devers home run, but because of the enormous fight that broke out all over the field after he hit the homer, just two batters into the game.

Let’s go to Dave Fleming and Javier Lopez with the call.

Devers hits the home run, and Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland starts yelling at him for supposedly trotting the bases too slowly and casually, which I guess violates some unwritten rule of baseball. Both benches run onto the field to pretend-fight, as they do in Major League Baseball. And Devers does not even clear the bases, instead deciding to abandon his base-running so he too can jump straight into this fake fight.

NBC Sports Bay Area quickly obliged with replays from alternate angles. Dave Fleming says of the irate Rockies pitcher Freeland, “It doesn't take an expert lip-reader to see what he was saying.”

Nearly eight whole minutes after he hit the home run, Devers returned to eventually run the bases that he neglected to run, saved by the technicality that the game was temporarily halted for interference because bench players had run onto the field. The Rockies pitcher was ejected, but Giants players Matt Chapman and Willy Adames were also ejected (Adames on his birthday!) for shoving Rockies players.

But by virtue of this recent hot streak, the Giants are now just five games out of the last NL Wild Card spot. They still have 23 games to play, and almost all of them are against teams with losing records. But there are two series left against the LA Dodgers (September 12-14 at home, and September 19-21 in LA). And those two series may stand as the make-or-break determining whether these Giants can sneak into the 2025 MLB playoffs in the final days of the regular season.

Related: Watch: Giants Win In a Walk-Off On Wacky, Slapstick In-the-Park Home Run [SFist]

Image: DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 2: The San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies fight on the field after a verbal altercation between Kyle Freeland #21 of the Colorado Rockies and Rafael Devers #16 of the San Francisco Giants after Devers hit a two run home run in the first inning at Coors Field on September 2, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

Pokémon catchers report for training after Friday night’s Giants-Orioles game at Oracle Park, as the team has lined up a massive “Pokémon Go Drone Show” so you can peek at giant Pikachus flying through the sky.

If you haven’t been following them lately, your slumping San Francisco Giants are suddenly not slumping anymore! They just swept the Chicago Cubs with a Jung Hoo Lee walk-off hit (you’ll enjoy it more with Korean announcers), and they are arguably back in the Wild Card race. So there are worse ways to spend your Friday night than to head down to Oracle Park for tonight’s 7:15 pm game against the Baltimore Orioles, where ticket prices are as little as $34.

And can we additionally entice you with the fact that after the game, there will be… a Pokémon drone show?

“Catch a Giants postgame Drone Show from your seat at Oracle Park where Pikachu will be in attendance,” the team says in a press release. “Themed with images of Pokémon GO, the skyhigh spectacle will take place after the Giants take on the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, August 29.”

With a 7:15 start time, we’d expect that Pokémon drone show to happen sometime around 9:30 or later.

If you speak fluent pocket-monster, you might understand what the Giants mean when they also promise an “electrifying in-game experience” with “exclusive raids in which Trainers have a chance to catch Pokémon with a Location Background,” and “Timed Research awarding exciting Pokémon encounters.”

We don’t mean to spoiler this show for anybody, but these Pokémon drone shows have happened elsewhere across the globe before. The one above is from the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. in Hawaii, and goes for more than ten minutes, as kids (and adults) yell out the names of the characters that appear. Tonight’s show after the Giants game may or may not be a similar show, but we do not expect the drones to spell out the words “Aloha” or “Honolulu” at the Oracle Park show.

It should be pointed out that the Giants say the Pokémon Go Drone Show will happen “weather permitting.” But it’s expected to be 60 degrees and clear at the time of the show, so weather is unlikely to stop the drones and the rabid cheering from Pikachu fans.

Related: SF’s Union Square Nintendo Store Opens to Huge Crowds, and Mascot Animals Crossing All Over the Place [SFist]

Image: PlaySkape Games via Youtube

• US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Spain as Egypt and Qatar advance a ceasefire plan trading all hostages for Israel’s Gaza withdrawal. Over 20 nations have condemned the planned expansion as a “dangerous escalation,” and Germany has halted military exports that could be used in Gaza. [Associated Press]
• According to social media reports, Los Angeles protesters are now referring to ICE rallies as “LA Music Festival” on Tik Tok to avoid censorship. Groups have been steadfastly conducting peaceful actions in front of the Metro Detention Center as well as the Federal Building. [Threads]

• Giants pitcher Kai-Wei Teng led the team 5-0 against the Washington Nationals in the first win of his career at Oracle Park, which he dedicated to his dad on Taiwan’s Father’s Day. [Bay Area News Group]
• One child was killed and another injured Friday evening in Burlingame when a vehicle believed to have been driven by a 19-year-old San Mateo woman struck them on the sidewalk. [KRON4]
• BART temporarily suspended service on its red and green lines Saturday morning, and the yellow line experienced major delays due to power issues that led to single-tracking in the Transbay Tube, which was restored around 7:45 a.m. [KPIX]

• A man and a woman are in stable condition after being shot in North Oakland Friday night around 11:30 p.m. by a group of people who fired over a dozen rounds of bullets at them on the 800 block of 46th Street. [Bay Area News Group]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Saturday’s “Steph Curry Day” promotion gave purported Steph Curry bobbleheads to thousands of fans, but you could forgive these fans for being confused and wondering who the heck this bobblehead is supposed to represent.

Your San Francisco Giants are on a three-game losing streak, and they’ve posted a troubling 2-7 record since last week’s All-Star Break. So like any Major League Baseball team trying to stoke fan interest, they had a Stephen Curry Day bobblehead promotion for Saturday’s game against the Mets. This all sounded like a great idea to the more than 39,000 fans who showed up.

That is, until they got a look at their so-called “Steph Curry bobblehead.”

As SFGate reports, the Giants' Steph Curry bobblehead is drawing widespread mockery for its stunning lack of resemblance to Steph Curry at any point in Curry’s life. That outlet calls the figurine "a case for worst bobblehead ever," and notes that fans are joking on social media that it looks a lot more like former NBA players Rick Fox or Anthony Lamb (though I would say it’s more a Kyrie Irving).

Now in fairness, the Giants actually gave away two different Steph Curry bobbleheads at Saturday’s game, and the other one (above right) was a less-terrible likeness. But as SFGate explains, the confusing-looking “Sports Superheroes Stephen Curry Bobblehead” was given to fans with more expensive tickets.

The explanation for this strange thing is that it is intended to resemble Curry’s depiction in a new graphic novel called Sports Superheroes: Stephen Curry. So maybe that’s a defense, but even in that graphic novel, Steph looks more like Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks than like Steph Curry.

Regardless, if bad collectible bobbleheads are your thing, the Steph Curry bobblehead that does not look like Steph Curry is currently going for $59.99 on eBay.

Related: Giants Win In a Walk-Off On Wacky, Slapstick In-the-Park Home Run [SFist]

Image: hellsntrev via eBay

The magic is definitely gone from the old Bay Bridge Series now that the A’s are no longer on the other side of the Bay Bridge, but your San Francisco Giants play their first-ever series at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park this weekend.

We’ve many times in recent months enjoyed making fun of the A’s new ballpark in Sacramento, their shitty new minor-league home until they supposedly move to Las Vegas in 2028. And this weekend it will be the San Francisco Giants’ turn to make fun of the A’s ballpark, as the Giants make their first-ever trip there for a three-day weekend series against the now-Sacramento A’s.

These Sacramento games are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at Sutter Health Park, each game starts at 7:05 pm. Yes, the Giants and A's already played this season back in mid-May, in a series here in SF that was notable only because there was no contingent of Oakland fans like there used to always be.

But we have to say, we were taken aback at how much tickets cost for this weekend, which indicates that a fair number of Giants fans do intend to make a trip. Friday night tickets on StubHub are about $200 minimum for a non-lawn seat, though that’s not surprising, because it’s July 4th and you get a fireworks show after the game (unless that’s canceled because of the Yolo County fireworks disaster?). But Saturday night tickets are currently at a minimum of about $130 for a proper stadium seat, while Sunday night tickets have those seats at about a $90 minimum.  

And SFGate reports that Sacramento businesses are expecting a busy weekend with the Giants coming to town. That outlet has previously reported that Sactown bars and restaurants pretty much only do good business from fans of visiting teams, not the A’s, ever since that team moved there. But having the Giants come to town seems like a perfect opportunity for that particular formula.

“It’s going to be a crazy weekend,” Old Sacramento's La Terraza Mexican Restaurant manager Diego Mirazo told SFGate. “Adding that it’s morning on a Friday to the Giants and the A’s? And it’s all three days? It’s going to be good.”

Related: A’s First Game in Sacramento Was a Complete Debacle, and Losing 18-3 Was Probably the Least Embarrassing Part [SFist]

Image: OAKLAND, CA - AUGUST 17: Darell Hernaiz #2 of the Oakland Athletics bats during the game against the San Francisco Giants at the Oakland Coliseum on August 17, 2024 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Giants 2-0. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The final play of Sunday’s 3-2 Giants win was a blooper reel for the ages, as the Texas Rangers committed multiple comical errors allowing Heliot Ramos an in-the-park home run, making for the most hilarious baseball play of the season so far.

Our dear old friend Bruce Bochy was back in town this weekend, now managing the Texas Rangers, who had a three-game series against your San Francisco Giants. And the two teams split the first two games, with the Rangers winning Friday night, and Giants winning Saturday afternoon, setting up a decisive game Sunday for which team would win the weekend series.

It ended very badly for Bochy and the Rangers, and quite amusingly for the Giants, as Yahoo Sports reports that everyone is talking about Heliot Ramos’s “little league home run” that gave the Giants a walk-off 3-2 win.

As we see above, Ramos was the only Giants batter that Rangers closer Luke Jackson would face in the ninth inning. With the game tied and no outs, Ramos flubbed a little infield dribbler that didn’t even make it as far as the pitcher’s mound, and probably should have left him thrown out at first. But Jackson skied his throw well past the Rangers' first baseman, so Ramos dashed for second base. With his teammates wildly gesturing Ramos to run towards third, that Rangers first baseman was completely off the mark with his own throw to third, allowing Ramos to score an in-the-park home run that won the game and earned him a dousing of Gatorade.

Want to hear the play called in Korean? You can!

“No, I’ve never seen a game end like that before,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said after the game. “But we hang around long enough, we find a way to win a game. And that's just kind of a new way.”

As the Chronicle points out, these surprising Giants have won nine games at home this season, and five of those were walk-off wins. This team is not really statistically strong in any category, but they find ways to keep games close and somehow pull rabbits out of their hats at the end.

The Giants no longer have the best record in baseball, as they did briefly at the start of the season. But they do currently have the second-best record in baseball, and they are in first place in the NL West, ahead of the high-priced and absolutely stacked Dodgers and Padres.

Yet the Giants have not played either the Dodgers or the Padres so far this season. That changes when they head to San Diego to face the Padres tomorrow, and we’ll learn more then about whether these Giants are for real.

Related: SF Giants Season Preview: It’s the Dodgers’ World, Can Buster Posey Ruin It for Them? [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 27: Heliot Ramos #17 of the San Francisco Giants scores for the game winning run on an infield single and error on the throw to first base against the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning at Oracle Park on April 27, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

No one saw this coming! Your San Francisco Giants suddenly have the best record in baseball, ahead of the superstar-studded, mega-salaried LA Dodgers and New York Yankees.

Thirteen days ago in our San Francisco Giants season preview that ran the day before the Major League Baseball season started, we noted that oddsmakers were predicting the San Francisco Giants would end up dead last in the NL West. Now 12 days into the 2025 MLB season, the standings do not look like what the oddsmakers had predicted.

Sunday’s 5-4 win over the Seattle Mariners marked the Giants’ seventh consecutive win, and leaves them not only with the best record in the NL West division, but the best record of any team in Major League Baseball. They’re off to an 8-1 start for time first since 2003, they’ve swept their last two series in a row, and won Sunday’s game in dramatic enough fashion that it deserves some video embeds.

With the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Giants catcher Patrick Bailey hit a long foul that appeared to be going into the stands, but Mariners outfielder Victor Robles absolutely laid himself out and made one of the most remarkable catches of the season yet, throwing his whole body into the netting. (He appears to have injured his shoulder in doing so, was carted off the field, and we wish him a speedy recovery).  

Phenomenal catch and all, but Robles went out of bounds to get it. That allowed the Giants' Luis Matos to advance all the way from first base to third, leaving the winning run at third base with two outs.

The next batter up Wilmer Flores, who also hit the winning home run on Opening Day, shot a single to right field, scoring Matos, and bringing a jubilant Giants team leaping from the dugout to mob him.

And honorable mention for the weekend goes to new third baseman Matt Chapman, who closed out the Mariners Saturday night with this phenomenal infield throw.

Okay, I admit, it’s early. We are nine games into the season, or rather, barely five percent of the way through the season. This sizzling Giants start could end up being just a mirage.  

But hey, we’re ahead of the mega-bucks Dodgers with their $321 million payroll, and the New York Mets with their $323 million payroll, and the New York Yankees with their $293 million payroll. This Giants’ roster of largely no-names has a payroll of $173 million, barely half of what the Dodgers and Mets are paying.

Of course, this “best record in baseball” will no longer be applicable if the Giants lose tonight. (They play the Reds at home at 6:45 pm.) And it’s probably significant that the Giants have not yet played even one team with a winning record. That won’t happen until Friday night, when they play the Yankees in New York, which will give us a better indication of whether these Giants are for real.  

But for now, come on, best record in baseball! Enjoy it, because there’s only one team that gets to say that. And right now, that team is your San Francisco Giants.

Related: SF Giants Season Preview: It’s the Dodgers’ World, Can Buster Posey Ruin It for Them? [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 06: Mike Yastrzemski #5 and Heliot Ramos #17 of the San Francisco Giants celebrates after Yastrzemski hit a three-run home run against the Seattle Mariners in the bottom of the fourth inning at Oracle Park on April 06, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

• The famed Emeryville Chevy’s that’s right on the San Francisco Bay closed last year, but might become a Benihana. The Japanese hibachi restaurant chain has submitted permits to perform some demolitions on the building, though their taking over the space has not yet been approved by Emeryville City Hall. [E’ville Eye]
• The FBI assisted ICE with the arrest of an alleged MS-13 gang member in Wednesday morning in San Francisco. The two agencies arrested Santos Rodriguez-Aleman, who’s already been convicted in El Salvador for homicide, and drugs and firearms trafficking. [KRON4]  
• City College has opened a building named after former SF supervisor Harry Britt, an aide to Harvey Milk who was appointed to Milk’s Board of Supervisors seat after his assassination in 1978. Former supervisor Tom Ammiano was on hand, and said Britt “was an innovator and a pioneer around issues like healthcare and housing, vacancy control, and police reform, all of it—and of course, domestic partners.” [48 Hills]
• SFPD is warning of scammers impersonating Chinese police, conning Chinese-Americans into giving them personal information, and asking for money to clear their names of crimes. [SFPD]

National:

• Quite hilariously, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik had her nomination to be UN Ambassador yanked, because if she left the House of Representatives, the Republicans might lose their majority. Stefanik was chair of the House Republican Conference, but gave that up for her UN nomination, and it's unclear whether she’ll have a leadership position again. [CBS News]
• Elon Musk’s unqualified DOGE kid Edward Coristine, better known as “Bigballs,” once worked with a cybercrime gang that allegedly trafficked in stolen data and stalked an FBI agent. [Reuters]
• The Sundance Film Festival, which we tried to get in San Francisco, has decided to relocate to Boulder in 2027, and will have a ten-year contract to stay there. [SF Chronicle]

Videos of the Day:

• Two of them today! And they're both Giants home runs. Thursday was the San Francisco Giants opening day game in Cincinnati, and it looked like trouble when they were down 2-0. Until the fourth inning, when Heliot Ramos unleashed a solo home run, and Duane Kuiper unleashed his first “Outta here!” of 2025.

• But the Giants were still tied 3-3 in the ninth inning, when Wilmer Flores won the game with a two-run homer, and your San Francisco Giants are off to a 1-0 start.

Image: CINCINNATI, OHIO - MARCH 27: Willy Adames #2 of the San Francisco Giants celebrates with teammate Heliot Ramos #17 following the team's opening day win against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on March 27, 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Jeff Dean/Getty Images)

Giants legend and fan favorite Buster Posey is now running the team's baseball operations, but as the new season starts Thursday, he faces a challenging landscape where the defending World Champion bum Dodgers keep getting richer with superstar talent.

It’s crack-of-the-bat, smell-of-the-grass time of year again, as your San Francisco Giants open their 2025 season Thursday afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds at 1:10 pm. (Their home opener is not until Friday, April 4 against the Seattle Mariners.) And there’s plenty of reasons to believe they’ll be better than they were in the 2024 campaign, when they finished with a below-.500 record of 80-82, for last place in the NL West.

A big reason for optimism is new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who’s replaced the now-fired analytics-minded Farhan Zaidi. Posey was a core member of the three Giants championships of the 2010s, and a Hall of Fame-bound leader who’s difficult to second-guess.

Plus the Giants just finished Spring Training with a 21-6 record, the best in the big leagues! So you can take encouragement from that, but it’s still meaningless. It’s the first time the Giants have won more than 19 Spring Training games since 2017, though as the Chronicle points out, that year “they finished last in the National League West and lost 98 games.”

And to throw more cold water on things, oddsmakers are predicting that the Giants will finish last in the division again this year.  

This is largely because the offseason went just as the last several offseasons have, with the Giants as always-the-bridesmaids in free agency. This year they missed out on slugger Juan Soto (to the Mets), pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (to the Dodgers), and Roki Sasaki (also to the Dodgers). That’s two new superstars on the Dodgers, who are already the stacked World Champions, and overwhelming favorites to win it again.

Do the Giants have any blueprint to stop this? They might.

The pitching rotation is still led by the sublime Logan Webb. They added Justin Verlander and still have Robbie Ray — both former Cy Young winners, though certainly with a lot of tread on their tires. The Chronicle wonders if the Giants' pitching staff could be “among MLB’s best,” which seems a farcical proposition given the shaky bottom half of their rotation. But there is a consensus that the Giants' bullpen is among the better in the Big Leagues, so that’s an undeniable set of assets.

And the Giants did add free agent shortstop Willy Adames and five-time Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman, which should make this a very fun infield to watch. Korean phenom Jung Hoo Lee returns after a shoulder injury cut his last season short, so there are some very talented pieces here.

But there's also a nagging suspicion that the Giants executives are just happy making money and having a nice ballpark. Maybe their real estate investments at Mission Rock are a bigger priority than winning championships at this point.

So there’s some question if the Giants’ top brass are all that interested in being contenders again. But there’s no question that one guy among that top brass, president of baseball operations Buster Posey, is determined to make them contenders again.

Related: Video: Enormous Coca-Cola Bottle at Giants’ Ballpark Gets Sweet New Animated LED Lighting Set-Up [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 12: Buster Posey introduces Willy Adames #2 of the San Francisco Giants during a press conference at Oracle Park on December 12, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)

Eagle-eyes have noticed that there’s been unexplained scaffolding around the oversize Coca-Cola bottle at Oracle Park. The Giants just gave a preview of what these upgrades are all about, and that Coke bottle will now have animated LED light displays on it.

You San Francisco Giants open their 2025 season a week from today, with a Thursday, March 27 game at Cincinnati against the Reds (1:10 pm PT). Their Home Opener is Friday, April 4 against the Seattle Mariners (1:35 pm). As such, right before the season starts is when the Giants like to announce whatever new upgrades they added this year at Oracle Park.

This year, passersby have noticed a curious scaffolding structure around the gigantic Coca-Cola bottle, and there has been little explanation for this. But now we have our answer to this mystery.

KGO reports that the Giants had a Wedenesday press conference to announce the new features coming to the ballpark this year. And one of the things they showed off was a simulation the new, upgraded Coca-Cola bottle. The video seen above is not a direct video of the new Coke bottle, it’s just a video the Giants showed Wednesday. And it may be a simulation, not “the real thing,” so to speak.

It’s unclear if the new bottle does more animation shows than the one seen above. And will it show ads for other sodas or beverages? Or show animations that aren’t ads, a la the Las Vegas Sphere? Giants’ top brass has not said yet.

Giants CEO Larry Baer simply said that "Now we're doing a whole LED around it. And especially at night with it lit, it's going to really pop.”

“Pop.” Get it?

Per KGO, the Oracle Park concession stands will also offer new menu tems this year, like an elote dog, meatball sandwich, and two new types of ramen.

Related: Oracle Park Gets More Like Being In the Club This Season With New Soundsystem, Lighting Effects [SFist]

Image: @Braccs via Twitter