Giants Baseball Insider

San Francisco Giants Rising Star 'Felt Really Good' After Getting Ovation

The San Francisco Giants rising star pitcher is feeling the love from fans after he turned in another good performance to start his season.

Dylan Sanders

Apr 22, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn (67)
Apr 22, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn (67) / Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
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The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets on Monday after another great outing from their young, rising star pitcher.

Keaton Winn picked up his second win the of the season after six innings of work, allowing just one run on four hits. Winn did pitch into the seventh inning, but was pulled before recording an out. When he walked off the field, he was given a standing ovation by the fans at Oracle Park.

“That felt really good. That was the first time that I've had that," he told the media after the game. "I can't explain how good that felt, to feel like the city has your back. It was great."

It was tied for his career-longest outing as he hasn't pitched more than six innings in the Major Leagues yet. Combine that with his first standing ovation and it was a big night for the burgeoning star.

The 26-year-old is down to a 3.54 ERA this season as he is on his way to cementing himself into the rotation.

While Kyle Harrison and Blake Snell are struggling to find a lot of success in 2024, Winn joins Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb as Giants pitchers that are performing at a high level. The starting staff as a whole rank all the way down at 22nd in ERA, mostly being weighed down by the high marks held by Snell and Harrison.

Winn becoming a pitcher that can live around a 3.50 ERA or better would be a very welcome surprise to a San Francisco team that hasn't had the start that they had hoped for.

The right-handed pitcher was drafted by the Giants in the 20th round of the 2017 draft. He made his debut in 2023 and pitched in nine games for San Francisco that season.

It'll be interesting to see the fate of Winn's spot in the rotation when the staffgets Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray back from injury later this season.

It was expected that Winn would probably be one of the guys on the edge of the rotation, but he could be hard to take out if he keeps playing to this level.

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Dylan Sanders
DYLAN SANDERS

Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders