Matt Cain was masterful and got just enough run support as the Giants continued their winning ways out in the desert. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 1 for 4, HR(9). BA= .274. Torres got all of the HR ball and it went out in the deepest part of the ballpark. For a comparison, Chris Young, who is no weakling, crushed one to straightaway LF and it died at the wall and was hauled in by...Torres! A very impressive jack by Andres!
Buster Posey- 2 for 4. BA= .353. Buster extended his hitting streak to 16 games trailing only Orlando Cepeda(17) and Willie McCovey(22) in SF Giants history. Chili Davis, Dan Gladden and Tom O'Malley all are tied at 15 games.
Matt Cain- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.10. Cainer labored through the first inning managing to not allow a run and then just turned on the afterburners dominating the D'Backs lineup for the next 7 innings. I knew he was going to be OK when he blew 94 MPH fastballs by Mark Reynolds when Reynolds knew they were coming.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(27). ERA= 1.93.
The W gets the Giants back to 3 games behind the Padres, who lost to the Braves 8-0. It also gets them 0.5 games up in the Wild Card race over the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants also put a crack of daylight between themselves and the 3'rd place Rockes who lost to the Marlins 3-2 and remained 4.5 games behind the Pads but 1.5 games behind the Giants. The Dodgers got their second 2-0 shutout in a row, this time by Hiroki Kuroda over the Mets, to move up to 5 games behind the Padres. The loss drops the last place D'Backs to 19 games off the lead.
Jonathan Sanchez takes the mound tomorrow night matching up againsts Edwin Jackson who also tends to run hot and cold. If Jackson is on, it will be a tough one to win.
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Exciting times to be a Giants fan, DrB, exciting times! And we did it without Posey!
ReplyDeleteCasilla and Bautista seem to be battling for that DFA, what do you think? Seem like a everything you can mess up, I can mess up better!
Affeldt injury could force the Giants to trade for someone like Ohman (Schulman and Baggarly noted him as a target). Too bad Willis wasn't ready yet.
Bumgarner looks like he might not make it to the end of the season as a starter. Why not move him to the bully and Wellemeyer can the the #5 starter?
ReplyDeleteMaybe eventually, but given how well he is pitching, I just don't see the Giants doing that.
ReplyDeleteBaggarly noted that maybe they might have Wellemeyer steal a start from Bumgarner here and there to give him more rest (presumably at home where Wellemeyer has done well), or even alternativing, or maybe piggyback, which I assume means he goes a short start and Wellemeyer comes in for long relief. Skipping a start is a possibility when there is an off-day, as well.
I still think the best alternative is going with a 6-man rotation. That takes work load off all the young starters, but also limits Wellemeyer starts. That's still probably is a lot of starts for Bumgarner but less by a couple, and the Giants could use the off-days to take off some more starts.
With 63 starts left, that's 12/13 with a 5 man rotation, 10/11 with a 6 man, probably the latter for Madison. He is 25 innings away from his total the last two seasons (4 starts) and Krukow has said that you want to limit starters to adding another 25 over the previous season (another 4 starts roughly), for 8 starts. With a 6 man, they only have to skip 3 starts, but with a 5 man, they would have to figure out how to take out 5 starts.
Of course, the Giants allowed Lincecum to jump a lot of innings from season to season, and it did not seem to harm him in 2008 or 2009, so I'm OK with the Giants playing it by ear on how to handle when Bumgarner is ready to be taken out. Still, I like the idea of him starting to the end of the season, so a 6-man rotation seems the best way to do that.
Then in the playoffs, he would become one of our set-up men.