The Giants offense, led by Aubrey Huff, picked up a Santiago Casilla after a blown save and ovecame Kelly Johnson hitting for the cycle down in Arizona land. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .273. In the 7'th inning, Torres hit the game winning triple to CF after a couple of throwing errors by opposing pitcher Edwin Jackson had put runners on 2'nd and 3'rd with a run in. He also hit a rocket over the head of Justin Upton in the 9'th inning that was counted as an error. Yes, it was misplayed by Upton, but credit Torres with absolutely crushing the ball which made it take off like a rising fastball over Upton's head. Upton actually rightly judged that the normal path of the ball would take it right to him, but the ball just kept carrying. I think it could have been scored a double.
Aubrey Huff- 3 for 5, 2 HR(19). BA=.305. Huff had been a somewhat of a HR drought. Man, he sure came out of it in this game!
Travis Ishikawa- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .329. He did leave 5 runners on base, though. Nate left 6.
Edgar Renteria- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .296. Not sure where all the Rent hate comes from on some other sites. He's been a steady performer this year when healthy.
Freddy Sanchez- 0 for 4, BB. BA= .267. Freddy is slumping badly after a hot start coming back from the DL. Time to snap out of it, Freddy, or Uribe should start getting some PT at 2'nd.
Jonathan Sanchez- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 3.35. Typical start for Durty. Lots of K's, lots of BB's, lots of pitches. 109 in 5 innings to be exact. Sanchez needs to keep his pitch count down enough to get through the 6'th or 7'th innings more often. Still, if he did this every time and other starters went deeper into games, I think we'd all take it. Still, the Giants have a lot of starters who tend to throw a lot of pitches and it's eventually going to tax the bullpen.
Sergio Romo- 1.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.08. Romo man was not quite able to get to the 9'th inning. Still, eating up those outs and getting the ball to Wilson went a long ways toward winning this game.
Brian Wilson- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(28). ERA= 1.87. Despite all the heart attacks he's given Giants fans this year, Wilson has to be considered one of the elite closers in baseball. Maybe his greatest strength is the ability to go more than 1 inning. This was the 11'th time this season he pitched more than 1 inning in a game. What a horse!
The Giants solidified their position in second place, 3 games behind the NL West leading Padres who defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3. Colorado got blanked by the Phillies 6-0 to drop 2.5 games behind the Giants in 3'rd place, 5.5 games behind the Pads. The Dodgers continued to struggle losing to Johan Santana and the Mets 6-1 to fall 6 games off the pace in 4'th place. Arizona brings up the rear with a 20 game deficit. The Giants maintained a 0.5 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card race.
Madison Bumgarner takes the mound this evening against Ian Kennedy who has been tough on the Giants this season. It will be another test for the young Giants pitcher. Watch his velocity and stamina closely.
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It means nothing to no one, but I discovered during this game that I no longer want Nate Schierholtz on my Giants. This despite being one of his chief supporters ever since he was drafted. He just does not seem to be a ML hitter, and I'd MUCH rather give an opportunity to Bowker. And I'll admit that Bowker seems to have the same kind of holes in his swing that Nate does, but I'm just ready to move on.
ReplyDeleteI also decided during the game that I cannot stand another Jonathan Sanchez start. The eventual trade this winter will come as a relief to this Giants fan.
On the other hand, Aubrey Huff is awesome. I just don't understand why he's not the cleanup hitter permanently. Posey is the prototypical #3 hitter, and Huff is our best #4 guy. I don't see what's so hard to see about that.
I continue to believe that if Nate goes out there on a regular basis long enough, a light will eventually go on and he'll be a solid major league hitter. Bowker is probably in the same boat. Bowker probably has a higher ceiling as a hitter, but would be a defensive liability whereas Nate is a plus defender. Most likely the future lies somewhere besides either of these guys.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that he is the most frustrating Giants starter to watch, by far, I think Sanchez has made some progress this season and the upside is still huge. I would not trade him unless the return is Domonic Brown, Desmond Jennings or some other elite MLB ready prospect.
Yeah, Huff has been awesome. If you were Sabes, would you try to sign him to a multi-year deal this offseason?
Huff will be 34 this December and he is hitting out of his head this season. I would go no longer than 2 years, but would need to get some kind of discount to go that long (2 yr / 10 mil?)
ReplyDeleteI agree. These off-season decisions can be real tough and having a player coming off a great season doesn't make them any easier. No matter what happens the rest of this season, Sabean has his work cut out for him this off-season. There's Huff, and what to do about him. Then there's the SS situation with neither Uribe or Rent signed after this season. Is anybody ready down on the farm? What does the SS FA market look like? I don't think it's very good. Do you try to trade for a Stephen Drew, or some other youngish shortstop? At least Buster and Bumgarner make two less holes that have to be filled. How big is that anyway?
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