The Giants have done remarkably well against the elite pitchers in the league so far this year. Tonight, they scored 3 runs in 7 innings against a guy came in averaging just a little over 1.5 runs per 9 innings. Not exactly an offensive explosion but enough to stay in the game and get to the Marlins bullpen which reliably blew up in the bottom of the 8'th inning and the Giants pulled off a very big W tonight. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 3 for 4, 2 2B, BB, SB(18). BA= .279. According to fangraphs, Torres is one of the top 2 OF's in the NL this season, and he sure looked the part tonight. I mean, just when you think this guy is cooling off, he turns in a game like this, all season long!! He has truly been a joy to watch this season.
Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA= .275. Freddy moves back to the 2 hole, Rent's 0 for 5 yesterday probably contributed to that decision! Fred has a good game.
Aubrey Huff- 1 for 2, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .307. Steady as she goes.
Buster Posey- 1 for 4. BA= .366. I might not have included Buster's line except he extended his hitting streak to 20 games, 2 short of Willie Mac's SF Giants rookie record.
Juan Uribe- 1 for 4, HR(14). BA= .255. Hits the go- ahead HR in the 8'th and there was no doubt about it!
Edgar Renteria- 1 for 4, HR(2). Rent was 0 for 5 last night and 0 for 3 tonight before unloading for 2 insurance runs in the 8'th. Turns out the Giants needed 'em.
Aaron Rowand- 2 for 4. BA= .247. Second 2-hit game in a row for Rowand. Is he starting a hot streak? It would be very welcome and Torres, Huff and Posey can't be expected to carry the team forever.
Matt Cain- 7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.14. Cainer outpitched Josh Johnson except for the 2 dingers he allowed. Uggla's shot in the 7'th took away Matt's chances for a decision.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. Anybody else go nuts whenever Wilson hangs a slider? Come on, Wilson! It's OK to try to steal strike one with the slide-piece and it's a nice option for a put-away pitch, but it ain't your bread and butter. I don't care if it's Uggla, throw the dang fastball!
With the win, the Giants gain a full game in the NL West on the division leading Padres who lost to the Dodgers 2-0. The Pads lead is down to 2.5 games. With the W, the Dodgers also gain a game on the Padres to 5 games off the pace. Colorado Rockies lost again, this time to the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2, and remained 8 games behind and in 4'th place. There was talk on mlbtradrumors.com today about the Rockies seriously thinking about bailing on the season and trading Aaron Cook in a seller's trade. Arizona lost again, this time to the Phils 9-5 to remain 22 games behind and in last place. The Giants stayed 1.5 games ahead of Cincinnati for the Wild Card as Cincy beat the BrewCrew 12-4.
Jonathan Sanchez takes the mound tomorrow against relative newcomer Alex Sanabia, who has pitched well in 3 MLB starts. Should be another interesting game.
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rowand owns the fish...i was watching the fish feed and they were talking about it
ReplyDeletehe should get the start tomorrow, then go back to bench duties
posey is amazing....but he needs to get a personality
I'll take 20 game hitting streaks over personality any day.
ReplyDeleteStrong silent bland type is a personality.
ReplyDeleteAnd +28 to DrB, 20+ game hitting streaks is way better than personality.
DrB, with his great step up, Posey got me thinking back to other Giants prospects previously, and I can't really think of anyone who has done so well, hitting and hitting for power, since maybe Dave Kingman.
Will Clark had his homer off Nolan Ryan, but didn't really do much after that. Jack Clark was never this good until he joined the Cards, and didn't really blossom until he second full season, much like The Thrill. Matt Williams struggled in his first few call-ups before he started mashing. Rob Deer never figured out the hitting part (lots of power hitter prospects never figured that out). Pablo is probably the closest, but even he didn't start hitting homers until mid-next season, though he did hit for extra-base hit power.
Of course, it is not entirely fair to compare others with Posey. He was a legit #1 overall pick that scared away the Rays, fortunately for us, with rumors of a high bonus demand, I was thinking recently who would we have chosen if the Rays had selected Buster (don't remember the dynamics of those prospects who would have fell to us).
Still, within my experience with the Giants (since 71), I can't think of anyone who burst out like this in a combo of hitting and power and hit like that for a while.
And the only prospects with a similar burst of excellence who immediately come to mind are Dave Kingman, John the Count Montefusco, (big gap here) Will Clark, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Pablo Sandoval. And Bumgarner has probably added his name to this list as well.
And yeah, the Giants have come up well against top pitchers over and over again this season, especially against top ERA guys like Ubaldo and Johnson, with our offense doing things against those pitchers that nobody else had done in a long while. And it started right at the start, against Oswalt.
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