Saturday, April 2, 2011

Game Wrap 4/2/2011: Giants 10 Dodgers 0

The Giants took out their frustrations built up over the last two games with relentless attack of basehits to support Matt Cain who ran his string of consecutive innings with no ER allowed to 27 dating back to last year's postseason. Key lines:

Miguel Tejada- 2 for 5. BA= .231. I hope we don't see Tejada at leadoff very often this season, but he got the job done today.

Freddy Sanchez- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(1), BB. BA= .455. Freddy is red hot to start the season. Has been showing more power dating back to late last season.

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4. BA= .182. Good to see Huffster get untracked a bit.

Brandon Belt- 0 for 3, 2 BB, SB(1). BA= .200. Even with a BA of .200, Belt continued to impress with his plate discipline, speed on the bases and rangy defense at 1B.

Mark DeRosa- 2 for 5. BA= .333. DeRosa joined the parade of base hits. The Giants may be headed for a real playing time crunch if DeRosa and Rowand continue to hit in their opportunities.

Aaron Rowand- 2 for 5. BA= .400. Gotta admit, Gamer looked pretty good in his first two AB's, then he went back to swinging at outside sliders in the dirt.

Matt Cain- 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 8/4. Cainer has reached the point where he's making it look too easy out there. He's spotting the FB and getting the breaking ball over. He just pounds the strike zone with confidence that if he puts the ball where he wants it, the hitters will make weak contact. When he needs a K, he dials it up or puts a little extra on a breaking ball. Cain has been an excellent pitcher for some time now, but is this his breakout year?

Javy Lopez, Ramon Ramirez and Jeremy Affeldt pitched a scoreless inning each basically just getting work in.

Man, once you get past Ethier and Kemp, there just isn't much to scare anybody in the Dodgers lineup. Kershaw looked unbeatable in game 1, but they are going to have to get that kind of pitching day in and day out to win very many games this year. Take away the dunkers and the Giants errors in the first 2 games and they haven't done diddly in this series.

The Giants try to salvage a split in the opening 4 game series tomorrow evening in another twilight game with Barry Zito and his pornstache taking the mound, I assume against Hiroki Kuroda who can be a tough customer when he's fully healthy.

11 comments:

  1. I'm hoping Rowand and Zito took it to heart last year when they seemed to just ride the rest of the team to glory. A ballolayer with a lot of heart would come back with fire in his eyes.

    Rowand did his today. Now your turn, Zito.

    ReplyDelete
  2. belt is the first true 5 tool player this org has developed since....the thrill?

    its really nice to have a number 3 guy in the rotation, who could be number one on every other mlb squad...

    i love watching freddy get upset with himself when he cant make, what for most would be an impossible play

    derosa showed pablo what to do when you cant make the play to first...eat it and trust your pitcher

    derosa as super sub should be able to get into 3-4 games a week...no problem

    wont even comment on rowand

    dodgers dont have a bench, and not much of a pen, and it wasnt such a hot idea to start the season with three catchers and give up an arm

    kemp is scary talented when he puts his mind on the game

    btw, seems that kroon decided to stay with the org...cuz of the guys on the big club....that is really impressive...hope he is lights out in fresno

    minor league rosters should be completed by tomorrow...richmond's is out today

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmm....looks like Schoop is going to be the SS for Richmond, at least until Adriana gets well. If Kieschnick is healthy again, he could have a breakout season. What happened to Nick Noonan?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Did the Giants dump Drew Biery? Looking for Peguero? I noticed that they only showed 3 OFs at Richmond.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Drew Biery is being moved to catcher. I think he'll be back in SJ at his new position. Maybe Peguero is going to be in Fresno?

    ReplyDelete
  6. sj roster is out now

    wheeler is in sj

    is the strength and conditioning coach a new position? i think it is...and i think its a great move

    oh...and im gonna watch the o's game tomorrow...britton got the call...wanna see that kid in action

    ReplyDelete
  7. isnt the buzz on noonan that they are holding him back in extended to work on some things...the way they did with belt?

    i love it when an org starts taking its farm system seriously

    as an aside...my prediction regarding lackey (at least for the first game) is coming true

    the rangers handed him his hat

    and im sorry...without a strong lackey...the sox are not gonna win the east

    ReplyDelete
  8. ok....noonan, strained oblique

    and after baggs blog report today, im of the opinion that nate is not long for the org...and that is just wrong

    ReplyDelete
  9. Word in the offseason was Noonan is being moved back to SS. Strained oblique is not good considering he battled hammys all last season. Gotta start wondering if it's meant to be for a kid like that.

    I'll check out Extra Baggs, but yeah, Baggs seems to have his finger on the pulse of the organization. If he thinks Nate is on the bubble, then he probably is. I've seen Nate save enough games with his glove and arm in RF alone that I tend to think he's very valuable just for his D. The bat might surprise us if he is fully healthy too. Hope he has some trade value and the Giants can get something good in return.

    ReplyDelete
  10. SJ's roster looks very exciting. Wheeler, Brown, Parker, Dominguez, Jurica, Joseph. All kinds of good stuff. Heath Hembree and Jose Valdez out of the pen. Jake Dunning and Michael Main on the mound. Where's Jorge Bucardo? I'm definitely going to have to make the drive down to Lake Elsinore this next weekend. Man, you have to think twice about that with gas prices these days!

    Just by process of eliimination it looks like Fresno is going to actually have some prospects this year: Neal, Ford and maybe Peguero in the OF with Crawford at SS and Conor Gillaspie at 3B. Kroon and Vogelsong aren't exactly prospects but are nice stories to keep tabs on.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The last 5 tool guy is probably Willie Mays. And Belt, while a very promising player, does not have the speed tool. He is a good basestealer, but I don't think anyone is going to think that he is a barnburner, which is what the speed tool is.

    And nobody has ever characterized Will the Thrill as a speedster, so he's definitely not a 5-tool player.

    I'm very excited by Gary Brown, hopefully I can make it out to San Jose Municipal should he move up to AA quickly, and hopefully I can catch Wheeler starting as well.

    ReplyDelete