Usually I feel pretty good about a game where Matt Cain has a 2-0 lead going to the bottom of the 2'nd inning. Unfortunately, he battled command issues and the Nats kept chipping away at him in innnings 2-4. By the time he settled down, he had run up his pitch count and the Giants offense couldn't cash in any more runs despited opportunities. A game that was as gray as the weather in Washington DC. Key lines:
Aaron Rowand- 0 for 4. BA= .281. I have to say, Gamer played some pretty intense CF today throwing out two runners at 2B and making several other running and/or diving catches. The score would have not been as close were it not for his defensive efforts.
Buster Posey- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .275. Buster looks like he's swinging the bat a bit better in the last 2 games. I think he should play 1B a bit more often to save the legs. Problem is you lose his bat out of the catcher position which is a pretty big hit. I also wonder whether he could play some 3B.
Mike Fontenot- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .265. I like Fontenot's bat in the lineup. It's a nice little LH bat.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .275. Nate's double was a "ducksnort" as Kruk and Kuip call it. On the other hand it drove in the Giants only 2 runs of the game.
Darren Ford- 0 for 0, CS. Ford gets CS for the second game in a row showing why the "run wild" approach doesn't really work at the MLB level. Those MLB pitchers know how to hold you on and those MLB catchers will throw frozen ropes right on the bag.
Matt Cain- 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.53. A QS, but Cainer was clearly struggling through innings 2-4. He finally found his groove in the 5'th and 6'th but by that time he had lost the lead and run his pitch count up.
Jordan Zimmerman(Nats)- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.29. I'm posting Zimm's line just to say how remarkably similar he looks and pitches to Matt Cain. He was just slightly better than Cainer today, or maybe the Giants hitters were slightly worse than the Nats' hitters?
The loss dropped the Giants record back below .500 to 13-14. Amazingly enough, they remain 4.5 games behind the NL West leading Colorado Rockies who lost to the Pirates 8-4 as Ubaldo Jimenez continued to struggle. It looks like the Dodgers will remain 4.5 games behind as they are losing to the Padres 7-0 in the 9'th inning of their game.
Madison Bumgarner will try to salvage a split of the 4 game series tomorrow against Tom Gorzelanny, a journeyman LHP. If Bum is on, he should win this one, but you never know with him. Gorzelanny can be tough as there is a reason journyman pitchers hang around for so long.
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Rowand made that perfect play on the left center gapper to gun down Werth at 2nd Base. Beautiful play, fun to watch. Rowand's been pretty good. However, don't want him in the way of Torres when he gets back.
ReplyDeleteI've always been a supporter of Nate, but there is nothing in his AB's that inspire any confidence. He is playing defense from the moment he steps in the batter's box.