Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Game Wrap 5/3/2011: Giants 7 Mets 6

Bruce Bochy shook up the Giants lineup and got some offense out of some young, fresh legs and a bit of power to boot. Ryan Vogelsong was not as impressive as in his first start, but the offense unexpectedly picked him up as the Giants took the first game of the series from the Mets in extra innings. Key Lines:

Mike Fontenot- 1 for 4, BB, SB(1). BA= .244. The Giants apparently saw an opportunity to run on the knuckleballer RA Dickey. They may have knows something about Josh Thole's defensive abilities too. Anyway, love what Fonty has brought to the table since getting a chance to play regularly.

Aubrey Huff- 1 for 5, HR(3). BA= .190. Huff struggled again but came up the with game winner in the top of the 10'th inning.

Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 4, HR(2), BB, SB(2). BA= .295. That is a sweet looking line. Seems to me Nate has earned himself more PT with some pretty big games as well as some consistency at the plate. Love to see what he could do healthy and as starter for an extended period.

Emmanuel Burriss- 2 for 5, SB(1). BA= .300. Burriss is another guy I'd like to park at the top of the lineup for a couple of weeks just to see what would happen. His role is backup 2B and SS for now as I don't think he will get a lot of PT over Sanchez and Fonty.

Ryan Vogelsong- 4 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.40. Vogelsong will get some more chances before Zito comes back. Just goes to show you should never get too excited over 1 start, good or bad, in baseball.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(9). ERA= 6.35.

The Giants Win puts their record 1 game below .500 at 14-15. The Rockies and Dodgers games are still in progress, so unclear what effect this will have on the Giants standing in the NL West.

Tim Lincecum takes the mound tomorrow against LHP Chris Capuano. A win would get the Giants back to .500 on the season and above .500 on the road trip. For a team playing 21 of their first 31 games on the road, that's not half bad, especially considering the 3 games sweep at home at the hands of the ATL.

7 comments:

  1. vogelsong was fighting his breaking stuff all game...gonna give him this one...lets see how he does back in the belle

    and did you see what happens when you have ford batting after burriss? excitement on the base paths

    and bochy can say whatever he wants...miggs is just not gonna get better

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  2. I like the speed that Ford and Burriss give us in the lineup. I don't think they are going to have much success if they are running every time they get on base against pitchers and catchers who know how to control the running game.

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  3. Running against RA Dickey and Josh Thole is a whole different story than running on Jason Marquis and Wilson Ramos or on Pudge Rodriguez.

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  4. doc...you have to admit one thing...both those guys have a better chance to reach base, just putting the ball in play, then anyone else on the team

    and im not saying that they should run all the time....but most catchers aint pudge....and most pitchers aint marquis

    and speedy guys on base cause pitchers to lose their rhythm....

    if both burris and ford can learn how to do more slap hits and drag bunts...they become a hell of a weapon from the top of the order

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  5. Bacci, I'm not sold that either of those guys can really hit at MLB level. But I completely agree with you on this: when they get on base, we really get to see the other guys sweat. Was a very exciting top of the ninth tonight, solely because of Burriss and Ford.

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  6. Did I miss something? I seem to remember a zero for the Giants in the ninth inning in the boxscore.

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  7. Bacci,

    Bottom line is SB's or no SB's, you need to have run producers in the middle of the lineup to cash them in, unless you are planning on having them steal home a lot. Meanwhile, CS's take you completely out of the inning leaving nobody for the middle hitters to drive in.

    Overall, if a team can maintain a SB success rate of at least 75-80%, the SB's are a small net positive. Any % less than that and it starts to become a net negative.

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