The Giants played a prototype of a winning Giants game today with the offense scratching out just enough runs to support the usually excellent pitching. Key Lines:
Jeff Keppinger- 4 for 4, SF. BA= .307. Another fine game from Keppinger who kept running into bad luck on the basepaths which prevented the hits from being more productive.
Carlos Beltran- 1 for 4. BA= .284. The hit would have been a double in most ballparks a long liner down the RF line past Pence but bounced straight back from the padded cement arch post. Beltran left the game early for no apparent reason. No word on that yet.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .315. Pablo stays hot and made a sparkling play at 3B to rob Pence of extra bases.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .274. One of the BB's was an IBB, but good to see Nate taking walks.
Chris Stewart- 2 for 4. BA= .222. Nice game for CStew too.
Offense- 13 hits + 4 BB's 17 baserunners in a 9 inning game should yield a minimum of 5 runs, so the Giants are still either hitting into terrible luck or are just choking with runners on base.
Tim Lincecum- 7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.69. I think all of us would agree, Timmy hasn't been at his best most of the season, but here he is with a 2.69 ERA. How about that? He couldn't find a release point in the first inning out of the windup so went from the stretch the rest of the way. That not only improved his command, but seemed to disrupt the Phillies' timing at times.
The Win enables the Giants to hang onto first place in the NL West by 0.5 games over the Dangerous D'Backs who topped the Dodgers 4-3 today on a 2 run HR by Cody Ransom against Clayton Kershaw, no less! That also pushed the Dodgers down to a 10 game deficit.
The last few days there have been lots of comments around the internet about how obviously superior the Phillies are to the Giants, but with this Win, the 7 game series between the two teams ends at 4-3 Phillies. At least 2 of those Giants losses were close and came amidst a terrible offensive slump. Maybe they never come out of the offensive slump, but BABIP stats would suggest that they can do better. If these two teams meet again in the postseason, it's not a lock by any stretch, but I wouldn't bet against the Giants.
The Giants now face the Pittsburgh Pirates starting tomorrow night at AT&T Park with Ryan Vogelsong facing Charlie Morton. The Bucs were contenders as recently as the trade deadline but are coming in riding a 10 game losing streak and are now 10 games back in the NL Central. A good example of how fast it can all go south before you know it. Much easier to suddenly drop out of the race than build an insurmountable lead.
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Sprained wrist for Beltran, day to day.
ReplyDeletecarlos hurt his hand hitting into another dp
ReplyDeleteboy...great trade
at least cabrera is looking better with the bat
matched up against the giants best pitchers...the phils dont score
so should these two teams meet again in october...look for low scoring games
The Giants had to make that trade, Bacci. You can't evaluate a trade like that is retrospect. Everybody knows it was a gamble. It might pay off, it might not, but Sabean couldn't afford to stand pat. Please take your carping about the trade somewhere else. You've run it into the ground here.
ReplyDeleteYes, good to see Nate take walks, hopefully start of his next hot streak.
ReplyDeletePost game notes said that Tim had stiff back early, limiting him, but once it warmed up, nobody got on base for a while until end.
Totally agree about Phillies, could go either way, nothing conclusive other than there is some bad blood a-brewing.
I grew up with the Giant-Dodger rivalry. And it just seems natural to hate the Yankees. But, I'm getting a real taste for wishing very bad things for the Phillies. The Giants had to win the World Series last year of course, but for me, the most satisfying wins were against the Phillies in the NLCS. Just sitting them and their mad-dog arrogant fans DOWN. It was a beautiful thing.
ReplyDeleteNow to have them here while we're down, with their brand new Hunter Pence toy on fire, it's tough. It was just demoralizing. And maybe this is the beginning of the end for the season. But, I don't think so. The Phillies just caught us in transition. They're just here at the right time. I'm with you Doc. Not sure I'd bet against the Giants in two months, if we meet the Phillies again.
On the positive side, Kepp has been real solid. Turns out to be a great trade in hindsight as well, with Freddie going under the knife.
Also feeling much better with OCab out there rather than Craw or Tejada. Need someone who can catch AND hit @ SS. Not sure why the feedback on this is almost universally negative.
And still very early on Beltran. If you're going to measure Beltran on what he's done so far, might as well measure Wheeler on what he's done so far. I would like to have had Bochy approach the Beltran about playing left. And playing center, for that matter. Gotta go with the hot hand among the rest of the OFers. Flexibility with where Beltran plays would be nice. And who doesn't miss Nate's D in right?
Hitting the skids right now may not be the worst thing in the world. Wouldn't facing the Philth's in a 5 game series be a better matchup than facing them in a 7 game series?
ReplyDeleteAs it sits right now, the Crew would get Atl and we would get Phi in the first round.