The Gigantes got a determined start from Madison Bumgarner and the offense came to life in the later innings for a much needed win to break a 4 game losing streak. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 1 for 4. BA= .259. Pagan kept his hitting streak alive at 19 games with an IF single. Overall, Pagan has had a pretty productive hitting streak with a .306 BA and .528 SLG%, but in the 5 games in May so far, 4 have been for just one hit and he's had no XBH's in May so far. This is why I don't like hitting streaks. As they go on, it becomes more about getting that one hit, no matter how anemic rather than going up there trying do some real damage.
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .318. Melky, Melky, Melky! HR's are great, but to me one of the most beautiful things in baseball is a long line drive up an alley. Does anybody scorch the ball up the alley better than Melky? The Fox broadcast, showed a stat that over some extended period of time, Melky has the most XBH's in all of baseball. BTW, Dave Flemming was the lead announcer for the Fox Broadcast and did a great job. Like him better on the Gigantes radio broadcasts though. Anyway, they just showed that stat for a second and didn't come back to it. Anyone else have the starting point for that stat? Man, I sure hope the Gigantes can find a way to sign Melky long term or else get something really good in return. I'm afraid he is going to get seriously paid after this season. I had a bad thought that he would be a perfect fit for the Dodgers.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4. BA= .329. Buster keeps on stroking the ball.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .255. Hector moved down in the order for this game. Maybe he was more relaxed down there? He crushed two balls that both landed at the base of the wall, the first in CF and the second in left-center.
Madison Bumgarner- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .125. I'm not sure there is anything Bumgarner doesn't do well on a ballfield. I think he was fed up with the Gigantes offense and decided he was going to have to drive in the runs himself. He did just that for the first Gigantes run of the game to even it up in the 5'th. He also made a very heads up play to cover first base on a grounder to 2B when Buster broke for a ball he had no chance of getting and would have been late to the bag.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.31. Bumgarner got into trouble several times but refused to lose. He pitched his way out of the jams with only a single run in the second against him. He also showed a much better curveball than I've seen in the past. Bumgarner now has a variety of breaking balls that go at different velocities. Curve, slider, cutter. He can also still jam the heater in on the hands when he wants to. He is rapidly becoming a complete pitcher out there and it's great to see.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(5). ERA= 1.69. Casilla looked confident out there today and has nasty stuff. I think he's the closer for the duration, barring injury of course.
With the Win, the Gigantes kept pace with the Dodgers who beat the Cubs 5-1, 5 games back. The D'Backs lost to the Mets 4-3 to fall 4.5 games behind in second place. The Rockies and Padres play later.
Matt Cain takes the mound against Shaun Marcum tomorrow afternoon trying for a much needed series win.
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There were a couple stats they put on the screen today for Melky. The first was that he has the 4th most hits totaling last season with his season to this point. The second was that he has the most XBH's over the span in all of the majors.
ReplyDeleteMelky is not slow, but when I watch him, I have to say he gets a triple because he hustles. It's not necessarily a speed play, it's a heady, aggressive hustling play and I LOVE IT. He also has quite an accurate arm in the outfield.
MadBum - I was listening to Dave Flemming and John Miller on the radio post-game. Dave was saying that he often tells visiting broadcasters that MadBum is as good as Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum and they often laugh him off. He said some of the local Mil. team watched some tape and commented that "MadBum throws inside on hitters better than any other left hander in the NL." Pretty high praise for a 22-year old. I think the horses we've locked up in Cain and Bum are looking pretty damn good!
AF
hope miller told madbum that....he is better when he throws angry
ReplyDeletepill didnt look bad in lft, and had a very good knock...i take it that pagan didnt hear him call for the fly ball...pagan has gotta do better work directing traffic
our old pal torres is off the dl and is now 4 for 4 with risp...it was his hit that beat the bums
Baseball is a very good game, but not always a fair game, as evidenced by belt's wind blown pop up that fell in for a double and 2 rbi's. Conversely, many well hit balls are caught in the air. The miasma that pervades the Gigantes clubhouse will test the mettle of this club. Hopefully,the pendulum will soon swing the other way and lady luck will favor the Giants. As stated earlier, los Gigantes must keep playing long ball hitters and bench low average powerless hitters such as Theriot. If Bochy continues to use huff,were all going to have anxiety attacks.MadBum is going to be an elite pitcher if he isn't already. Let's hope that Zito's last shaky outing was the aberration and not his first 2 outings. NL West will be decided by head to heads between D'Backs, Dodgers and Giants. If our hitting matches our pitching, we'll be there.Ian
ReplyDeleteFYI, Bumgarner hates the MadBum nickname. Just saying....
ReplyDeleteI think both DrB and I have noted before that Bumgarner could end up better than Lincecum or Cain for us over the long run.
Zito's outings this season have all been Zito specialties. One start he looks like $126M, the next $0.126M. That has been his pattern with us from the beginning, even last season, as affected by his car crash and injuries, he had some really good games followed by really bad ones (albeit, it appears that those were more injury related). Yet, overall, he has ended up mostly OK, which is great to have in the back of the rotation: steady innings eater with good enough ERA to win us a few games. And while not worth $18-20M, it is certainly better than spending addition millions trying to replicate that in the rotation. And just think: His contract is over in 2013, and if Surkamp has a nice 2012 (heck, Blackley too) in AAA, the Giants could try to move Zito by throwing in money (probably half his 2013 salary plus the $7M buyout should be fair and doable). Zito IS useful, just not $20M useful.
Yeah, have to think the young hitters are getting intimidated by batting higher in the lineup. Good for Hector, hope he can keep it up and make lineup decisions more difficult (or even easy :^).
Been waiting for Madison to get those big knocks that he's been promising. Hopefully this opens up the dam for him, maybe he can put together a 20 game hitting streak. :^)