Madison Bumgarner put on a show for yet another roaring sellout crowd at AT&T Park, and Brandon Belt hist his first HR of the year in one of the more entertaining games of the season so far. Key Lines:
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 4. BA= .366. They were both bloopers, but they're still hits in the stat line.
Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 2, BB, HBP. BA= .261. Nate gets on base 4 times and suddenly Bruce Bochy has a good problem on his hands. It all turned around in 1 AB for Nate against the LHP Robbie Ross in the Texas series. Up to that point, he looked as lost as any batter in baseball. He gave Ross a battle and as he fouled off one pitch after another, you could see his confidence growing in front of your eyes. He finished off that AB with a single and he's been hot ever since. Not saying the stat guys are wrong, but you can't measure whatever happened there in a stat line.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, HR(1), BB. BA= .227. On the other hand, this is not a problem! The HR was on another of those funny looking truncated swings, but you could tell it was well hit immediately. One of the outs was a screamer down the 1B line that was stabbed by Scott Downs who easily doubled Nate off 1B. Belt seems to be coming around and wouldn't that be huge for this lineup?
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .226. Crawford made his 11'th error costing Bumgarner an unearned run, but he still has a + fielding rating by UZR. He needs just a tad more bat to move up the WAR rankings. He's kind of stuck on 0.3 for awhile.
Madison Bumgarner- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA= .125. Bumgarner has been hitting bombs in batting practice for awhile now. Shawn Estes called the HR tonight in the pre-game show. Bum definitely has the strength to get 'em out and he doesn't let himself get cheated at the plate so we may see some more. He definitely just raised the bar for the other pitchers for whom hitting seems to have become a fierce competition. Oh man, too much good stuff!
Madison Bumgarner- 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K's. ERA= 3.08. Bumgarner has put up double digit K's in 3 of his last 5 starts. He had just 7 K's in his first 3 starts against 5 BB's in 17.1 IP. Since then, over his last 10 games, his pitching line is 6-3, 2.94, 70.1 IP, 13 BB, 67 K's. That's a K/BB of >5 and includes his inexplicable 4 BB game in his last start. In the 3 double digit K games, he has 33 K's against just 1 BB. Do the Giants have 3 starters worthy of being All-Stars?
The Dodgers rallied late once again to beat the Angels 5-2 so the Giants remain 5 games behind the NL West leaders in second place. The Giants lead Atlanta for the top Wild Card spot by 1 game.
Matt Cain goes against lefty JA Happ in game 2 tonight.
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Nate should DH instead of Huff and he should get more playing time now that he is hot before he cools off, rotate him with Pagan and Blanco. Maybe Bumgarner can become a Carlos Zambrano type of hitter?? That would be amazing!!! Maybe even use him as a RH Pinch Hitter now that Pill is gone.
ReplyDeleteNate should definitely get more pt, and he will. However, I can guarantee you it will NOT be at DH. Nate is one of the best defensive outfielders in the game. If he plays, he is in RF.
DeleteOh yeah forgot that. Then Melky or Pagan at DH.
DeleteI was thinking give Melky the first series at DH, so he can get off his legs and his probably still aching hammy, those things seem to linger long, mix that with a rest for Pagan and Blanco in there, and Nate gets 5 starts there.
DeleteAnd seriously, he used to play 3B, why haven't the Giants looked into playing him at 1B in the past? Was he that bad a butcher fielding the corners? If they had, he could get some starts at 1B, especially with Belt struggling against RHP, which Nate now hits well, the last two seasons (finally).
Nate took grounders at 1B for awhile a couple of years ago and might have even played an inning or two there. It never took, for some reason. I'm guessing that isn't an option they would consider at this point.
DeleteYes, it would be huge if Nate and Brandon gets hot now, Melky and Pagan had been carrying the team for a while, then Blanco has been helping too, plus Posey was being Posey, so we need others to get hot and keep things going, particularly until Sandoval returns to normal. The radio announcers said that Panda has been pressing, to make up for missing that time.
ReplyDeleteHere is the weird thing that came out of Bumgarner's homer: when asked who among the pitchers might be his competition, he didn't mention Cain, who has a number of dingers, but instead he named Zito!
Yeah, and he's been dominant pitching. Seems like typical Madison, slow start and then BAM! he starts mowing people down. Wow! Did not realize his K/BB was that great now in recent games, you hear all the good stuff but it is nice to see them all tied together like this.
Ugh, Dodgers are doing it, got to tip the hat to them, though if the Phillies gave any fight at all and split the series, the Giants would only be 2.5 games back, that sweep really hurt.
The dig at Cain was awesome. That is quite intentional on MadBum's part. Deadpan too.
DeleteYeah, there is definitely some gamesmanship going on with the pitchers and their hitting. I don't think they mess with each other's pitching because that gets a bit too close to home, but their hitting is fair games and they are going after each other something fierce.
DeleteI feel whatever help the Bims would need, they can get it from Billy Beane.
ReplyDelete