The Giants got solid pitching from Madison Bumgarner and scintillating defense from several players and finally won a tight ballgame on a walk-off single by Brandon Crawford. Key Lines:
Nate Schierholtz(RF)- 1 for 3, BB SB(3). BA= .248. Nate led off the game with a double and scored the first of 2 runs that would be the last the Giants would score until the walk-off.
Pablo Sandoval(1B)- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .299. Pablo strained a hammy stretching for a DP relay that was successfully completed. Hopefully it's a mild strain as the Giants cannot afford to lose his bat for an extended period again.
Brandon Belt(1B)- 0 for 2, BB. BA= .229. Belt replaced Sandoval at 1B. He did a good job drawing a leadoff walk in the top of the 9'th and scored the winning run. Don't know if that changes his basic equation, though, as his walks are not the problem.
Angel Pagan(CF)- 1 for 4. BA= .278. Pagan saved the game in the 8'th inning with a sensational catch in the left -CF alley off the bat of Carlos Quentin. Headley, the runner at first base was rounding 2B when the catch was made. Pagan did a shoulder roll and came up throwing hitting Brandon Crawford in shallow-medium left-CF. Crawford was in perfect relay position and showed off his arm with a perfect strike to Brandon Belt to complete the DP and leave Quentin spiking his helmet in disgust. The Giants do not win the game without that play.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4. BA= .239. I don't think you get WAR credit for a walk-off hit, but between that and his relay throw, he had to have gained a 10'th of a point or two. Luckily, Crawford did not appear to be injured by the dogpile that ensued.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.10. Bumgarner was solid except for a brief hiccup in the second inning when the Pads scored 2.
Carlos Quentin(Padres)- 1 for 3, HBP. BA= .268. Quentin scalded the ball 3 times but the Giants turned sensational DP's on 2 of them. I don't know whether Bumgarner hit him on purpose leading off the 6'th, but this may be a good time to remind everybody of a great story about Bumgarner from the minor leagues. Seems he hit a batter for no apparent reason. When he got back the bench, the manager, who thought it looked suspicious, asked him if he did it on purpose. "Yes!" replied Bumgarner. "Why?" asked the manager. "Because he swung too hard!" LOL! Make of that what you want.
Dodgers lost to the Cards 8-2 with Kershaw pitching to fall 2.5 games behind the NL West leading Giants. The Dangerous D'Backs took the Reeling Rockies 6-2 to stay 6 games off the pace.
Tim Lincecum starts an afternoon game tomorrow facing Jason Marquis.
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Two months ago, I would have bought a Free Belt tshirt. Now, he belongs in the Torcato/Linden/Minor/Ortmeier/Niekro/Bowker dustbin. AAAA players.
ReplyDeleteDon't mean to be a downer after a great win. But his first two at bats looked bad.
Not ready to toss Belt in the dustbin. But he's definitely spiraling. Like to see him back in Fresno. Way too early to give up on him.
DeleteIt's frustrating, because I've never seen a guy looks so damn defeated. I wish someone could get him to toughen up. AND enjoy himself a bit more when things were going well. Belt never seems to have a good vibe or a swagger going.
I'm somewhere in between the two extremes. I think Belt is a tremendous talent whose unbelieveable 2010 season created unrealistic expectations for fans, the Giants front office, sportwriters and bloggers and most importantly, himself.
DeleteI believe the talent is still there, but he needs a complete re-tooling of his approach which should probably take place in Fresno and the offseason. I strongly agree the he would be a good project for Barry Bonds.
Way, way, way too soon to say that about Belt. He is nothing like the AAAA prospects we had before. I would compare him with Matt Williams, not that group.
DeleteI think Barry Bonds would be a good teacher for him, and while I advocated for Belt to be in AAA to start the season, I think at this point, it would do more hard to him to send him down than to keep on working with him in the majors. The ship to play him in AAA sailed long ago, if they were going to send him down, it should have been done very early in the season, not now.
Besides, he had improved his strikeout rate greatly not that long ago, so the talent is there and close, he just needs to get consistent with his approach, and when he's avoiding the strikeouts, he's getting the big hits. So I would rather keep him up.
I hope Belt reads this blog because I want him to know I still belive in him.
DeleteWhen the whole world stops believing in someone, sometimes it's just one person, one act or one encouragement that turns things around...I saw it many times in movies.
Another thing - a good horse jockey must work with the temperament of his thoroughbred. I saw that in Seabiscuit. Now if you believe Belt has talent but his psychological makeup is different from what you prefer, you work with what makes him comfortable. Do you hear that, Bochy?!?! Go watch some movies, fer heaven sake.
I think Bochy is at least trying to be sensitive to Belt's emotional needs, but when you are in the heat of a tight pennant race, there's only so much you can do.
DeleteI suggest they watch more movies together.
Deletebelts at bats are not just bad...they are clueless
ReplyDeleteright now, he cannot hit mlb pitching...unless its a fat one right across the plate...and he aint gonna get it...even with bases juiced
i wish nate was consistent...he has all the skills to be an everyday player...he just gets so steaky
sabey sabes says he isnt gonna make any significant moves...lets see what happens after pablo's mri...cuz belt cannot be out there everyday
very nice thing happened in fresno tonite....hank joined his son in the booth to call the entire game....kinda makes ya teary
Great note out of Fresno. Thanks for the info, Bacci.
DeleteGood for Crawford. Great turn on the Pagan double play, great pull back the bat on the Sac bunt, and then stung it up the middle to bring it home.
ReplyDeleteApparently the Doyers have gone out and done got themselves Hanley Ramirez. More details coming, I hope they're taking on the salary.
WHAT?
DeleteI don't much like Hanley since that time he booted that ball into right field and then trotted his lazy butt after it, taking his sweet time. Lotta bad attitude.
He's not the same player he was a couple of years ago. But, Dodgers have a black hole a short. And he does have the average OPS+ of 100. So it's going to help them.
Going to be fun booing that guy.
I'm thinking Theriot is savviest player since Omar.
ReplyDeleteYou see a lot of dekes by middle infielders covering 2nd on successful SBs, where they pretend that they missed the ball to try and temp the runner off the base. You don't often see the MI fake a catch to keep the base-stealer from going to 3rd. Ryan did that to Denorfia in the 5th, and made him hesitate before locating errant throw. Might have kept him from taking 3rd. Theriot always seems to be doing things like that.
I even really liked his AB in the 8th. Which was a 3-pitch strikeout. He swung for the fences on the first pitch. Tried to lay down a bunt on the 2nd pitch. He does what he can to keep the other guys off balance.
He's always in the mix that way. He isn't all that fast, but pitchers damn well keep an eye on him when he's on first. Guy has 11 SBs. Kind of a pest. I'm enjoying his play.
The Riot has been one of several pleasant surprises for the Giants this season. He was starting to get that washed up feel to him but has made a strong comeback this year. He seems to have really taken to 2B as a position. Good thing because he pretty much can't play SS anymore.
DeleteOH, and these were the plays that I knew Angel Pagan would make - crazy highlight reel plays to go with the bonehead stuff. Absolutely amazing catch and throw.
ReplyDeleteDodgers just got Hanley Ramirez
ReplyDeleteDodgers also picked up a decent lefty specialist Randy Choate in the deal.
ReplyDeleteDodgers gave up Eovaldi.
Eovaldi is fairly decent, young arm. But the Marlins are officially in salary dump mode, I gotta believe.
Might as well get used to the Dodgers making moves like this. They are going to be the Yankees West or Baseball Lakers. Giants are in good position to compete but won't be able to keep up with the raw spending. We'll just have to hope Sabes and his brain trust are smarter. I'm not worried about Colletti, but Stan Kasten has a track record of building good teams.
ReplyDeleteHistory of baseball is that you can't readily buy relevance and playoff success. The Yankees failed at it for a long time, it was only when King George was suspended from baseball for illegal campaign spending, or something like that, which freed the team to lose and get the great draft picks and find Derek Jeter (who Sabean selected as their draft master). Still, they do have Kemp, Ethier, and Kershaw, so it is not like they don't have a good core to build from.
DeleteAnd they need pitching as much as they need hitting. Kemp kept them relevant with a monster April, but unless he's the second coming of Babe and Barry, he'll cool off and the Dodgers will return to reality. And Hanley has not been much of a hitter the past two seasons and is headed to an extreme pitcher's park (though he has hit very well there in the past).
Now if they get Dempster, as he is angling for, and/or Greinke, then I'll start worrying more. Eovaldi is no great shakes himself, I assume they let him go because of that and I'm guessing Lilly is ready to come back? They can replace Eovaldi long-term easily with a pickup on the free agent market. Adding a good starter like Dempster and/or Greinke would make up for the probability that Capuano and Harang won't continue to pitch so well (Capuano is already regressing, after low 2 ERA first couple of months, he's been at mid-3 ERA the next two; Harang has pitched well for 2-3 months now, but based on his recent career numbers and poor K/BB ratio, not logical to expect him to continue).
Kemp is a guy I don't think you can count on to regress. When he's health, he is quite simply the best player in baseball.
DeleteSometimes you need someone like the Dodgers to open up your own wallet.
DeleteGood to see Crawford start to make a game changing impact. I still believe he is learning to hit, a year and a half removed from A+ ball. Hitting 8th in MLB is a tough place to earn your stripes.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodgers got the $$$ and will spend it. Choate is a good pickup for them, adds a 2nd LHP in the pen. Hopefully Hanley just brings his monster salary and bad vibes to the Bums.
Timmy time!
Same old pattern. G's win 1st 2 games of series then Freak or Belt costs them the game.1 hit in 5 innings is not good support,Yankees long ball power could erase this deficit.Neither team is good with risp but G's lack the fire power to come back. G's inability to sweep is why they can't pull ahead of Dodgers. Don't be surprised if G's are swept into 2nd place by next week. Ian, Victoria, B.C.
ReplyDeleteGood call Ian, please save your posts until the Giants are in second place.
DeleteTiburon Monterey,What a coincidence,this is my last post anyway. Moving to Vancouver. If the giants ended up in 3rd place you'd probably be a rah, rah, G's fanatic. I follow the Giants but unlike you guys, not afraid to criticize.I've been able to back up all my criticisms with statistical facts.There is no one so blind as he who WILL not see. Adios Amigos. Ian, Vancouver, B.C. near Gibsons, where Ryan Dempster's from.
ReplyDeleteIan,
DeleteI think we all get that the Giants could use another good power hitter in their lineup, or even two, especially if Sandoval is going to be out for awhile. Problem is the comp to the Yankees is just laughable. The Giants aren't the Yankees, never have been, never will be. We all have to accept that. The Giants are in a different market, have different ownership and play in different parks. Notice I said parks, not park. AT&T, Petco, Dodger Stadium and Oakland are 4 of the toughest parks on hitters in the majors, especially in suppressing power. Yankee Stadium, Fenway and Baltimore are 3 of the easiest on hitters. You simply cannot compare them and maintain any credibility at all.
BTW, please come back once you get settled in Vancouver. Just don't compare the Giants to the Yankees!