It took Ryan Vogelsong 13 pitches to strike out Everth Cabrera, the Peskiest Padres of all and their leadoff batter. It was all downhill from there as Vogey threw 96 pitches in 3+ innings of work while the offense failed to sustain an attack against lefty Clayton Richard. Key Lines:
Pagan, Arias and Belt had 2 hits each, none of which contributed to scoring.
Ryan Vogelsong- 3 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.85. 7 K's shows he had good, even great, stuff and he only walked 1 batter. This looks like another BABIP game, but you have to be wary when it happens two games in a row.
George Kontos- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.37. Kontos has been terrific and looks like a solid bullpen member for years to come.
Clayton Richard(Padres)- 8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.73. Yeah, look at that K number. Life just ain't always fair! I started watching the game in about the 5'th inning and fell asleep twice but had time to see at least 4 or 5 hard hit balls by the Giants die in the gloves of Padres' defenders.
The Dodgers blanked the Braves 5-0 behind Chad Billingsley to leapfrog back over the Giants to a 0.5 game lead in the NL West. The D'Backs pounded the hapless Astros 8-1 cutting their deficit to 4.5 games.
The Giants now move on to LA where the first pitching matchup Monday night is one I have been dreaming about since about 2008 when Madison Bumgarner broke out as a pitching prospect. Bumgarner vs Kershaw. Go Giants! Beat LA!!
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I didn't understand the constant barrage of fastballs to Cabrera? It seemed like Cabera gave his teammates the confidence they needed to face Vogelsongwhile while putting doubt in the pitcher's mind. The Padres were fouling off pitches till they got the one they thought they could do somthing with. Richards was very good but the Giants batters were playing their normal game to clinch a sweep.
ReplyDeleteI hope that 2 out of 3 in Atlanta don't give the Dodgers mommentum as the Giants come dragging into LA.
Vogelsong has been very good with using the 3 major variations of the fastball to control a game, but maybe hitters have picked up a pattern or something? Or, it could be just the whims of the BABIP gods.
DeleteWell given that I never seen another game with Voggy's BABIP and K stats, I think you must chalk it up to somebody's whim.
DeleteHere's my fix for our problems in left field. First you move Belt to left,then you move Posey to first and put Sanchez as the catcher. Slight drop in D but offensive production equal to or better than with the Melkman.
ReplyDeleteBelt is not going back to LF, take that to the bank. Not sure where you get that lineup is better than with the Melkman.
DeleteI thought the home plate umpire was calling some pitches a little tighter for Vogelsong than for Richards, which certainly didn't help Ryan's pitch count. Even so, the Padres figured that out quickly and had a terrific approach at the plate.
ReplyDeleteAs for the above suggestion: I agree that replacing Blanco/Christian in the lineup with Hector Sanchez (which is the gist of the suggestion) would improve the offense. I just don't know what that would cost on defense - plus, you're playing both of your catchers at once. So maybe after the Sept. 1 callups, but even then the defensive hit probably isn't worth it.