On a day when the wind was blowing in at Wrigley Field at near gale force, the Giants finally won a see-saw battle with a 2 run rally in the 9'th inning. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 5. BA= .291. 2 times on base again for Pagan. He was directly responsible for 3 of the Giants 7 runs, scoring 1 and driving in 2 including the go-ahead run in the 9'th.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 5. BA= .283. Pablo has had his struggles, but has been driving in runs with 7 in his last 10 games. I think he's swinging the bat a bit better over his last few games. He hit a ball that was caught in deep right-center that would have been out of most parks but the wind kept it in.
Xavier Nady- 2 for 2, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .178. Nady started the winning rally by drawing a walk. It would appear that Marmol basically can't pitch out of the stretch. When Nady is right, he's a ferocious hitter. He seems to be finally fully healthy and had time to work the kinks out of his swing and timing down in the minors. Let's keep our fingers crossed that he's this year's September surprise.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, 3B. BA= .267. Belt's triple was a fairly routine flyball to the warning track in LF that Soriano butchered. Soriano may have hit a 3 run dinger today, but he gave away at least as many runs with horrendous OF defense.
Gregor Blanco- 0 for 0, SB(20). BA= .236. Blanco pinch ran for Nady in the 9'th and drove Marmol to distraction contributing way more to the winning rally than simply stealing 2B.
Brandon Crawford- 0 for 0, BB. BA= .241. Crawford came in as a defensive replacement, but drew a key walk in the 9'th to help set up the winning rally. He also started a not-so-easy DP to end the game in the bottom of the 9'th.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.98. Cainer was sailing along pitching a pretty good game when Soriano got absolutely all of a belt high fastball and sent it through the teeth of a strong wind quite high up in the left-centerfield bleachers for a 3 run HR. It wasn't a great pitch, but I think most hitters would have popped it up. Soriano still has lightening in his bat.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. Lopez once again got 2 outs while facing just one batter for his 6'th Save.
The Dodgers scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 9'th inning off JJ Putz to beat the D'Backs and hang onto their 4.5 game deficit behind the NL West leading San Francisco Giants while the D'Backs fall to 10.5 games off the pace.
The Giants now return home for a crucial 6 game homestand starting with 3 games against the D'Backs and then 3 against the Dodgers with an opportunity to put the race away or to come back to the pack. Barry Zito starts if off tomorrow afternoon facing lefty Patrick Corbin.
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Looks like I'll be eating some crow for the Nady addition. I thought it was a pointless move for some AAA filler, maybe he really just needed recovery time.
ReplyDeleteNady is a heckuva hitter who's been banged up a lot and then was out for so long everything got out of whack. Sometimes the best thing for guys like that is to get released, catch on with minor league deal with a team that has a potential need but is willing to be patient while they get well and get things sorted out in the minors.
DeleteGreat road trip. Need to come up big now. The gints have let down games, it would be nice to have a great Monday, mauve taking advantage of a d-back team that lost a couple close ones. I like the gel of this team, but now is the time they need to execute. Defense, pitching, fundamentals.
ReplyDeleteWe have two more nationally televised games, which do not go smooth for the boys in French vanilla.
I think pagan is this years Ross, and if Nady wants to be Burrell, I'm good with that. I still think the young brandons defense will be key.
Great road trip. Lots of come from behind. Pitching needs to knuckle down now, do their fearsome reputation some justice.
Agreed on the Brandons' D. We've all discussed Crawford at length but now that Belt has settled in at 1B, he's like a vacuum down there. Man, nothing hit down the line gets through. He's like a vaccuum on throws from the Other IF too. He's saved many an error on throws for Sandoval, Arias and Crawford.
DeleteOther than the playoffs, Ross couldn't hold a candle to what Pagan has done for this team. It is easy to see Pagan's leadership on the field and I would imagine that it has carried over to the locker room. The advantage of speaking both Spanish and English fluently has to help.
ReplyDeleteIf Nady does a Burrell thing, this team is in good shape.
Now comes achilles heel. This team HAS to pick it up at home. For August the Giants were 3 & 5 at home and that is not going to cut it. The D'Backs are the ones that bother me. I believe the Giants can play the Dodgers .500 at the worst for the rest of the year at home.
One of the most important homestands I can remember as a Giants fan coming up.
DeleteTough turnaround game to play on Monday against the Snakes. But Giants can feel pretty good about themselves going in.
ReplyDeleteIt now comes down to pitching and winning at home. The Bums and the Snakes are not going to hand it to the Giants - time to earn it boys.