Hunter Pence hit a 3 run HR in the first inning to stake Madison Bumgarner to a lead before he even threw a pitch. The rest of the game was an old fashioned butt kicking of the Giants by the Pesky Padres as they scored 7 runs with no further response from the Giants. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .286. Like how Sandoval is looking heading into the postseason.
Buster Posey- 2 for 2, BB. BA= .337. McCutchen went 1 for 5 leaving him at .329, so Buster has .008 point lead in the race for the Batting Title.
Hunter Pence- 1 for 4, HR(23). BA= .255. The 3 RBI's put Pence past 100 at 102 on the season. He does seem to have a knack for hitting his dingers with runners on base. He left 3 runners stranded later in the game, though.
Madison Bumgarner- 4 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.37. A pretty awful start for Bumgarner. He did get squeezed a bit by the ump and he did get a bit BABIP'd in the first inning, but there was nothing BABIPy about Headley's and Guzman's bombs. Bumgarner appears to be the pitcher who the long season has taken it's biggest toll on. He was getting under his pitches and has clearly lost velocity over the last month. Gotta be concerned heading into the postseason.
Brad Penny- 1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 6.11. Penny looks done.
Jean Machi- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.18. Machi may be auditioning for a bullpen role with the Giants next year.
The Dodgers won their game against the Reeling Rockies 3-0 to gain a game on the NL West Champion Giants, now 9 games ahead. More importantly, the Cardinals lost to the Nationals 6-4 which allowed the Dodgers to climb to 2 runs behind in the race for the final Wild Card spot. Maybe it's just the Rockies but the Dodgers seem to have played much better since Ned Colletti went down to the clubhouse and screamed at the coaching staff.
The Nats now lead the Reds, who lost the the Bucs 2-1 on a walk-off HR by Andrew McCutchen, by 1 game for the best record in the NL. Giants play the team with the second best record in round 1 of the playoffs.
A couple of minor league notes:
BA ranked Mac Williamson #11 in their top 20 prospects of the NWL. In the chat, they said Chris Stratton probably would have been #3 had he qualifed.
Giants have named their pitching representatives to the AFL: Chris Gloor, Jacob Dunnington and Heath Hembree. This could be an opportunity for Dunnington, in particular, to move up in prospect rankings.
PS: The Pesky Ones look like they are building something there. I think with an addition or two to the pitching staff and one more hitter, they could be contenders as early as next season. Headley has become a monster and Grandal and Alonso look like they can join him to make a solid core.
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Yeah, with them having one of the best records in the past three months -the media has been painting them as losers just because of their overall record - I think a nice addition or two could propel them to contender status too. I have not looked too deeply into Headleys numbers though, he was never such a HR hitter, and if he regresses back, they would struggle again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that point about Stratton, I was wondering about that based on their comments in the free content.
I am not too worried about Bumgarner, it is hard to keep up the impetus once you clinch. I think with the extra rest to his first playoff start, he should be fine, as long as he can adjust to the extra rest, which he also had this time too, I believe, like Lincecum.
The middle lineups looks playoff ready, with Sandoval being Panda-rrific lately, looks like he is finally getting out of the funk he had after his last injury. A functioning Panda would be invaluable to our offense. The media has been picking on Pence, but as long as he continues hitting with RISP, I am not worrying. It has not been perfect but I am happy overall with how the Giants are rolling into the playoffs. I also think the ending series with LA will help raise things into playoff mode, as we get to knock them out of the playoffs.
I tend to believe Headley's breakout is for real. He's always been a solid hitter. It's coming at the right time in his career.
DeleteRe. Headley, I was advocating for the Giants to trade for him earlier in the season when it looked like he might be on the trading block. I thought Pablo could move to 1B or Headley could play LF.
DeletePesky Padres have great pitching in their farm and had a great draft of high upside pitchers. Couple that with some motivated money men with the O'Malleys and they will be contenders much sooner than everybody thinks. Holding onto Quentin and Street (for smart short term contracts) instead of punting them away for more prospects says something as well. I agree, a base of Headley, Grandal and Alonso is looking like a fine core to build around.
ReplyDeleteMac Williamson's good start should get him a lot of attention next year, I imagine they will skip him straight to SJ. I like the fact his contact rates were good at S/K, along with the power. He may not be able to avoid the strikeout at higher levels, but he had small improvements through college.
Posey winning the batting title would be very sweet. He looks locked in on that goal. These last 3 games should be pretty intense, if the Doyers close to 1 after today there should be some urgency to knock them out.
I think Williamson will be in SJ next year too along with the Augusta pitchers and possibly Stratton.
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