The Cincinnati Reds showed just how deep their pitching is when they overcame a first inning injury to their starting pitcher, Johnny Cueto, for a wire-to-wire win in Game 1 of the NLDS. The Giants hit the ball hard all night but right at fielders or just not quite far enough or in the vicinity of bad fielders who made great plays. The BABIP gods can get you at least 2 ways: With bloopers, and seeing-eye ground balls that kill a good pitcher or by scorchers that die in gloves to kill a good hitting attack. In this game it was the latter of those two. Key Lines:
Buster Posey- 2 for 5, HR. Buster came to the plate as the tying run in the 9'th against Aroldis Chapman who was wild. Chapman recovered some of his velocity and command to the last 2 batters and threw some 100 MPH cheese to Buster. At least Buster got 3 good swings on him.
Brandon Belt- 0 for 2, 2 BB. Belt had a terrific game as he made 2 excellent defensive plays at 1B and hit 2 at'em balls that should have made him 2 for 2 with 2 BB's. Instead, the boxscore looks like the same old Brandon Belt looking to take a walk that yields nothing.
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. Also a terrific game from Blanco marred by his last AB against Broxton with 2 runners on in the 8'th. He had done a great job of milking the count to 3-2 then got a borderline pitch low and away. The called third strike was questionable but a good batter does not take that chance. You have to take a poke at it and hope it either shoots a gap the other way or fouls off so you live to see another pitch.
Joaquin Arias- 1 for 1. Arias showed no fear of Aroldis Chapman as he led off the 9'th with a line drive single off the flamethrower. I love Arias and hope he'll be back next year. I think he has the tools to grow into a much larger role. Just not sure what that role would be on this team.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 HR's allowed. I thought Cain had terrific stuff. He made one really bad pitch and 1 semi-bad pitch and paid the price. 2 thoughts on Cain: 1. If you remember, I nearly had a stroke when Bochy didn't pinch hit for him after he had thrown 104 pitches with a 5-0 lead against the Dodgers. Giants pitchers have tended to have several subpar outings after extending beyond 100+ pitches. 2. Matt Cain has made a career out of limiting HR's allowed. My theory as to why is how he uses his fastball. Most, if not all, his HR's come off hanging breaking balls. He needs the off-speed stuff to put batters away and keep his pitch counts down but as he has expanded his repertoire, he has also started to give up more dingers.
George Kontos- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. Very nice outing for Kontos! He has to be moving up the bullpen ladder rather quickly. I could see him being the 8'th inning guy next year if not the closer.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K's. This line is a bit deceiving as one of the hits was a broken-bat blooper that should not have dropped in and a run scored on a passed ball by Posey in which Buster seemed to lose concentration for an instant. Still, you can only miss your spots so many times and only throw so many back-up sliders before it comes back to bite you. He still throws hard and the the 3 K's show he still has good stuff, but until he gets better command, he needs to be at the back of the bullpen. Maybe he was in this one as the 4'th reliever in a game the Giants trailed.
As the lower seed in this series, the Giants can ill afford a loss in the first two games at home. 2 losses is almost certainly the end of the line, but hey, you can only play one game at a time.
Madison Bumgarner tries to even the series tonight facing Bronson Arroyo in Game 2 at AT&T Park.
Go Giants!
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Am proud of you Drb, finally someone whos a Giants fan said it "same old Brandon Belt looking to take a walk that yields nothing" .
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with yesterdays games but I dont get it why Belt tries to get so many walks when hes batting so low in the order and second, the hitters behind him are really not that good. Should this be something that Meulens has to teach him or is it common sense?
I really have no problem in playing H.Sanchez, honestly I think hes a better option. Everytime the dude plays he gets a hit or an RBI. And thats exactly what you need in the playoffs.
After the Giants were down 3-0, I knew the game was over because in the playoffs for a team to rally from 3runs down you need to have extra bases power (2B, HR) and this lineup does not have that. As we all know for the Giants to score runs they have to get a lot of hits and in the playoffs a manager wont let a pitcher stay in the game so long if hes struggling. I think thats the biggest difference from this team and the 2010 one, the latter one had pop.
Still cheering for the Gmen but won't be surprised if we are swept. Ive said it all season long, the Giants record against good teams isnt that good and their pitching has been average for the last couple of months.
Finally, I would like your opinion on this Drb. Dont you think that the Reds lineup seem like they can hit FB guys (Like Cain, Vogelsong) and struggle with guys like Zito who mix stuff?
Well, let's be clear here. My comment was a reference to the early season version of Brandon Belt. He did put a couple of good swings on the ball and got robbed, so I don't think it's fair to say he's only up there looking for walks now.
DeleteI like Hector too and think he is underrated by the folks who think OBP is the only stat that matters. I'm not sure I prefer him in the lineup to Belt, but on days Buster has to play first, it's not the disastrous dropoff some make it out to be.
The Giants do have extra base power up and down the lineup, so I don't think that is quite fair either. The reason why a 3-0 lead is close to insurmountable in the playoffs is the quality of pitching tends to be much higher in the playoffs. I think this is a much better lineup than the 2010 lineup but I don't think the pitching is as strong as in 2010 and that is the reason why I am afraid this postseason could end prior to the World Series for the Giants.
This is a tough Reds lineup who can score on anybody. They kill LHP's. The Reds present major matchup problems for the Giants which is why the Giants regular season record against them the last few years is not so great.
I was referring to Belt last night, but through out the season he just hasn't been that aggressive at the plate. Dont get me wrong, the guy has tons of potential but until now hes only shown flashes. Also, I think that a lot of fans including me have lost patience with him as he hasn't been like the other Giants top prospects who have arrived and immediately have made an impact.
DeleteAm not sure this is a better lineup than the 2010 WS lineup. Uribe, Huff, Ross and maybe even Torres were better players at their position than what the Giants have now. Also am sticking to the fact that they had more pop.
It had to read, I was not referring to Belt last night, typing error.
DeleteForgot to tell you, nice job done on your live blog yesterday,
Thanks for following the live blog.
DeleteYou have to remember the small sample size caveat with regards to the playoffs and that Cody Ross went insanely hot for that short run.
The 2012 Giants scored a total of 718 runs while the 2010 Giants scored 697. Approximately equal, although the 2010 team started out without Buster who made a big difference.
As for comparing the Reds and the Giants of 2012, the Giants actually scored more runs, 718-669 despite playing in a much tougher hitting environment.
In comparing power, if you look at park factors, the difference is not nearly as great as it looks in raw numbers.
The Giants hit a total of 103 HR's to the Reds 172, but the Giants hit 72 on the road while the Reds hit 69. If you take road numbers as having approximately equal park factors, then the Giants and Reds are about equal in HR's when park factors are equal.