Thursday, May 30, 2013

Game Wrap 2/29/2013: A's 9 Giants 6

It seems to have become almost obligatory for the Giants to spot the other team a 2 run lead before a Giant batter gets a chance to hit at home games.  This one was no different.  The Giants offense eventually mounted a comeback from a 6-1 deficit, but it was too little too late and they dropped their 3'rd in a row to their crossbay rivals.  Key Lines:

Andres Torres- 2 for 3, 2B, 2 BB.  BA= .287.  Torres continued his hot hitting and in case anyone has forgotten, he kept this up for 4 months in 2010.  He made another OF error, though.

Marco Scutaro- 2 for 4, BB.  BA= .330.  The hit parade continues, but so does the error parade.

Hunter Pence- 3 for 5, HR(9).  BA= .284.  Pence leads the team in HR's with 1 more than Sandoval.

Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, BB.  BA= .268.  Blanco's BA had slipped from .291 to .258 prior to this one.

Tim Lincecum- 4.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 5.12.  Timmy seemed to settle down after the obligatory rough first inning made worse by the Scutaro error, but then the wheels came off in the 5'th.  I would say it's definitely time to move him to the bullpen, but who do you replace him with in the rotation?  Giants SP's are in a world of hurt right now!

The Rockies lost to the lowly 'Stros again while the D'Backs game was rained out in Texas, so the Giants and Rockies both slip to 2.5 games behind the first place D'Backs in the NL West.  The Padres won and are 6 games behind the leaders while the Dodgers lost to the Angels and remain 7.5 games behind and in last place.

Barry Zito faces AJ Griffin in an afternoon game to wrap up this year's Bay Bridge interleague series with the A's.

8 comments:

  1. andres' error shows why he cant play regularly....he looses focus

    i gotta stop following games with gameday running, cuz according to gameday, timmy was on his game and the ump wouldnt give him k's at the knee or belt

    "but who do you replace him with in the rotation? Giants SP's are in a world of hurt right now!"

    told you so....

    giants are playing bad ball and if they play like this in st louis, they are gonna get pummeled and swept

    bacci

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  2. I see people bashing Sandoval (like Murphy of the KNBR morning show on twitter talking about how he attacks slumps like a buffet line) but I say give him a break, he's battling some sort of bad flu right now (Bochy calls it "crud" so it certainly sounds pretty bad). Sometimes the best players need to suck it up and play despite not feeling very well.

    Hopefully Zito can right the ship right now, like he did a number of times last season.

    Torres giveth, and Torres taketh away. Yeah, good reminder, 4 months of that type of great hitter would certainly lift our offense (not that it needs lifting, but wow, wouldn't our offense be amazing with that added to our current configuration from last season).

    Pence: sign him up please!

    I don't see how we can move Lincecum without closing the door on him returning next season (yes, I still want that). Plus, this is not much different from what he's been doing all season, I think we should limp along with him like this and hopefully he figures it out like he did last season, and lead the staff in ERA for half a season.

    But I really do hate losing to the A's like this, hate losing the season's series. Hopefully they can at least avoid the sweep, else we gave them a great help in trying to win the AL West division title.

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    1. I feel the need to repeat that the pitching staff has actually shown a lot of skill sabermetrically, just not executing in games, as their PQS is still going pretty strong, at least up until the recent disaster starts. I would not describe the pitching staff as being in a world of hurt, more like it is close to putting it all together but missing by "that" much.

      Seems like a broken record lately, the umpires squeezing the Giants pitcher's strike zone, just makes me want to get rid of that function from them and have an announcer call the PitchF/X strikes and balls. Seems like they have had a vendetta against the Giants since those blown calls were publicized widely.

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  3. In my opinion we will need to target a starting pitcher at the deadline,perhaps a big name guy like Cliff Lee. It is clear that Lincecum isn't going to be part of the solution next year and whatever happens with Vogey, he is going to be a year older. Zito's on the bubble too. Why not get someone that can help us significantly this year and beyond?

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  4. Posey and Sando need to bust out of their funks.

    The defense is getting a little keystone copish. Gotta rally on that.

    If Pagan goes down is it Peggs 2nd chance or do they give Roger K a shot?

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  5. Zeets comes through with a DOM start, stopping the losing, and the offense comes through once again, particularly Sandoval who has been hit by a bad flu for a while. Belt also did nicely too.

    People forget that we probably can't get big name guys like Cliff Lee unless we give up big name pitching prospects like Crick, Blackburn, Stratton. So we shore up the next couple of seasons, but reduce our potential in the back half of the 2010 decade, where we should still have Posey and Bumgarner leading the team (and perhaps Cain too, but he'll be in the old zone by then). I'd rather see what we can do with the young guys in the back of the decade.

    Now if the Phillies gave us him just to drop $25M in salary, in exchange for lower tier prospects, then I would be OK with that, but still would have to think hard on that.

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  6. I'd love to see Hembree get a shot. Juan Perez has earned a call up in my opinion too. Might provide a little leadoff spark while Pagan is on the shelf. Better put together a decent road trip, or we could see the bright lights start to fade pretty quickly on this season.

    KG

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    1. Bochy's interview on relievers gave the impression that Hembree is getting close to being ready to come up, so if there is an opening in mid-to-late June, he could be the one to get the call. But I would not set my sights up high for him, I expect him to be like Wilson when he got up, lots of K's but lots of walks too, and sometimes (see Runzler) they have a long hard time trying to get over that last hurdle.

      Same for Juan Perez, expecting him to come up and take over for Pagan (and I don't think the call has been made on his DL yet) is a lot for a prospect with little hype to do (not impossible, but improbable).

      Besides, I think if Pagan does go on the shelf, we'll initially see Blanco in CF and Torres in LF (usually I would reverse that but given his oopsy so far in LF, this is more probable now) as the OF starters, with probably Kieschick getting the call and the look, plus a start or two.

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