Thursday, May 29, 2014

Game Wrap 5/29/2014: Giants 6 Cardinals 5

There was more than just a hint of playoff atmosphere in the air tonight in St Louis, and the Giants and Cardinals played a game that would have lived up to any playoff hype.  The Giants came out on top of a tense see-saw affair including a heart stopping bottom of the 9'th inning.  Key Lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(8), BB.  BA= .247.  Pablo's BA keeps inching up and he continues to play a major role in Giants victories.  He's also apparently closing in on some sort of record for consecutive games with at least 1 RBI, kind of a silly record, but a neat one, nonetheless.

Michael Morse- 2 for 4, 2B(14), HR(11).  BA= .290.  Oh, this is good!  The Cardinals intentionally  walked Pablo Sandoval with Blanco on 3B representing the go-ahead run.  Michael Morse didn't just make them pay.  He drove in Sandoval with what ended up being the winning run all the way from 1B when he scorched a line drive up the R-CF alley that tailed away from Bourjos like crazy and went all the way to the wall.  I cannot even imagine the fan reaction if that happened in SF.  Oh my!  Morse is on a pace to hit 42 doubles and 33 HR.

Gregor Blanco- 3 for 4, SB(6).  BA= .221.  Blanco started the winning rally with a single.   He then stole 2B enabling him to take 3B on Pagan's single up the middle.  He then scampered home when Carlos Martinez was out of position in front of the mound and blocked Molina's vision on the throw causing an overthrow to the backstop.  Oh, and Blanco is hitting .348 over his last 10 games.

Ryan Vogelsong- 6.1 IP,  7 H 4 R, 3 BB, 5 K.  ERA= 3.45.  You could almost see Ryan Vogelsong's demons come and perch on his shoulder.  He would fight them off only to have them return and alight on his other shoulder.  Vogey oscillated between painting the corners with perfect pitches and not being able to hit the broadside of a barn.  Ultimately, he took the game into the 7'th inning and left his team with a chance to win.  It wasn't a QS and it wasn't pretty, but it was just good enough.

Javier Lopez- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA=   .  Lopez came on in the 7'th to get two big outs and take the game into the 8'th.

Jean Machi- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.33.  Machi, Machi, Machi man did his thing including pouncing on a chopper to the left side with lightning reflexes and easily throwing out the runner.  Kruk and Kuip called it "cat like quickness."

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(17).  ERA= 3.52.  Romo struggled with command of his slider again and darn near coughed this one up.  He finally got Shane Robinson to pop out to Arias who was playing 3B as a defensive replacement to end the game with the winning run on base.  On the single by John Jay that brought the Cards within 1, Romo threw a 3-2 slider on the outside corner that Jay looked like he was expecting.  It got up just a hair and Jay smacked it into RF.  Romo could have thrown the slider down and in, but then Jay may have taken the pitch for a walk or else he might have just dropped the bathead on it and taken it deep.  Not a lot of great options at that point and that is where Romo sometimes comes up short as a closer.

The Win gave the Giants a chance to extend their lead in the NL West over the Dodgers who are sitting  6 games back and trailing the Pirates 6-3 at the time of this post.  The Rockies were idle to slip 6.5 games behind in 3'rd place.  The Padres were also idle falling 11 games back in 4'th place.  The last place D'Backs shut out the Reds 4-0 behind Jesse Collmenter to remain 13 games off the pace.

Madison Bumgarner and Adam Wainwright square of tomorrow evening in a battle of aces.

16 comments:

  1. Thanks again for your game reviews! Up here in the Puget Sound, didn't get to see or hear the game till I stumbled across Romo's 9th on MLBTV. Did follow online on the Chron's site. Elated when Morse & Panda went deep...deflated when Craig struck back. I thought that the Morse signing was another shrewd Sabey move, but man is it paying dividends! For me, topping the Cards in StL is just a notch below beating the Bums at Chavez Ravine. A great franchise, a greater foe...and a history of cheat shots to make it burn. Love it!

    Boch & his merry band of managing wizards push the right buttons once again, and Vogey & the pen man up yet one more time. Here's to Maddy securing team win number 40 tomorrow. Let's Go Giants!!!

    NWGiantsFan
    DtF!!! (and the Cards as well!)

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    1. Thanks. That might have been the most exciting game so far this year. Definitely playoff caliber!

      Once again, Bochy's good managing and/or the opposing team's poor managing was a difference maker(I'm referring to Matheny's decision to walk Pablo).

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    2. Alex P also brought up the Cardinals 7'th inning where Matheny sent Mark Ellis up to sacrifice with Bourjos, who is very fast and a good base-stealer at first. That little decision created a runner at 2B with 1 out and 2 LH batters coming up to face Javier Lopez.

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    3. New Torture, by Romo...


      Morse has been huge so far...good job, Sabes, though I understand Bochy recommended???

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    4. From the media scuttlebutt, Sabean was not really interested in signing Morse, Morse's signing is on BochyBall. And so far, looks like Bochy is Da Man!

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    5. How much would it cost to trade for a hot hitter like Morse before the trade deadline?

      I have always wondered if it is cheaper to load up in the offseason...get LIsson, get Hicks, get Colvin, get Morse.

      Some might work out and some might not.

      So far this year, we have benefitted.

      And hopefully this buys some of our prospects one more year; otherwise, we all will be monitoring minor league scores every night.

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  2. Ditto on the game reviews. Looked like Kolten Wong got burned cheating toward the hole when Blancos 8th inning single was hit where he was supposed to be, odd looking play. I want the Giants to win and Kolten to do well. Is that too much to ask for?

    LG

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    1. Well, Kolton is the second baseman for my fantasy team, but I'm willing to sacrifice fake baseball for real for the next 3 games.

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  3. Very confused with how Matheny uses his bullpen or the quality of Cards bullpen?

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    1. Matheny made some mistakes in this game, but I'm not sure you can blame him for Carlos Martinez' head being on another planet or Michael Morse scalding a 98 MPH Rosenthal FB. I think the Giants' hitters deserve a lot of credit for beating a darn good bullpen last night.

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    2. Don't get me wrong. Martinez and Rosenthal have great STUFF but, their ERA's are 4.82, 4.26 respectively. Matheny needs to play split's better. Loogy or Righty match ups. Yes, Giant's hitters did there jobs last night...I just question strength of Cards bullpen or how Matheny uses them.

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  4. Speaking of bullpens….Just saw that Chris Withrow, a huge piece of the Dodgers bullpen has a torn UCL and will undergo TJ surgery.

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    1. Wooohh, dang that's a big pin down for the Dodgers.. BUMmer...

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  5. Playoff atmosphere indeed! Bochy says that Romo needs to make a mechanical adjustment.

    Hunter Strickland to Richmond! Fresno within the month I bet.

    The next month the Giants will need to supplement the bench some, maybe see how this 2B situation is working out. Daniel Murphy on the Mets...

    It cracks me up the Giants bullpen was predicted to be the worst in baseball. How's that one looking now fangraphs?

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    1. Oh yeah, forgot about that Fangraphs projection. In fact, they projected a whole lot of mediocre production from our team, including Morse and Hudson. I think their WAR NOW probably exceeds what they had projected for the season (of course, still a long way to go...).

      Wow, media has said that some within Giants think Strickland is our future closer, and that was with Law doing what he was doing last season, and Hembree having that great September. Great timing, they will need a lot of young blood soon, the age of the bullpen is getting extreme.

      I think Schulman also reported that Cain took Romo aside and was having a very animated conversation with him, and demonstrating something with his arm, so apparently at least a couple of people figured out his issue.

      Between supplementing the bench and keeping Adrianza (who is the one who would lose out if we supplement the bench at 2B), I would rather keep Adrianza. I still think that he can add a lot of value through his glove. Some advanced defensive metrics have him saving 2-3 wins solely on defense.

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    2. The problem for Adrianza is he is not going to be a long term 2B and Crawford ain't going anywhere at SS. I don't doubt that Adrianza is a great defensive SS. That is obvious from watching him play. I would like to see your defensive metric, though. Where has he accumulated enough measured defensive chances to get a reliable metric? 2-3 Wins solely on defensive metric are likely only if he is a full-time SS. Again, Crawford ain't giving that up anytime soon.

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