The Giants were done in by an early Ryan Vogelsong pitching mistake and a botched placement of the tarp on the field during a brief rainstorm and the game was eventually called after a rain delay of several hours. Key Lines:
Ryan Vogelsong- 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.73. There were two keys to this game from the get-go: 1. Don't fall behind early. 2. Don't let Anthony Rizzo beat you. So what does Vogey do? He walks the virtually unwalkable Javier Baez with 2 outs in the first inning then serves up a gopher ball to Rizzo who hit it completely out of the stadium. He settled down after that and pitched well for the next 3 innings, but when the rains came, there was not enough time to mount a comeback.
Tsuyoshi Wada- 5 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.75. Wada, like most Asian pitchers, comes to a stop at the top of his leg kick. This interrupts the timing of hitters, especially those with long timing mechanisms and the Giants have a few of those. Usually hitters catch up after they've seen these guys a time or two, but this was the first time the Giants had seen Wada. They got their hits in. In fact, they got twice as many as the Cubs, but they were to scattered to be effective in mounting a rally.
Grounds Crew- The Grounds Crew completely botched the rollout of the tarp which resulted in a huge lake being formed around the shortstop position. Was it incompetence? A fluke? A conspiracy that players will be telling their grandchildren about 40 years from now? It's not like rain delays are a rare occurrence in Chicago! On the other hand, why would the Cubs be playing games like that when all they are doing for the rest of the season is auditioning people for future seasons? It then took them over 3.5 hours to decide that the field was never going to be playable and finally called the game after everyone had sat around all night. Just a bizarre situation and an embarrassing one for MLB.
The Dodgers topped the Padres 8-6 so the Giants fall back to a 4.5 game deficit in the NL West. The Cards won and the Braves crushed the Pirates 11-3, so the Giants are now tied with the Braves for the second Wild Card slot and a game ahead of the Pirates.
Jake Peavy hopes for better results and better luck in tonight's game facing Edwin Jackson.
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Wow, those Braves came back from the dead.
ReplyDeleteThank you for cool headed report on the tarp roll-out. So many are filled with indignation as if these problems are greater than say the problems on the outskirts of St. Louis or in foreign lands.
It's just baseball and people are fallible.
The Cubs are a bushleague organization. I wish them nothing but sad sack stories for the next 50 years. And their too slick ivy league GMs master plan has a big chance of falling on its face. When they start actually competing for something besides a high draft pick we can talk. What do they need, another 3-4 years? Sabean and Beane had 4 years of losing, turned it around without tanking.
ReplyDeleteI would hope the GM of the Cubs wouldn't have anything to do with "Tarp-Gate". Maybe there should be something put into the league rules stating such a mistake by the home team with lighting or inefficient grounds crews automatically suspends the game if they are leading.
DeleteRule 4.12(a)(3) states light failure or failure of a mechanical device such as the tarp by the home team will call for suspension of the game.
DeleteJed Hoyer and the rest of Cubs management reportedly backed the Giants argument and asked MLB to reverse the ruling on the field and allow the game to be completed.
DeleteThe Giants' protest was upheld by MLB. Can they now beat the bush league Cubs back into the bushes and under a rock?
ReplyDeleteI saw that! Amazing! In all my years of watching baseball I don't think I have ever seen a protest of something like that upheld. I think MLB is getting more conscious of their PR image with fans and don't want to be seen supporting something as bush league as went on last night.
DeleteGreat news.
DeleteAnd it seems the boys are really motivated tonight to make a statement. That bodes well for the stretch run.