Saturday, September 6, 2014

Game Wrap 9/6/2014: Giants 5 Tigers 4

The Giants jumped on David Price for 5 consecutive 2-out hits in the first inning to build a 4-0 lead, then hung on for the win despite 3 home runs by the Tigers, 2 from Miguel Cabrera.  Key Lines:

Buster Posey- 3 for 3, HR(20), BB.  BA= .310.  Buster continues to close on the BA lead in the NL.  His 5'th inning HR was the difference in the ballgame.

Andrew Susac- 1 for 4, 2B.  BA= .286.  Susac's 2 run double in the first was the big blow, driving in 2 runs.  The Fox commentators on the MLB Network commented on the extra rest and games a 1B he gives Buster Posey as possibly contributing to Posey's late season surge.

Joaquin Arias- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .236.  Arias is 9 for 21, .438 over his last 10 games.

Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 3.02.  Bumgarner was fortunate to give up just 3 runs with the 10 hits and 2 dingers.  Sometimes it's more important when the hits occur than how many.

Jean Machi- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA=  1.92.  The Tigers looked like they had not seen Machi before, and I guess they hadn't.  Where would the Giants be without him?  Great season for the Machi Man.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.08.  Romo faced the heart of the Tigers' order in the 8'th with Miguel Cabrera leading off and you just knew what was going to happen.  Cabrera was looking slider and Romo hung one over the middle of the plate.  Gone!  Romo made a nice recovery to get the next 3 batters out, no easy task.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(15).  ERA= 1.75.  Casilla was not facing the heart of the order, but set the Tigers down with aplomb in the 9'th without a hint of a baserunner.

David Price- 8.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 11 K's.  ERA= 3.33.  Talk about BABIP luck.  Statistically, David Price outpitched Bumgarner except for the 5 consecutive hits and 4 runs in the first inning, all with 2 outs.  Oh well, as Kruk would say, "ownage is ownage" and the Giants seem to own the Tigers right now.

The Win drew the Giants to 1.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, pending the Dodger-D'Backs game tonight.  The Giants also expanded their lead in the Wild Card race to 3.5 games over the Brewers for the first WC playoff spot.

Tim Hudson goes for a series sweep facing LHP Kyle Lobstein tomorrow.

14 comments:

  1. another series win against a winning team

    amazing how quickly things can change in the mlb

    well, wash is the first manager to bite the dust and towers the first gm

    dont believe that either will ever find their way back to the mlb

    bacci

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    1. Towers is rumored to be tight with Padres ownership, so he may land there, but not necessarily as GM.

      We'll see about Washington. The Rangers players liked him. Never underestimate the ability of MLB to recycle its managers.

      Ha! I remember when I thought Bochy was just another recycled manager. How wrong I was!

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    2. Speaking of mistakes, to me, the 4 most famous quotes of the Sabean era are:

      1. "I am not an idiot"
      2. "Lunatic fringe"
      3. The Staricase
      and now... "nuclear wasteland"

      Thanks for being a good sport about this (I hope...), and thanks again for doing this blog. My favorite site on the entire internet.

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    3. Thanks Anon! Never hurts to have a bit of a sense of humor about all this and those are all great phrases. I'll add a some of my own: "Kicking Tires", "Due Diligence" and "Catch Lightning in a Bottle." LOL!

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    4. Sabean got tired of kicking tires, he really has liked his "leaking oil" a lot. Who knew that the rookie he threw under the bus would still be hitting 300 this late in the season. Panik at the Disco!

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  2. In the main post Machi is listed with an ERA over 4, but it is really 1.95.

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    1. Fixed. I transcribed it off the wrong line and put Romo's in there twice. I also had Machi's ERA after Casilla's and fixed that too.

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  3. With a name like Kyle Lobstein (aka The Lobster) is it ant wonder that this guy throws junk - check out his stats. Fast ball tops out at 89 and like 8 secondary pitches. Which Giants batters excel against junkballers?

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  4. Lob is "praise" in German, and Stein is "stone." So I suppose that a Lobstein is, or would be if there were such a word, a memorial stone. Here = an r.i.p. for the Tigers? There is also, so the Web tells me, a syndrome nam ed after a Dr Lobstein, involving imperfect bone formation. In either case, seems to me the name casts a pall of impending doom on the Detroiters.

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    1. Really good stuff! Slightly off topic I visited New Ulm, MN two summer ago, hometown of children's author Wanda Gag, catcher Terry Steinbach, and home to the August Schell Brewery, one of the oldest breweries in the country. The town was founded by immigrants from Germany and Bohemia in the 1850's. I recommend the brewery tour and the beer ….

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  5. Let's see. Price strikes out 11, nearly goes the distance; Cabrera hits TWO big flies; Victor Martinez sends one deep; Bumgarner gets hit around, fails to strike out a single batter... Giants still win. That's what I call digging deep. Talk about a demoralizing loss for Detroit! Seattle wins last night, moves past them in the Wildcard. KC is still playing well too.

    Meanwhile, the Giants keep putting more distance between themselves and the rest of the Wildcard pack. If somebody could just beat the Dodgers... looks like we're going to have to take care of them ourselves.

    This was a sweet, sweet victory. I think a sweep might truly take the wind out of their sails. I love the way the Giants are playing right now (how can you not?). My only suggestion is that Romo does NOT pitch past the 7th inning in a close game for the rest of the year. I just don't have a lot of confidence in him right now. I'd much rather see Strickland come in to preserve a late lead. Throw some heat at the opposition, because Serg's soft stuff doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

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    1. The D-backs are 4-14 against the Dodgers. So much for being gritty tough guys who were mad about getting their pool pee'd in. Folding like pussycats.

      I'd agree about Romo. I'm curious about the Giants evaluations on their pen, and what the market was in July and August. Teams are most likely a little weary of Sabean's "Godfather 2" offer of "Nothing, and i'd appreciate if you paid the gaming license yourself" the way he did with Ross and Mijares. Its nice to have some flamethrowers in for the moment, G's pen is dead last in velocity in the majors. But dead first in experience. I bet that's what they are counting on.

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    2. I'll say it again. Soft tossing relievers are the new undervalued commodity. LOL!

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    3. Make that soft tossing LOOGYies coming off TJ and drafted below round 20.

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