When I was trying to think of an opening line for this post, the phrase "a royal whipping" came to mind. I also thought of "the BABIP gods struck back with a vengeance" or "the Giants got a royal BABIP'ing." Jake Peavy and the Giants got into one of those innings in the bottom of the second frame where no matter what pitch you throw or where the ball is hit, you just can't get an out to save your life. When the BABIP'ing ended, the Royals had themselves a 7-0 lead and you knew the game was over. Key Lines:
Jake Peavy- 1.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 12.79. Peavy actually looked really good for the first two batters, much better than his Game 2 start. Then he walked Lorenzo Cain and gave up a hard single to Eric Hosmer. He managed to get out of the first on a groundout by major nemesis, Billy "Country Breakfast" Butler. The bottom of the second inning started with a soft single to CF by Alex Gordon followed by a line-drive single by Salvador Perez and then a seeing-eye groundball double down the first base line. Rags came out to check with Peavy and Infante struck out, but then all hell broke loose. Nori Aoki hit a weak bouncer to Belt who was off the bag. Belt checked Perez at 3B who was headed back to third and then started to take it to the first base bag himself for what should have been the 2'nd out of the inning. Peavy who had his back to Perez at 3B started yelling at Belt to throw home and Belt froze for a split second, just enough to let Aoki beat him to the bag at first. Now the bases were loaded with 1 out instead of 2'nd and 3'rd with 2 outs and you just knew it was going to get worse, way worse! I'll spare you the unpleasant details, but Yusmeiro Petit could not stop the bleeding either.
That was pretty much the ballgame right there. It's a little mystifying why Buster Posey, who appears to be exhausted, did not come out until the 7'th inning. Bochy somehow managed to avoid using Affeldt, Romo or Casilla, or Tim Lincecum.
The Loss tied the best of 7 series at 3 games each. It is now a one game do or die, mutual elimination match for Game 7.
Bochy has a couple of big decisions to make here:
1. IMO, Juan Perez absolutely has to start in LF tomorrow. His D is way better than Travis Ishikawa's and his bat is actually hotter right now too!
2. Does he start Tim Hudson on normal rest and hope he competes his way to a win, or does he bring back his ace, Madison Bumgarner on short rest? If it was any other game, I'd say no way to Bummy coming back, but this is the end of the season, win or lose. Bummy has all winter to get rested up. Heck, let him come to spring training 2 weeks late! I don't think you have to get another CG from Bummy or even 6 innings. I would be down with Bummy for as little as 3 innings with Affeldt, Romo and Casilla throwing 2 each. The two Tim's would be saved for a possible extra inning game. Probably more ideal would be 5 innings from Bummy with 2 from Affeldt and 1 each from Romo and Casilla. I'm not going to call Bochy an idiot if he goes with Huddy, but if it's me, I ask Bummy to give me 3-5 more innings in the final game of the season.
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Al Leiter predicted after game 5 that there would be a game 7 and Madbum would pitch 3 innings in relief so both of you have similar thoughts. How about sticking Huddy to start for 3 innings in front of the pitchers you mentioned. Can't see Bochy denying Huddy the chance to pitch in game 7. It would be a great story if Huddy helps the Giants win game 7 in his 1st World Series.
ReplyDeleteLG
For the best strategy, Bochy should go with Bumgarner. For the sake of an old vet in a World Series at the end of his career, he will go with Hudson. This will probably be a mistake. Of course if the team can't hit any better than they hit today, the mistake won't cost the Giants the game, since they will have no chance to win it no matter who pitches for them.
ReplyDeleteNo use dissecting Game 6, that corpse was DOA.
ReplyDeleteGame 7 thoughts...
Bochy will start Huddy. Call it vet love or sticking with his guys, Bochy ain't changing now.
When Huddy gets in a jam:
1. Don't wait for the BABIP Gods to run the table. Don't Peavy it up.
2. Warm up the pen anytime someone gets on, walk, error, single, bunt. I don't care fire 'em up.
3. In a jam, bring in the firefighters Affeldt/Lopez/Romo/Cassila - get out of the inning, period.
4. THEN bring in MadBum/Petit to serve up shutdown innings.
Remember the game can be lost with any inning with any batter - manage to win every confrontation.
Start Perez. He's got the mojo right now.
Belt, please NO brain farts.
Guthrie, having watched the Giants serve up Livan Hernandez for a Game 7 beating in 02, for once Giants please get to a crappy pitcher and beat the hell out of him. No excuses, no making Guthrie a world beater. He's a #5 pitcher. Abuse him.
Game 7 BRING IT ON. GO GIANTS!!!
I really think the brain fart was Peavy, not Belt. If Peavy hadn't been screaming at him to go home, he would have beat the runner to the bag, IMO.
Deletefor those who watched the game or were listening to the giants radio broadcast, it was apparent that the brain fart was on peavy (even though bochy threw belt under the bus in the post game presser)
Deletefor those who listened to the espn broadcast, it sounded like the brain fart was on belt
i used to think schulman was a good broadcaster.....but not after last night
im not clear on why bochy again went with travis in left
not clear why he put petit into a situation he had never been in all season
not sure why, after the game got out of hand, he didnt pull posey, who is totally gassed and who i expect to spend the entire month of november in bed
this has been a pretty bizarre post season....
bacci
??? More of this throwing under the bus stuff?!? Bochy might have blamed Belt because Belt "blamed" Belt. He said he wasn't responding to Peavy and because of the crowd noise didn't hear Panik, so didn't turn to toss the ball to him at first. B said he wasn't prepared for the play and that normally the second baseman wouldn't have got to first to take the throw. As for Ishikawa over Perez, Bochy said he wanted the extra offensive potential. As to Posey, Bochy did take him out and put in Susac. I don't see any oddities or blood on the bus wheels anywhere. There was, of course, total failure at the plate on the part of the Giants, but this isn't an oddity in the least, is it?
DeleteTHIS SOOOO MUCH! Punish that Number 5 hitter tonight!!!!
DeleteNWGiantsFan
DtF!!!
That would be No 5 Starting Pitcher (Guthrie)...must be the jitters... :)
DeleteNWGiantsFan
DtF!!!
2 days rest after throwing about 120?? My arm hurts just thinking about that. Hopefully Huddy goes 5, is eligible for the win, and only if dire, Bumgarner comes in. Lincecum recording final outs would be some kind of icing.
ReplyDeleteGO POP!!!!
ReplyDeleteBack to the first game of this post-season - one game to decide.
ReplyDeleteEach inning will be like those from the 18-inning game.
Can't ask anything better than this. Go with everything we have.
I don't think you start Madbum because if he does have an issue going on shorty rest and gets lit up, pyschologically it will be a big hole for the Giants to climb out of. Better to use his as the "calvary" and in relief.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Perez needs to start and Posey needs to run into one. I predict a close game though and if the Giants are down at the 6 inning mark, game will be over. Hopefully the Royals inexperience in this pressure situation gets to them otherwise the odds are not good for us.
Throw out odds in a one game match.
DeleteNever give up.
Calvary was the site where Jesus was crucified. That is precisely what we do not need from Madison Bumgarner. Giants baseball may be torture, if it must be, but lingering death?
ReplyDeleteUnless you are being extremely sarcastic I think he was referring to "the calvary are coming". I know Bumgarner has the hair but to my knowledge he is not a carpenter. Although he did live in a log cabin so maybe it runs in the family.
DeleteI get your point anon, but the word you are looking for is "cavalry", as in the 1st CAV. At any rate, I like your point about Maddy better in relief than starting.
ReplyDeleteMan, one more night of suffering thru Joe effin Buck and the West Coast disrespect out here in FLA. Let's go Huddy, Bochy, defense, Juan P, timely hitting. Just win it!!!!
NWGiantsFan
DtF!!!
I was, of course, being ironic because of Anon's serendipitous typo of "calvary" for "cavalry," also in your post. Bumgarner does have the hair and beard that make the unintended pun more telling; and since a Kaufman is a trader in German, and the KC park is named Kauffman, I guess that if one wanted to, one could keep going with driving money-changers from the temple of baseball. But I won't. I will hope, though, that we won't need any miracles.
ReplyDelete