The Pirates capitalized and several Giants mistakes while the Giants failed to cash in on several scoring opportunities. Key Lines:
Norichika Aoki- 2 for 4, 2B, SB(12). BA= .313. Aoki keeps on doing what a great leadoff batter does, get on base!
Joe Panik- 2 for 4. BA= .304. When the first two batters go 4 for 8 and the team ends up with just 3 runs, you know there were some missed opportunities. BA had a piece on Panik yesterday. After reading the article, I'm not sure what the point was. I did get that Panik and Crawford have the highest or second highest fWAR of any pair of MI's in MLB right now and that they are putting up similar numbers. There were the usual complaints about BABIP and unsustainability. As I have said before, Panik's style is conducive to a high BABIP, and while his will probably regress some, other aspects of his game will improve, such as power and walk rates to make up for the regression, which is pretty much exactly what we are witnessing this year.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .305. Belt drove in the first 2 Giants runs with a double, but later struck out in a bases-loaded, no-out situation. Gotta give credit to Gerrit Cole who pitched great to get out of that jam, but he got a very generous strike call on the 2-0 pitch and then Belt fouled off the one pitch he hung in the AB. The strikeout pitch was a nasty back-foot slider that would have gotten 99% of batters in that situation.
Ryan Vogelsong- 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.26. Vogey had one bad inning and a bit of bad luck he was not able to overcome. The first run scored after Duffy made an error to allow the opposing pitcher to get on base. The big inning was abetted by a HBP and walk in the middle of it and the Pirates were able to cash in gifts in the form of runs.
Chris Stewart(Pirates)- 3 for 4, 3 2B. BA= .296. Stewart has become a hot commodity due to his defensive catching skills. Here he went nuts on offense against his former team, although I don't know how many current Giants are former teammates. Nice to see him have an extended MLB career. It is well deserved!
The Loss dropped the Giants back to 1.5 games behind the first place Dodger who pounded the Reeling Rockies 11-4. Has there ever been a more worthless team against the Dodgers than the Rockies? The Giants hang onto a 0.5 game lead in the race for the first Wild Card playoff spot.
Tonight will be another tough matchup for the Giants with Chris Heston facing AJ Burnett.
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the amazing, ever changing, mlb kzone
ReplyDeleteits beyond absurd at the point.
craw's post game comments bother me a bit, cuz it seems no one on the team bothered to watch vid of cole's performances this season and craw didnt play any catch with his future bro in law during the off season
stewart is hitting close to 300? now that is amazing....good for him
bacci
Sometimes I wish they'd use a technical solution to balls & strikes. Everyone will pitch to the same. Everyone will hit to the same. The umpire will need to be back there for check-swings, foul-tips, etc., but we won't be getting the wonky strike zones.
DeleteI agree. The technology is clearly in place. It's already used to make line calls in Tennis. If hitting craters, which seems to be the biggest concern, then adjust the size of the strike zone.
DeleteAgreed! Good for Stewart! One of the few things that was really enjoyable about the 2011 season was see his great D, smooth fluid rifle shots to 2nd, gunning down runners.
ReplyDeleteGood for Stewart. Always loved watching his amazing catch-and-release speed.
ReplyDelete