The Giants broke a 5 game losing streak by breaking out th longball in Philadelphia. Key Lines:
Joe Panik- 2 for 4, 2B, HBP. BA= .311. Panik shows no signs of regressing. That swing is just so fundamentaly sound and his strike zone judgement is way beyond his years.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(9). BA= .289. If Buster played in Philly or Milwaukee, no telling how many HR's he might hit. I'm going to say 30+ every year. This one cleared the fence in straightaway CF.
Matt Duffy- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .277. Duffy had been in a mini-slump. Do you think maybe McGehee's recall helped him focus? He also made a catch of a foul pop going into the stands that would have made Pablo Sandoval proud.
Justin Maxwell- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .240. Maxwell was filling in for Hunter Pence who is day to day with what sounds like a wrist sprain from a diving catch a couple of games ago.
Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, 2 HR. ERA= 3.29. Phils scored 3 of their 4 runs in the first 2 innings, then Timmy settled down and pitched a pretty good game.
Javier Lopez- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 1.23. Lopez was brought in to face Utley and Howard in the 8'th inning. He walked Utley but got a comebacker from Howard that he turned into a DP. Think about it. The Giants shut down Utley and Howard in the 2010 playoffs with their lefty relievers and have been doing it ever since. They pretty much put both of those guys into permanent slumps!
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(16). ERA= 2.70. Look what a couple of days off will do for you. Casilla has a long history of struggling if he gets overworked. He was back to normal tonight.
The Dodgers lost to the Cardinals 2-1, so incredibly, the Giants are now just 0.5 games out of first place in the NL West despite coming off a 5 game losing streak. The Giants are also tied with the Pirates for the 2 Wild Card playoff spots.
Madison Bumgarner takes the mound in game 2 of the series tomorrow facing Severino Gonzalez whose 6.88 ERA is deceiving due to a Disaster Start in is first appearance.
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Duffy hits his 4th home run and, according to Baggs, Panik responds: “It’s like the tortoise and the hare, except both of us are tortoises.” I thought that was amusing.
ReplyDeleteAs for his hitting slump, Duffy says he'd been pressing the past couple of weeks so he went back to his hitting bible -- “The Mental Keys to Hitting.” So there is that.
But I also look at the adversity he faced. And I think he, along with most of the other Giants, got handcuffed as Pittsburgh ran us through three stud pitchers. Lirano (3.24 ERA), Burnett (2.20 ERA) and Cole (1.90 ERA). So, except Belt and Panik, none of the regulars who had enough ABs to qualify hit better than .250 (Aoki) in the past 7 days (Pence hit well, but didn't qualify). And Duffy actually out-hit both Posey and Pagan. And matched Posey for HRs...
So I'm not terribly concerned about Duffy's performance 'slump' during that span considering it was a club-wide 'problem.'
In fact I think it's best to give credit where it's due -- the Pittsburgh pitching staff played well and won the war. Just like we did to the Dodgers in the no-so-distant past.
Yeah, both ATL and Pittsburgh brought the pitching to a pitcher friendly park. Giants were probably fortunate to win the first two against ATL.
DeleteDuffman, oh yeah!!!!
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