It was all Bumgarner all game with a little help from his friends, but oh my! If you saw this game, you saw one of the great single game performances in Giants history, and that is saying something! Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .301. Blanco continues to thrive in the leadoff spot. His overall OBP for the season is .380.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .278. Belt is going to the opposite field more lately. His double sailed right over the head of Jason Werth and banged off the LF wall. He scored on Hunter Pence's double.
Hunter Pence- 1 for 4, HR(9). BA= .281. With 2 outs and Brandon Belt on 2B, Pence hit a 2 strike bomb more than halfway up the LF bleachers to make the score 3-0. You knew it was over right there.
Madison Bumgarner- 2 for 3, 2B, HR(4). BA= .245. Bumgarner used to just go up there, swing as hard as he could, and hope he ran into one. Over the past 2 seasons, he has evolved into real hitter. He still swings hard, but he also has a plan at the plate and gets his share of non-HR basehits. Just a remarkable all around player. I have no doubt if he devoted himself to hitting full time, he would still be a star.
Madison Bumgarner- 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K's. ERA= 2.98. Let's see. We'll start with this being his second CG win in a row, a remarkable feat in this day and age. Then there was the 3 K's he hung on Bryce Harper. Man, don't think there is not some mutual competitiveness going on between THOSE two! Then there is the little trivia item that this was the first CG win, 10+ K's and a HR by a pitcher in one game since Juan Marichal did it way back in 1963, Oh, and Juan Marichal was in attendance and sat in the broadcast booth for a half inning. Wow! What a special game to get to see on TV. One of those you won't forget for a long time, if ever.
With the Win, the Giants kept pace with the Dodgers who won again over the Cincinnati Reds 2-1. The Giants remain 2.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. The Cubs finally lost, so the Giants were able to gain a game on the final Wild Card playoff spot, now 3.5 games behind.
The Giants now embark on a road trip to St Louis and Pittsburgh, the teams with the top 2 records in the NL. Chris Heston faces Michael Wacha tomorrow evening in St Louis for game 1.
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Great game, interview with Marichal today and additional insight into Seaver today. It does make you wonder though is their a number somewhere between Marichal's and Seavers CG totals (both 200+) and today's pitchers like Madbum with his 8 that might be ok without causing additional damage. It is just such a big number in terms of the difference and from a time that was not too terribly long ago, relatively speaking.
ReplyDeleteBilly Baseball
Possibly. I don't remember where I heard or read it within the last week. Possibly Kruk and Kuip were saying we are getting close to needing to expand rosters because bullpens are being taxed so much. I am not so sure. Wouldn't that just work to suppress hitting even more, and low hitting numbers are already a problem? Maybe we're getting close to the point where teams that throw strikes and keep pitch counts down and thus get their starters deeper into games are rewarded with fresher bullpens?
DeleteI agree that there is a happy medium, but unfortunately because there is no exact guide or measure, CYA fear rules and pitchers aren't allowed to go longer due to the oppressiveness of the PAP Theory. If you read Bill James book on pitchers, he devoted an entire chapter to give a cogent argument why BP was wrong with PAP, and how pitchers could pitch longer and better.
DeleteThat's why I love, for the most part, how the Giants manage their pitchers, they treat each as an individual unique in how they handle him. Still, not too many CGs here either, but you see how they allow some pitchers to go long when they are doing well. I mean, with a bullpen like ours, why not?
A lot of the theories have to do with age and the nexus of injury, and I think that extends up to age 25, if I remember right, so once a pitcher gets old enough and mature enough, the team should feel freer to allow the pitcher to go to higher pitch counts. So maybe Bumgarner might get more CG as he ages and the Giants allow him to go deeper, he already has 3 CG this season, vs. only 9 for his career, and he had 4 last year, so 7 of 9 in these last two seasons, so the Giants appear to be letting him go longer as well.
Plus, you are comparing two HOF pitchers' careers, if Bumgarner keeps up this 4 CG per season and he has HOF career to 40, he will have roughly 70 CG. And if the Giants do allow more, probably closer to 90-100 CG, or half way to the 200 you note, so maybe that's the happy medium?
Living in St. Louis, I rarely get to see a Giants game unless it's a day game. What a treat yesterday's game was in that it wasn't just a good performance, it was a great performance with an historical over-tone to it. Plus watching Bumgarner go head-to-head with Harper and school him... Oh yeah... That was sweet.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a couple of articles on Blanco regarding how he learned some tips from Panik and Aoki: http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/blanco-credits-aoki-panik-surge-plate
ReplyDeleteHopefully this is the change he needed, as he has done well in short stints leading off before, but then the pressure would get to him, and for his career, he has not been good batting 1st or 2nd in the lineup.
Blanco is having a good year overall, but his best numbers are out of the leadoff spot. His past struggles are almost certainly sample size driven.
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