A series of bad bounces and questionable decisions produced a 4-run 5'th inning for the Cardinals which pretty much put this game out of reach. Key Lines:
Ryan Vogelsong- 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.19. Vogelsong pitched out of the stretch almost the entire time he was pitching, so it was probably inevitable that something like the 5'th inning would happen, so he did not pitch better than the score would indicate. Still, the 5'th inning was not entirely his fault either. Brandon Moss led off with a drive off the bricks in R-CF. A RF more experienced at AT&T than Marlon Byrd probably would have hung back away from the wall a bit more which may or may not have given him a chance to field the hard ricochet that came back past him allowing Moss to run out a triple.
With a makeshift lineup and Lance Lynn throwing well, Bochy wanted to keep the game at 0-0 so brought the IF in which allowed Matt Carpenter to ground a hit through the right side scoring that run Bochy was trying to prevent. After a single by Piscotty, who is not playing like a Stanford hitter, put runners at first and second, Jhonny Peralta hit a slow grounder that Adrianza had to take to first base to get an out, advancing the runners to 2'n'd and 3'rd with 1 out. Bochy then had Vogelsong pitch around Jason Heyward to set up Yadier Molina to face George Kontos. Kontos did not bring his LOB magic with him in this game. A WP brought in 1 run and a single by Molina drove in 2 more and the game was all but over.
Yusmeiro Petit- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.69. Unfortunately, Petit has had to do most of his work in lost cause situations which may contribute to the general dissatisfaction of the fan base with him. After a rough start to the season, he's actually pitched quite well. His ERA is 2.19 over his last 7 appearances, 1.99 over his last 15 and 3.32 over his last 30. I don't think Clayton Blackburn, just to name one, is a lock to be better than that as a replacement.
The Loss dropped the Giants to 3.5 games behind the Dodgers, who topped the Cubs 5-2, in the NL West. They remain 4.5 games behind the Cubbies for the final Wild Card playoff spot.
Chris Heston comes back to replace Matt Cain in the rotation today and tries for a series win against Jaime Garcia who pitches great when he is healthy, which he currently seems to be.
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When I looked at the line up yesterday, I didn't think we had much of chance. Not only do the Cards have dominant pitching, but they're not having too many issues on their offense besides it being average.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, the Giants are in a real bad place now. So yesterday, we had Vogelsong pitching and he's has been erratic and hasn't gone more than 6.0 since mid-June and just 23 innings in his last 5. And it's not just him. I'm not blaming him for the loss. This was a true team cock-up as half of the line-up was scuffling:
Aoki is in a .200ish slump for the past month.
Adrianza is back to not hitting and is .115 for his last 15 and .167 for his last 7.
Byrd is hitting .148 since he got here though at least a couple of his rare hits have made major differences.
Susac hasn't been able to hit pretty much all year though at least he's been drawing some walks recently.
That left us with Blanco, Duffy, Tomlinson and Belt as the only reliable batters. And in their 16 ABs they got 4 hits and 2 walks for a .375 OBP, But it could never be capitalized on, so the shut-out.