Jeff Samardzija cooled off Trevor Story and the Rockies bats while Hunter Pence and Trevor Brown, that's right, Brown, led the Giants offense in an easy win at Coors Field. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence- 2 for 5, HR(2). BA= .276. The impressive part of the HR ball was the battle Pence gave Rockies starter Tyler Chatwood before he connected. Chatwood had 2 strikes on him and kept throwing Pence stuff off the plate and Pence just kept barely fouling pitches off until Chatwood finally came into the zone and Pence was ready when he did. Very impressive AB!
Angel Pagan- 3 for 4, SB(1), Assist(home). BA= .379. Pagan stays hot with 3 singles and a SB. The assist was preceded by a misjudge/miscommunication on a shallow pop fly that dropped in. Pagan kept after it and recovered in time to make a throw to the plate. It was a bit offline on the 1B side, but Trevor Brown made a nice, diving swipe tag to get the runner and prevent more damage.
Trevor Brown- 2 for 4, 2 HR(3). BA= .375. Brown got the unexpected start when Posey came up with a sore foot, a residual from a foul tip off the bat of Chase Utley over the weekend. Brownie did it all in this game: Handled Samardzija like a veteran, made a nice defensive play at the plate and hit 2 home runs. That's right, 2 home runs. They both came with a runner on base(Brown and Pence drove in all 7 of the Giants runs). Brown and Posey could be seen talking in the dugout prior to the first HR AB. Buster was telling him to shorten up his swing against Chatwood's inside pitches. Brownie took the advice and executed perfectly, drawing his hands in and pulling the ball to LF. The next AB, as the 8'th hitter, Brownie figured he'd be getting a lot of breaking stuff away. He made the adjustment and took a pitch that got a little too fat over the outside corner deep. Stay hot, kid!
Jeff Samardzija- 8 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 9/5. ERA= 3.38. Samardzija pitched the way I've always said you have to pitch in Coors Field. Pound the zone with all hard stuff all the time to the 4 corners of the strike zone. Don't be afraid to go up in the zone. You might give up an occasional solo dinger, but you'll get a lot more outs. 4 seam, 2-seam, cutter, those were 3 of his 4 pitches and he mixed them up masterfully.
The Giants got the book on Trevor Story. All 7 of his early season dingers were on middle-in pitches, so Shark rode the outside corner with all 3 FB's, but mostly cutters and Story could not adjust. 0 for 4 with 3 K's. Hat trick!
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The Win gave the Giants a 6-2 record and extended the their lead in the NL West to 2 games over the Dodgers as da bums lost their home opener to the D'Backs 4-2 after leading 1-0 after 6 innings. Seem familiar? The Dodgers bullpen is really getting exposed here in the early going, and it that really a surprise? With the loss, the Rockies dropped to third place at 3-4, 2.5 games behind the Giants. The D'Backs moved into a 4'th place tie with the Padres at 3-5, 3 games behind, while the Pathetic Ones lost to the Pathetic Phillies 3-0.
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Jake Peavy takes on Jordan Lyles in game 2 of the series tomorrow evening.
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The Giants set a franchise record with home runs in each of their first 8 games of the season. They are tied for the MLB lead in dingers with with Rockies at 17. They've gotten HR's from 11 different players and from all 9 spots in the lineup.
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Samardzija's cutter was pretty impressive, at least from the highlight reels. Too bad the defense fouled up the entirely fieldable pop-fly and cost him a run. But, over-all, I'm sure they'll save him more runs than they lose him.
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