5:00 PM games on the west coast are pretty much unfair to hitters, and this evening's game was no exception as Jeff Samardzija and Kenta Maeda hooked up in a tight pitcher's duel that was eventually won by Maeda and the Dodgers with the only scoring through 6 innings coming on 2 mistake pitches, 1 by each pitcher. The difference being Shark's mistake came with a runner on base. Yeah, the Dodgers tacked on an insurance run, but the ballgame was decided by those two pitches. Key Lines:
Joe Panik- 1 for 3, HR(2), BB. BA= .261. When Panik turns on a mistake pitch and pulls it, it goes a long way.
Jeff Samardzija- 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 7/2. ERA= 3.72. Samardzija was strong through 4.2 IP, then served up a mistake to Joc Pederson who hit it a long way with a runner on base. Ballgame. Shark later failed to execute a sacrifice bunt that turned into an inning-ending DP. He was already PO'd at himself for giving up the dinger and he seemed to lose focus after the failed bunt and didn't retire anyone in the 7'th inning. A wasted opportunity on multiple levels.
Josh Osich- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.57. Osich is quietly becoming one of the more reliable options out of the bullpen. We should start seeing him in higher leverage situations soon.
Denard Span, Buster Posey, Matt Duffy- these 3 batters, in particular looked like they weren't seeing Maeda very well. Probably nobody was in the shadows of the early innings, but these 3 guys looked more lost than the rest. Buster did hit a hard low liner through the hole off Kenley Jansen to lead off the 9'th inning, only to get forced out at 2B on a bouncer by Pence.
Umpire- Samardzija got a bit frustrated with the ump at one point. Based on the strike zone monitor on the TV, you could see why as the ump was inconsistent on pitches just off the plate, calling approximately 50% of them strikes. I would say he was actually a pitcher's ump in this game because pretty much everything within the zone was called a strike and about half of those just outside the zone. I would say the inconsistency was approximately equal on both sides.
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The Loss drops the Giants back into 3'rd place, 1 game behind the Dodgers who lead the NL West. The Rockies blanked the Cubs 2-0 behind the pitching of Redlands, CA product Tyler Chatwood to gain 2'nd place, 0.5 games back. The D'Backs beat the Padres 7-3 to move into 4'th place, 3 games behind the leaders while the Padres bring up the rear, 4 games back.
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The Giants open a homestand against the D'Backs tomorrow night with Jake Peavy facing newly called up Archie Bradley.
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Normally Bruce Bochy would have pinch hit for a pitcher (Samardzja in this case) in that situation in the bottom of the 6th when the failed bunt occurred. It would have been nice to see that, but I can't complain about the skipper with his track record.
ReplyDeleteMaeda looks like he is replacing Greinke as the #2. He was struggling with his location of his curve at the start of the game, but still kept our guys off the board except for Pnik's dinger.
Plus side- Samardzja looks good and I am looking forward to watching him every time out. Osich also a plus as you stated.
I hope Duffy can get it going tonight against the Dbacks.
My thought in the bottom of the 6'th was it would be a nice spot to send Mac up there and try to catch lightning in a bottle, but can't really argue with the sac bunt strategy. It was just very poorly executed.
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