Jeff Samardzija got strong offensive support up and down the Giants lineup, including from his own bat, and pitched a dominant start to lead the Giants to an easy win against a team that has given them trouble in the past. Key Lines:
Denard Span- 2 for 2, 2 BB, Sac. BA= .250. Span has a .347 overall OBP with a .469 over his last 10 games.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .273. Posey had been slumping badly ever since taking a foul tip off the bat of Chase Utley in LA. After taking Thursday off, he had 2 hard singles through the left side. Posey getting multiple basehits is generally a sign that his bat is heating up.
Hunter Pence- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .246. Pence has been struggling at the plate to and seemed to break out of it in this game.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3, 2 2B, 2 BB. BA= .246. Yet another quiet bat came to life with Crawford's big night.
Jeff Samardzija- 2 for 3, 2B. BA= .231. The double came with the bases loaded and cleared them for 3 RBI's. The earlier single extended a rally.
Jeff Samardzija- 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO=11/4. ERA= 3.00. Shark needed just 6 pitches to get through the first inning. The Giants got him a 3 run lead in the bottom of the first and he cruised the rest of the night. According to Fangraphs, Shark is averaging 93.7 MPH on the FB and 91.8 on the cutter, which is one nasty pitch!
Javier Lopez- 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 9.82. Bochy obviously wanted Lopez to face a tough LH batter in a low leverage situation, so he came in with 2 outs in the 8'th and nobody on to face Christian Yelich. I don't know what he threw to Yelich. Was that a slider he didn't get a grip on, or a really bad hanging curveball? Whatever it was, it deserved to be punished and Yelich obliged by sending it off the RF wall. Ironically, Lopez came back to strike out the RH hitting Giancarlo Stanton on hard back foot sliders. As Vin Scully would say, "go figure!"
Mike Broadway- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Another guy Boch wanted to see in a low leverage situation and Broadway pitched a nice 9'th inning.
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With the Win, the Giants improved their record to 8-10 but remained in 4'th place, 2.5 games behind the Dodgers who lost to the Rockies in Coors Field. The Rockies are in second place 0.5 games behind the Dodgers. The D'Backs lost to the Pirates 8-7 and are 1.5 games behind the leaders. The Padres topped the Cardinals 4-1 and are in last place, 3 games behind the Dodgers and just a half game behind the Giants. BTW, if the season ended today, the Rockies at 9-7 would have the first WC spot.
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Jake Peavy draws a tough assignment today facing Jose Fernandez in a 6:05 PM start.
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Hunter's 2 hits: infield nubber that he beat out easily (no throw) and a way outside low slice to RF for a double. And he showed good discipline on a walk to load the bases in the 1st, then the 3rd run scored on and FC. Plus 2 ground outs to the pitcher.
ReplyDeleteSamardzija singled home Posey from 3rd and the 2-run double.
Duffy did not look good at bat, unlike the 3 preceding games, but his flyball in the first plated the first run. He was the only starter who didn't get a hit. OTOH, he played a GREAT 3B.
Not as bad as last April! And I'm happy with BUmgarner, Samardzija and Cueto. If the offense would just get it together and Peavy/Cain sharpen-up a bit we could be rolling on clover.
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