Jake Peavy went a strong 7 innings and helped himself with the bat as the Giants offense picked up where it left off yesterday and pummeled the ace of the Marlins staff, Jose Fernandez. Key Lines:
Denard Span- 2 for 5. BA= .251. Span got two hits but also was CS twice. although the second of those was a highly questionable call that got reviewed. It looked like he was actually safe, but the call probably came down to whether the glove was on him for the split second his foot came off the bag, an unintended consequence of Instant Replay I really hate.
Joe Panik- 2 for 3, BB. Panik seems to have gotten his groove back.
Matt Duffy=- 3 for 4. BA= .250. Speaking of getting one's groove back….This was Duffy's Bobblehead Night and he made the most of it with 3 basehits. He's going the other way, staying within himself like he did all last year. The HR's will come, but even if they don't, Duffy is more valuable hitting singles and doubles than going for a limited number of dingers.
Buster Posey- 1 for 4. BA= .250. Not much of a line, but Posey's 9 pitch AB ending in an RBI single may have been the back-breaker for Fernandez. You knew he was beatable and probably would not go deep into the game right there.
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, 2 3B, BB. BA= .273. The best 4'th OF in baseball! Blanco also made a couple of very nifty catches in LF. One, a twisting job in front of the wall and the other sticking with a pop foul that looked like it was well out of play, but the wind blew it back onto the field for the catch and the out.
Jake Peavy- 1 for 2. BA= .600. OK, I have to ask. How on Earth can Peavy be such a good hitter if he's as blind as everybody says he is? Something is not adding up here. I mean, Peavy's hot hitting goes back to the end of last year, not just the last 2 games.
Jake Peavy- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 8/2. ERA= 6.86. We know from the last two seasons that when Peavy is feeling good, he can be a very effective pitcher for song stretches. Maybe this is the beginning of one of those stretches? Oh, and he also made a terrific fielding play going to his knees to throw out a runner to first on a dribbler off to the left of the mound.
Hunter Strickland- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.38. Strickland faced the 2,3 and 4 hitters in the Marlins lineup, Ozuna, Yelich and Stanton. Hot knife through butter! Strickland looked completely dominant.
Kruk and Kuip- The 2 buddies were in rare form tonight. Just one example of the LOLs: The camera showed an early middle aged couple wearing matching bright orange onesies in the stands. Kuip: "Do you have a onesie at home?" Kruk: "No, I do not!" Kuip: "Yeah, I'm not a onesie guy myself." Kruk: Well, they are and they are pulling it off! 10 LOLs!
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The Win improved the Giants record to 9-10. They remain in 4'th place, 2.5 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers who topped the Rockies behind Kenta Maeda 4-1. The Rockies fell into a second place tie with the D'Backs who beat the Pirates 7-1, 1.5 games out of first place. The last place Padres sank further into the cellar with an 11-2 shellacking a the hands of the Cardinals. The Pathetic Ones are now 4 games off the pace.
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Matt Cain tries for a series sweep tomorrow against LHP Adam Conley.
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By the way, Span's second caught stealing was a hit and run where Panik struck out on a pitch waaaay outside & Span was a dead in the water. I'm removing that CS from my personal stats accounting.
ReplyDeleteHis second caught stealing, as you said, he was safe. However, he definitely can work on a better pop-up slide. It was ugly, and probably the reason he wasn't awarded the steal after the review.
In all honesty, for me, Span is still getting his body strength back & re-aligning his swing mechanics. It's pretty clear that he just isn't clean enough to start swinging hard at bad pitches and putting the ball deep into the outfield. My goal with Span is for him to get through to the All-Star break with plenty of rest, avoiding all even nagging injuries, and getting his legs back. If he can do that, I have a strong feeling that we'll start getting the 4WAR caliber player back for the longer part of this contract. This season - keep him rested and let him get up to speed slowly.
Very glad to see the squad shake off the slump.
Hunter Strickland looking like the future closer again. Even as filthy as Casilla's pitching is at times, I just don't think he has the right makeup of a closer. Visible signs of stress when things get interesting in the ninth.
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