Game Wrap 4/25/2016: Giants 5 Padres 4

The Giants got a strong start from Madison Bumgarner, avoided a bullpen meltdown and held on to win a marathon game.  Key Lines:

Joe Panik- 3 for 5, 3B(3).  BA= .288.  Panik is 7 for 13 in his last 3 games and hitting .357 over his last 7.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(3).  BA= .279.  Buster is hitting .310 over his last 7 games.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 3, HR(4), SF.  BA= .263.  Pence is hitting .304 over his last 7 games and hit a HR in his second consecutive game.

Brandon Belt- 0 for 1, 3 BB.  BA= .275.  Belt has 3 AB and 5 BB's in his last 3 games.  That's one way to beat the shift.

Madison Bumgarner- 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 9 K's.  ERA= 3.64.  I've seen him more dominant, but the K's were there.

Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, Save(4).  ERA= 2.35.  Casilla gets Save #100 with the Giants.  He got the last out of the 8'th inning with runners at 2'nd and 3'rd so it was a lot more than just a Save.  He got out of a high leverage situation plus tacked on a standard Save and Bochy has a ton of work ahead of him to sort out the setup situation, at least until Romo gets back.

Pace of Play- This was an 8.5 inning game that took 3 hours and 47 minutes to play meaning it went way past my usual bedtime even watching on TV.  Most fans at the ballpark likely did not get home until close to midnight.  Factors:  1. Giants fouled off a ton of pitches and ran Pomeranz' pitch count to 101 after 4.1 IP.  The Padres threw a total of 177 pitches in the game and the Giants 165.  Target pitch count would be 135 per 9 innings, so there were 72 more pitches thrown in this game than the normal target.  That has clearly become a successful batting strategy for the Giants and more the norm around MLB.  2.  Bochy used 4 pitchers to get 3 outs between Bumgarner and Casilla.  Each pitching change took extra time.  3.  There were a bunch of challenges at the end.  IMO, the league is sending a strong message that calls on the field are not going to be overturned unless the ump made an egregious error on the call, but there's no penalty for reviews from the 7'th inning on.  Maybe that needs to change?

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The Win allowed the Giants to gain a game on the Dodgers, who lost to the Marlins 3-2.  The Giants are now 2.5 games back and tied with the Rockies who lost to the Pirates 6-1.  The D'Backs outslugged the Cardinals 12-7 and are 1.5 games back in second place.  The Padres bring up the rear of the NL West at a 4 game deficit.

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Johnny Cueto tries to extend his string of Quality Starts tonight facing James Shields.