Game Wrap 4/9/2016: Dodgers 3 Giants 2

The thrill of victory yesterday turned into the agony of defeat today as the Giants let a 2-1 lead slip through their fingers to an extra-inning loss by the same score they won by the night before.  Key Lines:

Madison Bumgarner- 1 for 2, HR(1).  BA= .250.  It was deja vu all over again as you could play a video of Bummy's dinger off Kershaw from last year and the only way you could tell it wasn't from today was by the gray skies in the background.  Bumgarner went up to the plate hunting a fastball middle in, and he got it and ripped it into the LF bleachers.

Ehire Adrianza- 1 for 4, HR(1).  BA= .333.  Ironic that the two homers and only runs Kershaw gave up were to the #8 and #9 hitters in the lineup.  I'll say this for Adrianza, who almost took Kershaw deep right after Bumgarner's HR too:  He seems to have a plan for attacking Kershaw, which is more than you can say for most hitters who face him.  The plan?  When Kershaw tries to jam him, he tries to turn on it and yank it down the line and just hope Kershaw doesn't get the pitch quite inside enough.  That's pretty much Bummy's plan against Kershaw too.  Maybe other hitters should try to too?

Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 3.27.  Bumgarner struggled more than the line looks like.  It seemed like he was in the stretch all day and threw a lot of pitches to a lot of batters.  He was at 102 pitches after 6 innings, which is 12 more than Kruk's maximum target of 15 per inning.  Still, it was good enough to win and win even against a dominant opposing pitcher without the Blown Save to ruin it.

Hunter Strickland- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  Is it just me, or is Strickland pitching with more of closer level of dominance these days?  Maybe it's still too SSS to judge?

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K, BS(1).  ERA= 3.86.  Casilla almost got out of a terrible hole he dug for himself, but Tomlinson failed to field a DP groundball by AGone cleanly.  Of course, it should not have come down to needing a DP to get out of the jam in the first place.  Casilla better watch his back.  Too many more Blown Saves and Strickland will be the closer.

Bruce Bochy- As you all know, I think Bruce Bochy is the best manager in baseball and deservedly bound for the Hall of Fame.  That doesn't make him perfect and I have a quibble with his choice of pinch-hitters in the bottom of the 9'th inning.  With runners at first and second and 2 outs, he called on Joe Panik to pinch hit for Kelby Tomlinson with Brandon Crawford in the on-deck circle to hit for the pitcher.  A hit there possibly wins the game in a walk-off while an out sends the game into extra innings.  It's a close call between Crawford and Panik there, but I just think Crawford has more experience and is the tougher out.  As it happened, Panik struck out and Crawford did not bat until the 10'th inning when he gave a much better pitcher, Kenly Jansen a tough battle before making an out himself.

Maybe Bochy thought the Dodgers might intentionally walk Crawford to load the bases if he sent him up there with an open base, but he would have then been no worse off with Panik hitting with the bases loaded and the lead runner 90 feet closer to home.  I'm sure Bochy had his reasons for sending Panik up there first, but I would have gone with Brandon Crawford myself.

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The Loss dropped the Giants into a first place tie with the Dodgers in the NL West with 4-2 records.  The Padres rocked the Rockies again, 16-3 while the Cubs dropped the D'Backs again 4-2, so the Snakes are now in last place with a 2-4 record while the Rockies and Padres are tied for 3'rd place at 2-3.

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Johnny Cueto tries for the series win tomorrow afternoon facing Scott Kazmir.