Game Wrap 5/6/2016: Giants 6 Rockies 4

Things were not looking good when the Rockies took advantage of some batted ball luck to put up a 4-spot in the 3'rd inning, but that was all the scoring they managed and Brandon Crawford led a Giants comeback with a 3-run dinger in the bottom of the inning.  Key Lines:

Matt Duffy- 2 for 4, 3B(2), SB(3).  BA= .263.  The Giants lead MLB in triples with 13, 2 ahead of the Cardinals and D'Backs.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, 2B, 2 BB.  BA= .320.  Brandon Belt's full slash line so far this season:  .320/.444/.540, 19% BB, 14% K.  Want a nice comp to that?  Here's Joey Votto's slash from last season which was one of his best:  .314/.459/.541, 20.6% BB, 19.4% K.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4, HR(4).  BA= .255.  Crawford is tied with Buster Posey for the team fWAR lead at 1.2.  That's also good for a tie for #3 among all MLB SS's.

Madison Bumgarner- 7.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K.  BA= .314.  A bloop, a bleeder and an error by Joe Panik cost Bumgarner 1 big inning.  He was dominant the rest of the game.  He seems to be still improving his game.  Here is a progression of his K/9's since his rookie year of 2010:  6.97, 8.40, 8.25, 8.90, 9.07, 9.65, 11.51(2016).  Kruk and Kuip talked about how he is getting tremendous location and movement on the inside corner to RH batters.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(7).  ERA= 1.54.  Casilla has blown a couple of Saves but his stuff was dominant to the point of unhittability in this game.  4 great pitches with great command:  FB, cutter, curve and changeup.  The curveball in particular seems to have a tighter spin and break with great location.

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The Win gets the Giants back over .500 at 16-15.  The Dodgers lost to the BJ's and are in a second place tie with the Rockies, 1 game behind.  The Padres and D'Backs both won to stay 2.5 and 3 games back respectively in 4'th and 5'th place in the NL West.

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Johnny Cueto takes the mound in an afternoon game today facing hard throwing Jon Gray.

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Willie Mays turned 85 years old yesterday and gave a rousing pregame pep talk that drew comparisons to Hunter Pence's oratory.  He was also honored by the city with his own #24 Cable Car and with a video speech by the POTUS.  Willie appeared to be in as good health as I've seen him in several years.