The Giants turned the tables on the Dodgers with a come-from-behind, walk-off win in the 10'th inning. Key Lines:
Denard Span- 1 for 5, 2B. BA= .258. Just 1 hit in the game for Span, but he picked a heckuva time for it, a 1-out double to the RF wall to start the winning rally in the 10'th inning.
Joe Panik- 2 for 5. BA= .250. Panik quickly drove in Span with the tying run with a sharp groundball single up the middle.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .298. Belt had an earlier opportunity to put the game out of reach with the score 3-2 Giants and runners on first and second. If he could only hit a few more long taters in those situations…… He came up again with a runner at first and hit a Texas Leaguer in front of Trayce Thompson that Panik had to wait for, but it got him to scoring position at 2B.
Buster Posey- 1 for 4, BB. BA= .256. I still don't think Buster looks like he feels real good up there. He hit a sharp grounder up the middle that just got past a diving Corey Seager. Panik took it all the way home and the game was over!
Matt Duffy- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .238. The Giants scored their first 3 runs on a total of just 3 hits. In the first inning they got 2-out walks from Belt and Posey and Duffy singled to RF for the first run. Duffy drove in another run in the 6'th on a force out when he beat the relay throw to 1B.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .262. Crawford drove in the second run of the first inning with a single to LF.
Jeff Samardzija- 4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.36. At times, Samardzija seemed to have great stuff, but he had trouble staying in a rhythm and threw a total of 98 pitches in his 4.2 innings of work. By the time he gave up 2 loud hits with 2 outs in the 5'th, he was clearly out of gas. Bochy had to burn a pitcher, Kontos, to get out of the 5'th.
Cory Gearrin- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.25. Bochy burned through 5 pitchers in the 7'th inning and finally had to bring in Gearrin with the bases loaded. Gearrin did not have his usual great command and walked in a run to tie the game and blow the Save. To his credit, he did get the final out of the inning and then got through the 8'th without anymore damage.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.84. This time, Casilla pitched a scoreless 9'th to give his team a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning. That did not happen, but he got the game to extra innings. BTW, Casilla has 4 BS's this season. Kenley Jansen no has 3.
Chris Stratton- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.00. Stratton was the last pitcher left on the bench, although Suarez was probably available with Cain scheduled to start on Monday. Stratton had not pitched at all in something like 12 days. He gave up a leadoff dinger to Adrian Gonzalez. The pitch was up, but on the outside corner and tailing away from AGone. He just reached out and poked it over the LF fence, and how many pitchers has he done that too? Stratton gave up a single to the next batter, but a chat with Rags settled his nerves and he got the next 3 outs with aplomb with help from Jarrett Parker running in to catch a sinking liner for the first out.
BTW, I really liked the stuff I saw from Stratton. FB 92-94 MPH with nice run and sink, tight curveball. At the least, I think he can have a long career as a middle reliever who can go more than 1 inning at a time.
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The Win got the Giants back to a 4 game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West.
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Jake Peavy tries to win the series tomorrow facing Julio Urias. We'll all keep our fingers crossed that this is not the game where Urias decides to live up to his hype.
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Was it you, DrB, who described Stratton's MiLB pitching record as "enigmatic"? I wonder if the Giants have resolved the enigma by letting Stratton stop worrying about pacing himself, getting through a lineup multiple times, and going deep into games. In the 'pen, he can focus on just the extended moment of his likely service, an approach that so far seems to be working. I'm led to think that the ploy of simplification may be deliberate, not serendipitous, because the Giants tried something analogous with Crick last year, to help his confidence and focus.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how much it was by design as need. Stratton was starting every 5'th game over in Sacramento. But yeah, you make a good point and I've thought of that too. Stratton looked really good in some relief appearances in spring training, right? I don't know what his velocity is when he's starting, but if the difference between 92-94 and 90-92, that is significant, IMO.
DeleteI don't mind Jansen blowing the save even though it cost 14.67 points in my fantasy baseball! 4 hits. 2 runs. Relief loss. Blown Save. Yeah, he racked up the negatives!!! And it left a smile on my face.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad to here Statton passes your eye test. We really need a solid long-relief guy to pick up the scuffling bullpen. THough at least we're not the Reds... (Oh, boy, that's 4-dumpster fire as they currently have the worst bullpen in the modern era last I read.)
Anyway, beating the Dodgers is always a good thing. No matter how you do it.
I have to say I was really afraid of a Brad Hennessey level of disappointment with Stratton where a former first round draft pick comes up and maxes out at 90 MPH. When I saw the 94 go up on the radar gun reading a couple of times, I kind of breathed a sigh of relief.
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