Another bullpen meltdown turned 6 shutout innings from Madison Bumgarner for naught. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .286. Pagan's triple set up the Giants second run. He hit the ball off the RF wall. Carlos Gonzalez had the angle right and might have even held him to a single, but the ball bounced just over his glove toward CF which gave Pagan just enough time to turn on the jets and cruise into 3B standing up.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 5. BA= .297. Belt had the only multi-hit game for the Giants and Pagan had the only XBH as offense never really got traction against Tyler Chatwood who might have matched 6 inning shutouts with Bumgarner had it not been for some sloppy defense by the Rockies.
Mac Williamson- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .224. Not only is Big Mac looking more comfortable at the plate, he is making sensational plays in the OF. He saved 3 runs for Bumgarner with a sliding catch of an flyball off the bat of Trevor Story about 1 foot inside the foul line after making a long run during which Kuip said, "I don't think he's going to get there." Mac got a bear hug from Bummy in the dugout after that one, and that is one big bear hug!
Madison Bumgarner- Bumgarner didn't seem to have his sharpest stuff, but a very cold ballpark and some great defensive plays like he got from Mac gave him 6 shutout innings. Bummy batted in the bottom of the 6'th, but Bochy elected to not send him out for the 7'th with just 94 pitches under his belt, which makes you wonder a bit.
Bullpen- 3 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. A disaster! Kontos came in to pitch the 7'th and got 1 out while putting 2 runners on base. Lopez came in to strike out Charlie Blackmon, but then Gearrin who has been terrific, but seems to be wearing down, allowed a soft groundball single to LeMahieu followed by a 3-run bomb from the Giant killing Arenado. Gearrin and Strickland added more gasoline to the fire in the 8'th inning and a game the Giants seemed to have in hand ended up as a pretty ugly loss.
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The Dodgers lost to the Orioles 4-1 so the Giants lead in the NL West remained at 5 games.
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Johnny Cueto tries for a series win tonight facing veteran lefty Jorge De La Rosa whose last 3 games have been Quality Starts.
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The Giants bullpen is clearly running on fumes and desperately needs either the All-Star break or an infusion of new talent. But who do you bring in? I just don't see the Yankees trading Andrew Miller or any of their relievers and there still are no more than 6 or 7 teams who are clear sellers at the deadline and 3 of those are in the NL West and another is Oakland. None of those teams are likely to trade with the Giants.
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Before last night, we were 25th in reliever innings pitched at 243.2. NL average is 270. Which means our bullpen has only been burdened 90% of average. It's also lowest, by far, in our division. Meanwhile our starters were, before last night, 4th in innings pitched, sport the #4 ERA and were #1 in complete games. So it's not like we're having a problem that's forced an over-utilization of the bull-pen.
ReplyDeleteSo I think we have face the facts that the problem is a combination of injuries, under-performance and/or talent and not Bochy over-using the bullpen. Two of our better performers from last year - Osich & Kontos - are not producing the same results though Kontos isn't sucking, he's just not pitching lights-out like last year whereas Osich is definitely scuffling. Romo was pitching well until his injury. Gearrin has never been a top-flight reliever and it seems, at least to me, that maybe his bubble has burst. And Lopez has been just down-right awful.
That leaves us with Law (who has pitched very well for a rookie), Cassilla (always an adventure with his BBs, has too many blown saves, and (IMO) shouldn't be a closer) and Strickland (who is struggling a bit though he's far from the worst offender).
And looking at the farm... I think we're going to have to make a trade to fix the bullpen unless they right the ship.
I would like to see Law bumped up in the pecking order with how bad everyone else has been.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I see a trading making a lot of sense, although we do have some chips. Suarez has really been a nice replacement as the long guy. I agree some of the other relievers are iffy, but when you look at SC's stats, he's really not the problem (least IMO). Kontos has been a weak link for much of the season and Osich has run hot/cold. Before we do something crazy, I'd like to see Okert get a shot (replacing Kontos or Lopez) and I think then the pen would be more balanced. You could even do a double swap of Okert/Dunning for Lopez/Kontos. Not sure who (other than Miller) is out there that is better.
ReplyDeletei feel bad for bochy. usually by this time in the season, he has all the pen roles worked out
ReplyDeletethese guys are just too inconsistent
and i want the entire team to get 3 days rest, so posey and cueto should come up lame for the as team and no one should vote for belt
still amazing that with all the injuries the giants are still in first
time for the stat heads to reevaluate their critiques about the giants farm system
bacci