In a season characterized by devastating losses and Blown Saves, this game might be the most devastating of them all. A 4-1 Giants lead washed away in a BABIP tsunami that just kept building until the wave crested in a non-BABIP 3-run HR to the deepest part of the ballpark off the bat of Ryan Schimpf, who may well have hit the crest of his entire career. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 5, HR(11). BA= .277. Pagan has had fine season at the plate. He needs just one more dinger to tie his career season record. On the other hand, it is not clear that he can even cover LF anymore as yet another flare flyball landed in front of him for the second hit of the 9'th inning for the Padres. OK, a quick glance at his Fangraphs stat sheet has him at near average D this year, so maybe another LF would not have gotten to that ball either?
Gorkys Hernandez- 3 for 4, HR(2). BA= .357. Hernandez is on fire. He's never hit at the MLB level in the past, and he definitely won't hit .357 over the long haul, but he hit .300 all season for Sacramento and he's clearly a much better defensive CF than Denard Span.
Ehire Adrianza- 2 for 3, HBP. BA= .310. Eduardo Nunez has missed 2 games with back soreness. Adrianza played 3B against the LHP one day after Gillaspie played it against a RHP.
Albert Suarez- 5 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 7/3. ERA= 4.20. Suarez went his 5 innings and allowed just 1 run. Suarez has been remarkably consistent in a 5'th starter sort of way. In 10 starts, he has pitched at least 5 innings in 8 while not allowing more than 3 ER in any start. He's had 2 starts of 4.1 and 4.2 IP and 2 starts of 6.0 and 6.1 IP. 5 of his starts have been exactly 5 IP including his last 3. He has an ERA of 4.50 in his 10 starts and 4.00 in his last 3 in which he has allowed 6 runs in 15 IP.
Javier Lopez- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.65. Lopez has not been himself this year, but he got a rare full IP in this game facing 3 LH batters in the 6'th.
Will Smith- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.86. Smith pitched a dominant 8'th inning facing 2 LH batters and 1 RH batter who he struck out.
Hunter Strickland- 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.24. Strickland got BABIP'd, pure and simple. A bloop to RF by a RH batter. A bloop to LF by a LH batter. A grounder that ticked off Buster Posey's glove off 1B that trickled to Panik in the hole. Strickland was late getting over to cover 1B but the runner probably would have beaten the throw anyway. Then there was the comebacker that ticked off his glove to turn a GIDP into 1 out and a run for the Padres. Aside from the mental cover 1B mistake, which probably was not a difference maker, the walk he issued to force in the first run was the only thing you could really blame Strickland for. Very tough to watch!
Steven Okert- 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 4.50. Bochy brought in Okert to face Schimpf with 2 outs and 2 runners on base and a 1 run lead. It's hard to say what was worse, the 4 straight fastballs that Trevor Brown called for or Okert's execution of the 4'th one which was thrown on a 1-2 count when a breaking ball out of the strike zone might have been the better call. Oh, and is there a role for calling a key pitch from the dugout when the pitcher and catcher have a combined barely 1 year of experience? Anyway, it's very hard to hit a ball harder and farther than Schimpf hit that fastball that was out over the plate.
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The Dodgers lost to the Yankees 3-0 so the Giants remain 4 games behind the Bad Guys in the NL West. The Mets and Cardinals both won so the Giants lead in the Wild Card race is down to 0.5 games for the first berth and 1 game for the second.
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Madison Bumgarner tries to prevent a Padres sweep this afternoon facing Luis Perdomo.
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law comes off the dl today, whatever good that will do.
ReplyDeleteas smith and moore have become more comfortable being in sf and with the system, the better both have gotten and that is good for the future
as for this season, its pretty much done. how many devastating losses can one team endure before admitting that without a true closer their chances of making it to and then making an impact in the post season are slim to none
the bochy, evans, sabey sabes post mortum presser is going to be really interesting to watch
bacci
That game was hard to watch. It is getting to the point that when we go to the 9th with a lead, I expect them to blow it. Strickland ran into some bad luck. I agree that Pagan is not covering much ground in the outfield anymore. His first step has slowed significantly. Strickland looked like he lost his concentration after the ball off of Posey's glove. That was disappointing because I thought he might be ready to step into the closer's role. I also completely agree on the pitch calling. Okert threw the pitch called and it looked like it was heading right for Brown's glove when it got turned around for a 425 foot home run. Okert started that at bat with a good looking slider. Then it was four straight fastballs with little variation in speed. Its so frustrating that they are costing themselves games with little mistakes like this. I have never seen this from a Bochy managed Giants team.
ReplyDeleteJeeze... The Bullpen was, for the most part, good last year with only one core reliever (Affeldt) not performing. This year, we're not he worst bullpen in the majors, but we're suffering from too many critical failures in key situations. And it's pretty discouraging. So, right now, I'm thinking there's not much there:
ReplyDeleteKontos: He had a really bad May. But he's been solid ever since.
Law: He has really flashed, but I have to admit such a fanboy I'm not sure I can be objective.
Romo: He still has value. But he's not a closer.
Strickland: Mostly solid for the year. Started slow, got pretty good, September has been really bad though. But it's probably sample size right now.
And there are few more that are probably ok, but it's kind of hard to look at someone with 4 or 5 innings pitched and make any rational judgement. So, for right now at least, that's my short list of relievers I think the Giants can count on. And that has a big 'if' around Law.
So in the wake of last night's disaster, this afternoon the Giants and Bumgarner fall to Cy Young candidate Luis Perdomo and his 5.89 ERA. Sure we can blame the bullpen this season -- and there's plenty of blame there -- but I can't recall a year when such a vaunted lineup fell so often to unheralded rookies and nobodies, all of whom seem to spin up the best start of their careers against the Giants. Even when the bats show a hint of life it seems that they can completely collapse again on a moment's notice.
ReplyDeleteBacci's right - the presser will be interesting. The off season may be discomfiting for a few players, and there will be more turnover than usual.
This team is enough to generate a cardiac condition among otherwise healthy fans. Bochy's heart deserves better.
When and if the Giants completely fall out of contention, we'll try to do some armchair GM'ing about how to turn it around next year. Giants need a shutdown Closer to anchor the bullpen and they need to get more power into the lineup. There may be some veterans that need to be trade bait.
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