Saturday, September 10, 2016

Game Wrap 9/9/2016: Giants 7 D'Backs 6

The Giants survived a subpar start by Madison Bumgarner and another Blown Save by Santiago Casilla to win in extra innings.  Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 5, HR(10), BB.  BA= .277.  The first 4 batters in the lineup went a combined 1 for 22 with 3 walks, so it's a good thing that the 1 hit was a dinger because there was nobody else to drive in the run if it was anything less.  Pagan is closing in on his career high of 12 HR's in a season.

Hunter Pence- 4 for 5, 2 2B, BB.  BA= .287.  The offense really started with Pence in the 5-hole.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 3, 3 BB.  BA= .272.  Belt's singles were hit pretty hard so maybe he's coming out of his funk?  He is 4 for 6 with 4 BB's in his last 2 games.

Joe Panik- 2 for 5, BB.  BA= .252.  Panik also made a nice running catch in CF on a ball that Span got a poor jump on.

Eduardo Nunez- 2 for 5, 2B, SF.  BA= .280.  Nice production from the 8-hole by Nunez.

Kelby Tomlinson- 1 for 1.  BA= .306.  Tomlinson drove in the winning run with a PH single in the 12'th inning.

Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 9 K's.  ERA= 2.61.  The K/BB is dominant but those dingers hurt.  At least one of them may have been due to some very bizarre home plate umpiring.  At one point Bumgarner let out an expletive that the D'Backs broadcast crew said they could hear in the booth.  For what it's worth Brenly and the D'backs PBP guy showed the pitch in question on replay and were quite critical of Dale Scott who was calling balls and strikes saying "we sometimes see that from Dale Scott" or something to that effect.

One of the dingers was by Kyle Jenson for his first MLB HR and could have been due to a lack of a scouting report?

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  BA= 3.62.  Wasn't Jake Lamb the guy who caused Casilla's meltdown earlier in the season?  Not sure why Bochy let Casilla face him here with so many LHP's in the bullpen.  The results were predictable.  Henry Schulman reports after the game that Casilla is no longer the official closer.  That news comes as a big relief to Giants fans!  Had they not won this game, it would have been too late, though.

Joe Nathan- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00.  It wasn't a clean inning and Nathan has not been announced as the new closer.

Cory Gearrin- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(3).  ERA= 4.47.  Bochy drew a page from Joe Maddon when he moved Gearrin to LF while Javier Lopez faced fearsome Jake Lamb, then brought Gearrin back to the mound to finish the game.  Is it possible that tandem will be the new closer?  BTW, Lopez walked Lamb, which is better than giving up a HR.

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Jose Fernandez struck out 13 Dodgers as the Marlins beat the Bad Guys and Clayton Kershaw 4-1 so the Giants gain a game and trail the first place Dodgers by 4 games in the NL West.
the Cardinals and Mets both won so the Giants remain 0.5 games ahead of the Mets for the first Wild Card playoff spot and 1 game ahead of the Cardinals for the second.

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Johnny Cueto takes the mound tonight facing Archie Bradley.

7 comments:

  1. last night was just another example of what has plagued the giants throughout the entire second half
    get runners on with 1 or no outs and cant break through with a big hit. bases juiced with no outs and they scored one run on a wild pitch?
    if the pen doesnt fail...the d does
    before the game, bochy spoke to the press and said in not so many words that they were going with "closer by committee", and then, with lamb pinch hitting, that went right out the door. casilla cannot get lamb out or even keep him to a single. why, if he was going to pitch to him, was he not told to make sure he gave him nothing to hit?
    to announce after the game that casilla is no longer the official closer means absolutely nothing
    pence appears to be 100 percent...so that is good for both offense and d, however, that running into the fence scared me a bit.
    the system is in place for robots to take over for the home plate umpire and it needs to be done. if the mlb brain trust is afraid at how it will effect the game, let them set it up in the minors and then evaluate it at the end of next season.
    we are talking a game that depends on consistency and the k-zone is not consistent. and umps are making serious mistakes in many other aspects of the game that are having a serious impact on it...and not for the better
    here is how it is being used in an indy league...it works
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT8gCVaXC4Q
    bacci

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    1. In Bochy's defense, up until last night, he didn't really have any obvious options besides Casilla. I think it is now clear that almost ANY option is better, even a Gearrin/Lopez LF-P platoon!

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    2. Bochy had Will Smith warmed up, an experienced late-inning lefty with strikeout pitches, and Lamb is quite mediocre against lefties. My guess is that he thinks Casilla's problem(s) is/are psychological, so that once Casilla dealt successfully with Lamb he'd gain valuable confidence. As to Lopez, he is creating a new baseball acronym, LOWGY, = Lefty One Walk Guy.

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  2. Its a shame for the team and its fans that Pence has been injury prone the past 2 seasons. That was a great catch he made in the 9th inning!

    Yeah, couldn't understand why Casilla was left in to pitch to Lamb.. I'd like to see Derek Law get some save opportunities when he comes off the DL. They need to know if Law has the potential to be the future closer. The FO should get part of the blame for the bullpen mess. Will Smith might turn out to be a nice reliever, but the FO didn't do enough to help the situation either. Maybe Joe Nathan might come up big down the stretch!

    Don't understand why Tomlinson was left in AAA for so long.. I've always liked his approach at the plate, and his speed..

    I don't know how you keep up with your blog Doc, you deserve a lot of credit and a big thank you! These games while fun to watch most of the season, seem to be lasting longer and longer and you must have a busy schedule without including baseball. Last nights game lasted 5 hours which is way more baseball then I bargained for last night.. Just glad they won!

    LG

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    1. I'll confess to not watching every inning of every game, but I catch at least a few innings of about 90% of the games. Except, of course, the Giants-Dodger games because of the Dodger's/Time-Warner mutual deals with the devil, 2 evil empires in collusion with each other.

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  3. That's a shame you not catching Giants -Dodgers games in this day and age. We catch a handful of Giants games in Hawaii on NBC Bay Area/FOX/ESPN Sunday night. MLB blacks out Giants games on MLB network and the local station here ran into issues bringing in the station that Kruk and Kuip are on. Anyway the fans lose in both our cases.

    LG

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  4. Lopez has shown an inconsistent ability to get anyone out this year. I'd prefer Okert/Osich as the left handed half of a platoon. Lamb is 3-3 with 3 HR against Casilla this year. He would have been better off giving him the intentional pass.

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