The Giants offense pounded out 7 straight hits off reliever Brandon McCarthy in the 6'th inning to turn a close game into an easy win. Key Lines:
Gorkys Hernandez- 1 for 3, 2B, Assist(3B). BA= .280. Hernandez led off the Giants half of the first inning with a double and scored their first run after they had spotted the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. He also took some inneresting routes to the ball in CF but swallowed up everything hit out there and made a terrific throw to nail Turner at 3B. Denard Span PH for him against the RHP in the big 6'th inning and got a hit.
Brandon Belt- 3 for 3, 2B, HR(17), BB, HBP. BA= .275. Great night for Belt who capped off the 7-run rally with a loooong 3-run dinger to straightaway CF. He was later hit on the back of his left hand with a pitch by LHP JP Howell. There don't seem to be any fractures, but he'll have the hand looked at today. He could sit against Kershaw.
Brandon Crawford- 3 for 4, BB. BA= .275. Crawford made his usual assortment of great defensive plays including one where he ranged into shallow CF to field a grounder and made a whirling 360 throw to first to nail the runner. At the plate, he looked like he was stroking singles from his rocking chair, like he was swatting them with a tennis racket.
Kelby Tomlinson- 1 for 4. BA= .292. Trailing 3-2, the Giants put runners on first and second with no outs in the 6'th inning off reliever Brandon McCarthy. Bochy had Conor Gillaspie on deck to PH for Tomlinson, but pulled him back so Tomlinson could sacrifice the runners over to 2'nd and 3'rd. Kelby failed to execute the bunt twice, but then picked himself up with a line drive single over the second baseman's head to load the bases with no outs.
Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 2, 2B. BA= .261. Gillaspie then came up to hit for Gordon Beckham in the 8-hole and drilled a double to the RF wall to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs. Gillaspie is red hot! 6 for 14 over his last 7 games.
Madison Bumgarner- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .186. Bumgarner followed Gillaspie's double with one if his own down the LF line to drive in 2 more runs.
Madison Bumgarner- 7.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.74. Bummy did not seem quite himself in the early innings as his FB was registering 88-90 MPH and didn't seem to have much life. Not to worry has he got it up to 93-95 MPH in the middle innings and looked much stronger. I didn't want to see him come out for the 8'th inning as he was right at 100 pitches, but Bochy just wanted him to face the LH hitting Andrew Toles.
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The Mets and Cardinals both won, so the Giants maintained the status quo in the Wild Card race trailing the Mets by 1.5 games for the first spot and leading the Cardinals by 1 for the second spot. 2 games to go!
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Rookie LHP Ty Blach gets the call for today's game facing Clayton Kershaw. I like this choice as the Dodgers have a much better lineup against RHP's and I thought Blach's stuff looked good in his start against the Padres. He was just amped up for his first MLB start. Stay calm, Ty! Nobody is expecting you to beat Kershaw anyway! Go out there and have fun!
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Hot Tip: If you want to LYAO, look up a Fanpost on McCovey Chronicles, linked to the left, titled The 2016 Giants Suck. Discuss. LOL! Haven't read anything as funny as the comments on that one in a loooong time!
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Gorkys and Gillaspie have been very pleasant additions to the 25 man roster. Hopefully they will play a vital role beyond what we're seeing now.
ReplyDeleteNot to be lost in all of the great at bats was Tomlinson's outstanding defensive play at 2B in the top of the second inning I believe it was. It saved Crawford and error, and prevented the Dodgers from having a man at 3B. I know he gets dinged by some for his lack of offense, but I've never bought into that at all. Yes, he screwed up early in the season against these same Dodgers, but hey, it happens. I believe there was a stretch of 2 or 3 games there when Crawford had close to five errors. But again, that happens. I believe Tomlinson is every bit as good a glove in the field as Panik, but where Panik exceeds him is at the plate . . . when he's on. Pankik makes some plays look outstanding, when Tomlinson, or Adrianza for that matter, makes them look routine, because they are both quicker to the ball than JP is. I get it that Joe was drafted higher, and has more MLB time, and all of that, but I just don't think it's fair to ding Kelby for his defense. I'm still convinced he a utility kind of guy, I just wish he could more PT at SS and 3B like he did in Sacto this year.
I'm looking forward to a great Saturday afternoon of baseball and BBQ here in the RVA.
Oh, one other thing. Great play by Pagan on the slow running human in LF! Dude deserved it . . . and more! He ought to be glad he didn't get that close to our redneck pitcher. That could have been REAL ugly!
GO GIANTS!