The Giants offense thawed out a bit, but 3 relievers gave up single runs in each of the last 3 innings to hand the Royals a come-from-behind win. Key Lines:
Buster Posey C- 2 for 3. BA= .273. Buster has not played much, but has the WBC ahead of him.
Mac Williamson LF- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA= .294. Reminder that the race does not always go to the fastest guy out of the chute.
Madison Bumgarner LHP- 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 7.50. Bumgarner seems to be rounding into form.
Chase Johnson, Mark Melancon and Josh Osich pitched scoreless innings. Cory Gearrin, Roberto Gomez and Albert Suarez gave up 1 run each over the final 3 frames.
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The Giants take on the reigning AL champs, the Cleveland Indians, tomorrow with Matt Cain getting the start and Ty Blach slated to get some work.
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After repeating the mantra that Spring Training is too long for the 100th consecutive day, it's still a bit frustrating watching the Giants flail about and accomplish so little at the plate.
ReplyDeleteThere are still 23 games and almost 4 weeks left before the season begins, but through 5 innings today (Monday), the 9 starter-hitters had these averages:
.071, .143, .133, .222, .231, .231, .250, .267, AND -- hold your hats -- .357!
Maybe the 2-2 scores says the Giants on their 3 hits exceeded expectations!
Maybe, another good thing, their regulars aren't getting hurt -- although Span and Pence each played 5 innings providing some risk.
OTOH, Parker -- who should be playing! -- came out after just 2 ABs.
For the Cain-is-dead-crew, Matt looked pretty good (Rollins took 2 hits away from the Indians which helped). The first run scored thanks to a SB off Cain-Hundley (twice in the 1st inning) and the second (after a 1-out walk in the 4th) when Blach in relief gave up a 2-out double scoring the runner from 1st. Not exactly Bob Gibson, but it was Matt Cain making a comeback!
And, the long cold losing streak came to an end thanks to Kelby and Kyle!
It's not like Cain was bad every inning or every game for the past four years. Last year there were stretches, like in May, where he give up 4 earned runs in 22.2 innings spread over 4 games. Which was quite respectable. And he had a couple months (1 starting, 1 as a reliever) where he had good ERAs - 3.38 in May, 3.18 in September. But, mostly, he was bad and his ERA in April was 7.0. It was 7.36 in June (but only one game). 6.39 in July. 7.24 in August.
DeleteSo that he's had a few good innings? That hasn't brought him back from the pitching dead like he's some kind of baseball Lazarus.
My recollection is that every time Cainer seemed to be getting back to his old self, he got hurt again. I think he can pitch well if he can remain healthy. That's a big, big if, though.
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