Sunday, March 5, 2017

Spring Training Game Wrap 3/5/2017: Royals 4 Giants 3

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.

3 comments:

  1. 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.
    There 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!

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    Replies
    1. 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.

      So 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.

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    2. 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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