Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Game Wrap 4/18/2017: Giants 2 Royals 1

The Giants got a huge boost from Matt Cain who pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball.  The Bullpen held on into the 11'th inning when the Giants were able to push across with winning run.  Mark Melancon held on for the Save.  Key Lines:

Hunter Pence RF- 2 for 4, BB.  BA= .310.  Pence has not been a big power threat so far but he's been peppering the field with hits.  He drove in Joe Panik with the first Giants run to get them the 1-1 tie they took to extra innings.

Buster Posey DH- 3 for 5.  BA= .385.  Buster's 3 hits did not contribute to the scoring, but sure is good to see the Big Guy back in the lineup and apparently not suffering any lingering effects from the concussion.

Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4, SB(1).  BA= .319.  It wasn't quite as dramatic as in the 2014 WS, but Panik started a key GIDP off the bat of the same Eric Hosmer to keep the tie alive.  He then singled in Nick Hundley for the winning run after Hundley had hit a soft liner down the LF line for a double.

Matt Cain RHP- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 3.31.  The big story of this game is the start Matt Cain registered.  This comes on the heels of a strong 5 innings in his prior start and we may be seeing the renaissance of Matt Cain.  Stay healthy, Hoss!

Derek Law RHP- 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 3.68.  There were times when Law looked like he was about to blow it, but Ron Wotus stuck with him and Law worked his way out of it.  The home plate ump was squeezing him to boot.

Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, Save(3).  ERA= 3.86.  Melancon definitely did not make it boring in this one.  2 hits and 3 K's?  That is not a typical Melancon Save!  We could use a bit more boring.

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The Win improved the Giants record to 6-9 and got them out of last place in the NL West by 0.5 games over the Pathetic Padres who lost to the D'Backs 11-2 to drop their record to 5-9.  The Rockies held on to top the  Dodgers 4-3 and are tied for first place with the D'backs at 9-5.  The Dodgers drop to 7-7, 2 games behind the two leaders.  The Giants remain 3.5 games behind in 4'th place and the Padres bring up the rear, 4 games off the pace.

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Madison Bumgarner tries for a sweep of the 2 game series tomorrow against lefty Jason Vargas.

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Manager Bruce Bochy missed the game and will be out until Friday, 4/21 after undergoing an ablation procedure to control an cardiac arrhythmia, Atrial Flutter.  Long time Bench Coach, Ron Wotus, managed the team and will continue to until Boch gets back.  Get well, Boch!!

1 comment:

  1. Well shoot - If no one else is going to say it, I'll say it. That was my favorite game of the year! Just couldn't not be happy enough to see Cain follow up the last with 7 more strong - Keep that iron hot! Keep that body tuned! Matt mixed pitches and really had great movement, throwing over the plate and fading or sliding away and underneath the K-Zone all day.

    Panik - Looks Strong, GG D is back, and the bat is awake.

    The Giants needs to find a way to add Williamson or a very big OF acquisition to the mix, hopefully demote Morerro and replace with Upton/Stubbs. He's a 4A player, God bless him.. I'd say we're about a few weeks away from Tomlinson being ready to replace Hill, but he went into an 0-fer-14 slump the last 3 games and took the night off this evening. When he breaks out and gets hot again, the Giants will be able to add some serious tinder to the lineup.

    And speaking of Tonder! Arroyo goes 4-for-5, HR, 2B. All that while the rest of the lineup struggles against the 25 y/o Salt Lake pitcher with great peripherals of his own. Another round tripper, another double, still playing SS with only 1 error on the year. Yeah, what's the holdup with LF? Kid should get a shot, or otherwise Nunez needs to be sharpening his LF skills, which are not good presently per anecdotal evidence.

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