Ty Blach continued his mastery of the Dodgers lineup with a 7-inning QS and Brandon Belt carried the offense to just enough runs in support. Key Lines:
Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 4, HR(8). BA= .229. Belt homered to leadoff the 4'th inning for the Giants first run on a disputed call. The Dodgers claimed fan interference but the HR call was upheld on review. He singled to open the 6'th inning on an IF hit. He took 2B on a WP. With no outs, Buster Posey gave himself up with a grounder to the right side to advance Belt to 3B. He scored on Crawford's bloop hit. After the game, Dave Roberts was left talking about how great the Giants situational hitting is.
Christian Arroyo 2B- 1 for 4. BA= .220. Arroyo moved over to 2B with Panik sitting against LHP Rich Hill. He made a key play as the Dodgers had runners at 2'nd and 3'rd with 1 out in the 4'th inning. Austin Barnes hit a chopper to Arroyo who fielded it at medium depth. Justin Turner hesitated for an instant at 3B then came home. Arroyo threw a seed to Buster who made the swipe tag for the out and Blach escaped the inning without allowing a run.
Ty Blach LHP- 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 8/4. ERA= 4.15. Dominating the Dodgers is one way to endear yourself to Giants management and Blach has done that. He now sports an ERA of 1.17 in 4 career starts against the Bad Guys. He's actually been good against almost everybody. Take out the one Disaster start in Cincinnati and his season ERA would be 2.07. His K/BB would suggest his success is not sustainable, but that's how he rolled in the minors too. He seems to be a guy capable of constantly inducing weak contact.
This was the Giants 6'th QS in a row with Blach bookending that string, at least for now.
Derek Law RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(3). ERA= 2.15. Law is the Closer, at least until Melancon gets back from the DL, which should be soon. Melancon's return will give the Giants a Closer quality setup man in Law.
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With their 5'th Win in a row, the Giants remain in 4'th place in the NL West, 8.5 games behind the first place Rockies to topped the Twins 7-3. They gained a game on the Dodgers second Wild Card spot and now trail them by 5.5 games.
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Johnny Cueto tries for the sweeeeep against Dodgers ace, Clayton Kershaw in an afternoon game today.
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Very impressed with Arroyo so far. It should only be a matter of time till he is able to adjust to all these away pitches he is seeing. Ruggiano should never be in a lineup versus Rich Hill again. Almost had a heart attack when Arroyo and Big Mac almost collided. Lets go Giants! Beat L.A.!
ReplyDeleteThis showed up on Facebook from a Pav's post:
ReplyDeleteThe Tortoise Race, Part II:
May 8: Posey HR
May 9: Posey HR
May 10: Posey HR
May 11: Belt HR
May 12: Posey HR
May 13: Belt HR
May 14: Belt HR
May 15: Posey HR
May 16: Belt HR
I thought that was kind of interesting/funny.
Anyway, 5-in-a-row is verrrrrrry nice. I'm glad Williamson is up. I'm glad Tomlinson is up. I'm glad Arroyo is up and they're showing some faith in him by letting play despite he's still not adjusted to MLB pitching.
Now if Cueto, Moore and Samardzija will continue to pitch to their talent level we should at least be able to make the games competitive. And if the offense continues to perform, hopefully we'll be back in the race by mid-June.
Within the tortoise race, since Pence's 2-run HR in the 1st inning May 8, all 12 HRs the Giants have hit were with the bases empty.
DeleteIn the 9 games, including Pence's HR, they have left 58 runners on base.
Of the 3 games they lost, 2 were by 1 run.
How probable is 12 consecutive HR's with the bases empty when they have had 6+ runners on base each game?
2 more bases empty HRs in the first against Kershaw would be good, but 2 with some runners on would be great.
Who's gonna have to give up their spot when the headless horseman returns?
ReplyDeleteAfter the game, Dave Roberts was left talking about how great the Giants situational hitting is?
ReplyDeleteRISP: 1-12!
After scuffling around with many just misses this year, a bloop falls in and the Giants are masterful!
True, Monday was one of the few games when the Giants were situational hitting, had 4-4 RISP at one point. Yesterday, not so much.
It was supposed to be a low-key ironic joke.
DeleteOops! Situational hitting was good on Monday, and 11 hits yesterday, mostly setting the table which didn't get cleared. One hit was Posey's bloop that he didn't run right away or he might have made it to 2nd, might have been another run, might have been a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteA strange outcome yesterday: 2 of the first 3 batters in the game walked.
Those were the only walks of the game! 7 pitchers.
Kelby gets sent down to clear the roster for Melancon.
ReplyDeleteAn extra pitcher probably makes sense with 13 games in 13 days, but what use is Michael Morse? His lack of prowess at first is only surpassed by his lack of prowess in LF.
Other than his one (1) HR, Morse is not more useful to the the Giants than Tomlinson who hits better, can play at least 8 positions on the field better than Michael, and can actually run the bases! Morse is not going to pinch run for anyone, not even Buster!
Going into the 13 games in 13 days, why does "veteran" trump "ability"?