Austin Slater ignited a cold Giants offense with a 3-run dinger in the 8'th inning and the Giants added on to rescue Matt Moore's Quality Start. Key Lines:
Brandon Belt 1B- 1 for 4, HR(12). BA= .223. Belt has been struggling at the plate, but he's on a pace to set a career high in HR's by a substantial margin.
Austin Slater LF- 1 for 4, HR(2). BA= .340. Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about! 3-run dingers win ballgames and Slater supplied that in this game. The league's pitchers will inevitably find the holes in his swing and he won't hit .340 over the long haul but so far Slater has given the Giants everything they need in LF. I say the job is his until he proves it was all a fluke.
Kelby Tomlinson 3B- 2 for 3, SB(3). BA= .294. Stay hot, Kelby!
Matt Moore LHP- 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 5.82. That's more like it! It looked like Moore's bounceback start would go for naught until Slater hit his bomb in the 8'th. Hopefully this is a game to build on.
Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, GO/AO= 3/0, Save(11). ERA= 4.82. 3 GB outs. Hopefully this is a game for Melancon to build on too.
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Jeff Samardzija tries to guarantee the Giants at least a series tie tomorrow facing rookie lefty Sean Newcomb.
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Belt has hit 34 HRs in 664 road ABs from 2014 to now. That's 1 in just over every 19 ABs which is solid 30HR power for a 600AB player. He's hit just 13 in 584 home PAs. What he's doing now is not even on an exceptional 'road' HR pace. It's his home HRs that have surged. OTOH, he's had 12 Triples in 584 home PA to just 1 on the road. AT&T giveth and taketh.
ReplyDeleteAnd he's only Giant with those bad splits, though his are the worst since he's LH and is more of a line-drive hitter than most.
The only thing I see 'wrong' is that this BABIP is a good 80 points under his career average and his hard-contact is down slightly, but he's also making less soft-contact, so they're balancing out. But I've looked at his 2016 vs 2017 spray charts and I can't really tell a difference. Here's the link though, maybe someone else can:
http://www.fangraphs.com/spraycharts.aspx?playerid=10264&position=1B&type=battedball&pid2=10264&ss1=2016&se1=2016&ss2=2017&se2=2017&cht1=hangtime&cht2=battedball&vs1=ALL&vs2=ALL
Stay hot, Kelby?
ReplyDeleteKeep him in the game, Bruce!
Perhaps apropos of nothing:
ReplyDeleteDisregarding his injury year, Belt has been a steady downward trajectory in BA and slugging since his "breakout" 2013. His high OBP last year was boosted by his numbers batting 5 & 6.
His extra HR's this year have accompanied a significant drop in triples and doubles as well as BA.
Is there a stat for errors saved? Is any 1Bman better at scooping and stretching? It has become a surprise when he doesn't convert an errant throw into an out.
BOLO:
ReplyDeleteHunter Pence
White male
6'4"
190lbs
Brownish hair/beard
DOB: 4-13-83
No known aliases
Last Known Location: Right field at AT&T Park, San Francisco, CA
Last Known Clothing: A Grey San Francisco Giants Uniform. Pants were pulled up to the knee.
If you have any contact with Hunter Pence, notify the San Francisco Giants immediately.
Please excuse my lame attempt at humor. Pence's misplay of that ball last night, is just his most recent failed attempt at being a good right fielder. I'm not sure what's happened to him, but we need to old Hunter back immediately.