Saturday, July 15, 2017

Game Wrap 7/14/2017: Giants 5 Padres 4

Johnny Cueto lasted just 4 innings but the bullpen picked him up and staved off another attack from the BABIP gods in the 9'th inning to start the second half with a win.  Key Lines:

Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .245.  Belt is hitting .351 in July as his number regress positively to his mean. Combine that with his increase in dingers and he may be putting together his best season.

Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, HR(11), BB.  BA= .326.  Buster's magnificent seasons extends into the second half.

Gorkys Hernandez LF- 4 for 4.  BA= .248.  Gorkys hit .359 in June and is hitting .421 so far in July, helped a lot, of course, by this game.

Miguel Gomez PH- 0 for 0, SF.  BA= .333.  Gomez sticks around to start the second half and delivers a PH SF.

Johnny Cueto RHP- 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 4.59.  Cueto struggled again and left early with "hot spots" on his fingers.  After the game he said he might have to take some time off.

Bullpen- 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K's.  Cory Gearrin and George Kontos enhanced their trade value with 1 and 2 innings of shutout ball respectively.  Then Steve Okert and Hunter Strickland combined to strike out the side in the 8'th.

Sam Dyson came in throwing 97 MPH with sink in the 9'th.  He got a quick K on Hector Sanchez.  A groundball single by Manuel Margot seemed harmless enough after Asuaje lined out to Hunter Pence, but then Wil Myers hit another groundball single up the middle to put runners at first third.  That's when things started getting weird as they have so often this season.  Jose Pirela chopped one straight down onto the plate with a high bounce over Dyson's head that Brandon Crawford could not get to in time driving in Margot and putting runners at first and second.  Dyson then hit Cory Spangenberg with a pitch to load the bases bringing up Jabari Blash who already had 2 hits and a walk on the night.  Dyson ran the count to 3-2 to bring the drama to a crescendo.  Blash gave the next pitch a ride to RF but did not quite get all of it. Hunter Pence made the catch for the final out and the Giants were able to stave off another crushing blown save defeat.

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Madison Bumgarner makes his much anticipated return from his dirt biking accident today facing Jhoulys Chacin who has been the Padres top SP and has some serious trade value of his own.

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Around the League:  In developments that may impact the Giants as the trade deadline approaches, the Nationals placed Joe Ross on the DL and the Yankees announced the Michael Pineda has a torn UCL and will undergo Tommy John surgery ending his season and putting him out until at least the middle of 2018.

4 comments:

  1. Cueto also managed to get himself picked off at first. Which was an eye-roll event. But considering how poorly he pitched in the first half of the season, last night's poor pitching performance (yeah, I know, blisters) and the recent comment about the blisters meaning he's probably going to miss a turn, I'm in the 'seriously doubting he's traded' camp now.

    Plus I'm getting more towards your thinking that there's a good chance he doesn't opt-out as his value is really plummeting.

    So I just hope that if he doesn't opt-out, he returns to form. And I don't mean 'Cain-like' or 'Lincecum like' with their multi-year struggles. I'd be happy if he was just a solid #2.

    Anyway, happy for the win. And I'm also happy that I'll see Bumgarner pitch today though I'm not expecting a peak-All-Star performance out of him. That'll be next week... ;)

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    1. Cueto trade value is certainly down, BUT Giants might be want to unload him for next to nothing if anyone will take him. They avoid the buyout if he opts out and gets out of his contract if he doesn't opt-out. He could be a difference maker for someone (who doesn't care too much about money and needs to replace Pineda).
      What a difference a year makes...

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    2. Yeah. A year ago the Giants had the best record in baseball. AFter the break they went 30-42 after the break and 34-56 before the 2017 break. That's 64-98. Which is real bad...

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  2. This was a good win, reversing what happened after the ASG break last year, BUT it is fragile, not momentum, they MUST keep this going or sink into the morass of the 2016 2nd half + the 2017 1st half.
    A 100-loss season is still in play, not something to build upon, NOR is a mid-to-high 90's loss season. Worst-to-first happens, but it is not foundation, as we see the cake falls faster than it rises.
    Who knows? Is this a good team with bad luck? Is it an aging team running out the string? Does it have enough in the tank to make another run?
    1. Guess bad luck in 2017, fix the obvious edges, hope for a broad recovery.
    2. Guess it's an aging team which has mostly seen its best years, blow it up, and hope trades, picks, and development turns the ship down the road.
    3. Play the middle, whatever that is, making changes with a scalpel not a machete, trusting the judgement of the wisemen to know where to cut and where to paste.
    I'm betting the Giants basically agree with Doc: it was 50% bad luck, 30% not going with the power changes in baseball, and 30% other hard-to-quantify quality factors, making a proverbial 110% and there will be judicious changes at the margins.
    Good luck, good moves, and good luck will put the Giants in the playoffs in 2018, an even year.
    Don't hold your breath, gang, nothing will happen suddenly.

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