The Giants got dingers from Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford, 2 players they need more production from, and an almost QS from Matt Cain but it was not quite enough to overcome the Tigers in Detroit. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence RF- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .260. Pence seems to be finally fully healthy. Let's see if he can stay that way awhile.
Brandon Crawford SS- 1 for 4, HR(7). BA= .229. Crawford's regression is as big as any individual reason why the Giants collapsed this season. Hopefully this is the start of him finding his stroke.
Matt Cain RHP- 6.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 5.58. Cainer had a QS going but ran into some bad BABIP luck in the 7'th. The bad luck transferred to George Kontos when he relieved Cain. The inning should not have lasted until Justin Upton cashed in 2 baserunners with a double.
Kyle Crick RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.38. Crick seems to have fully embraced pitching to contact. His stuff is good enough that he can get weaker contact.
Michael Fulmer RHP(Tigers)- 8 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.20. Matt Cain must have felt like he was pitching against himself in a time machine. Fulmer had poor command in the early innings. He ran up high pitch counts and a lot of fly balls that carried to the warning track, but with a velocity of 97 MPH, The Giants were only able to completely square him up twice and he got stronger as the game went along. That's early Matt Cain to to a T.
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Ty Blach tried to even the series tomorrow evening facing another lefty, Daniel Norris.
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Bochy got 6 from Cain, after a team day off -- ok it was some bad BABIP but Matt's not going to get through the L/U 3 times.
ReplyDeleteI guess Boch was time lapsed to 2012 -- Earth to Bruce: that was 5 years ago and Matt's last good year.
OTOH: you don't win a lot of games with 5 hits (2 HRs) and 1 walk.
When did Bruce quit managing?
Gotta say, I feel like Boch should have been happy with the 6 innings from Cainer and let Kontos start the 7'th with a clean slate.
DeleteI'd like to see Crawford moved back to #8 in the order. He seemed to find himself as a hitter during his time in the slot earlier in his career. He learned to lay off bad pitches. I envision his as an above average 3-outcome (HR, Walk, SO) player.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing.
DeleteCrick: I remember reading that he throws a very 'heavy' fastball. One that's really hard to square up and generates a lot of poor/medium contact fly balls (his GB rate is just under 29%, about 43% during his time in the minors) with a very manageable hard-contact rate. So as long as he pitches smart (like he seems to be doing) with his FB/SL combo, I'll be more than happy to be wrong for wanting to cut him.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, I never expected him to get here. He just really was going backwards for the longest time. This year is the first year in his career where his walk rate is under 5BB/9. And last year his SO's had dropped off the cliff to 7K/9. That's just putrid which is why I finally just said 'to heck with him, move on.' I just hope I continue to be wrong instead of this being a 'hot streak.'
Cain: For a change, I don't really 'blame him.' That was Bochy's mistake. Cain is 2x through the order and done. Actually, he's not that good any time through the order, but the third time hitters are hitting .340 with an 8.18 ERA. The first two times, he's (more or less) a so-so #5 pitcher who has his good days and bad days.
BTW, with 90.1 innings, Cain has now tied his most innings pitched since 2013. A couple of more starts and he should break 100 for the first-time since then.
Hwang: Highlight reel play. I didn't like the double-clutch on the throw, but he obviously had plenty of time. Other than that it's a big 'who knows' with him. He's played, what, 4 or 5 games? Also, his ISO is .286. I don't expect it to last. But I like it.
Dyson: I know he didn't pitch yesterday. But I couldn't help but notice his FIP was 1.55 and his xFIP was 2.50 when I was checking out the stats with my morning coffee. I find that interesting and I'm hopeful that whatever was causing him to be really bad has been fixed instead of 'small sample size' skewing.
If you look at Dyson's historic stat lines, what he's doing with the Giants is pretty much what he's done in his career. The first two months of this year with the Rangers is the outlier.
DeleteI agree. Cain struggles, as it is, through the first two times. It's criminal to send him through a third.
ReplyDeleteWith Smith out and Melancon on the DL, I was hoping for the current bullpen guys to audition for at least an approximation of the 7, 8, 9 inning pitchers, with Crick, Strickland, and Dyson as key candidates. Then, if Smith and Melancon come back 100%, you have a chance to possibly create a core 4 from those 5 pitchers.
ReplyDeleteOr a Core 5! Or Core 6! because we shouldn't forget Kontos. His ERAs for the past four years: 2,78; 2.33; 2.53. 2.68 which is very Affeldt-like.
DeleteMaybe shouldn't forget Gerrin either?
DeleteHa! Ha! Yes. Add Gearrin in..
DeleteFor a hitter who can't play defense, Hwang has been putting on a clinic at 3rd.
ReplyDelete