Chris Stratton was a gamer, but with no run support left the game trailing 2-0 before the bullpen, more specifically, Matt Cain, collapsed. Key Lines:
Chris Stratton RHP- 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 3.82. Stratton came into the game with a .340 BAA against LH batters and the D'Backs stacked their lineup with 6 of them. Stratton more then held his own and actually dominated for most of his start. Impressive.
Kyle Crick RHP- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.66. Crick came into his second high leverage situation in as many games and struck out none other than Paul Goldschmidt to end the 7'th inning leaving 2 runners stranded.
Matt Cain RHP- 0.2 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 5.75. Cain threw and 93 MPH FB to the first batter he faced which got Kruk and Kuip excited, but he ended up walking JD Martinez and it all went downhill from there. In fairness there was a whole lot of bad BABIP luck involved at first along with some questionable fielding, but then Paul Goldschmidt hit a 3 run homer and Martinez followed with a solo shot. Just a sad outing for a great Giant who maybe Bochy could have taken out a bit sooner just to spare him the embarrassment. I mean, what is he saving the bullpen for? He ended up bringing in Gearrin anyway.
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The Giants move on to San Diego where Jeff Samardzija faces Jhoulys Chacin in the series opener tomorrow night.
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Could Stratton be a late bloomer? His curve looked very impressive! Please don't take him out of the rotation. Giants SP has 6 10k performances and,Stratton has 2 of them. He just might influence the decision on Moore's option. I agree with Schulmans article tonight that this off season will be a huge one for Evans/Sabean regime.
ReplyDeleteLG
Stratton is looking like the guy the Giants drafted in the first round a few years ago. Not sure where he's been or why, but it's sure nice to have him back.
DeleteA comment made by Bochy bothered me a little, when he said Stratton has exceeded their expectations. I know it can be hard to evaluate pitchers in the PCL, but it makes me wonder about how well they are evaluating their own prospects. Maybe they need to look at that.
ReplyDeleteLG
Stratton was not pitching well even by PCL standards a couple of months ago. I had pretty much written him off myself and said so in at least one post. So I guess I have to say he's exceeded my expectations too.
DeleteIt's still a pretty small sample size of success and he does appear to walk a pretty fine line, so it might be premature to get too optimistic on his future.
DeleteAgreed, way to small a sample size, and he needs to cut down the walks. Bochys comments tells me that the the org doesn't think too highly of him which could be a red flag. I would think that if he continues to pitch well in Sept, the Giants have to consider keeping him on the staff in 2018.
DeleteLG
This reminds me a little of a former Giants pitcher back in the 70s who had a 8-16 record, era over 5 in AAA, whom I was shocked to see the Giants call up. He went on to have a good MLB career as a lefty reliever. His name is Gary Lavelle. This is the exception not the norm, which is making prospects like Stratton interesting to follow.
DeleteLG
Stratton... Ever see Invasion of the Body Snatchers? I think he's a Pod Pitcher. Because he wasn't pitching like this in the minors. He had a couple of 'solid for the PCL' stretches in 2015/2016 but was way down this year with his 1.76 WHIP and 5.11 ERA. And he wasn't exactly lighting it up in April (13.5 ERA, 1.80 WHIP out of bullpen) or July (5.91 ERA, 1.69 WHIP in 2 starts).
ReplyDeleteBut in August, he's really settled down with a 1.52 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. So... Will the penny drop? Or is it for real? I just don't know. But I am glad he's having some success.
Cain... Jeeze, Louise... Just DFA him already and bring up someone who might have a future. Sure, he had the perfect game. Sure he was a great workhorse for the Giants. Sure he was a big part of winning for a long time. But there's no real point in keeping him around any longer. Just pay him off and get some young guys up and look at them for next year.
Crick... Just a few years ago he fell apart at the slightest stumble while pitching to minor leaguers and everything would snowball out of control. Now he's facing pressure situations and handling them against the best the MLB has to offer. Heck of a turn-around so far.
Yeah, once they officially gave up on Crick starting, his regression ended, maybe his concentration increased when focusing on 1 batter at a time.
DeleteOn the wild pitch run last night, Crick put it right where he wanted -- bouncing it -- but the ball was misplayed by Hundley and a 3rd strike 3rd out became a run.
Nonetheless, the game was not won/lost on that.
The first rule of winning/losing a game is always: you don't score, you don't win.
Giants scoring:
0: 9 times, 0-9
1: 19 times, record 0-19
2: 21 times, record 7-14
3: 23 times, record 4-19
72 games scoring 3 or less, record 11-61
60 games scoring 4 or more, record 41-19
Score four,
Win more!
30 games left, 2 more losses make 82, a 10-20 finish makes 100 losses, heading into San Diego already trailing the PADRES by 6 games!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone have a hint this season would come a cropper?
There were lots of clues: Smith going down in ST, Melanson blowing Opening Day Save, Bum leaving his season in the Colorado dirt, the entire OF (29 HRs collectively) collapsing with age and injury (is Hernandez the Giants best?), Posey beaning, Núñez .250 April, Crawford's long slump, Moore's inconsistency, Cueto's up-and-down, Belt's 100-game season -- it goes on-and-on.
This will be an off season to remember -- there are some momentous 40-man decisions to make, but I (for one) don't think The Horse should be shot ignominiously in a lost season. Unless he goes on the DL legitimately, he should finish the season a Giant and pitch the final game. What is there to lose except a couple ball games that are just as likely to be lost without him as with him?