Thursday, March 29, 2018

Game Wrap 3/29/2018: Giants 1 Dodgers 0

Ty Blach once again got the best of Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, the bullpen stepped up and Joe Panik's dinger was the only run they needed on Opening Day.  Key Lines:

Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4, HR(1).  BA= .500.  I noticed last year that Panik was starting to do a better job of turning on inside pitches and pulling them down the RF line.  That's exactly what he did in this game to get the Giants the only run they needed.

Ty Blach LHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, GO/AO= 8/1.  ERA= 0.00.  As Kruk and Kuip say, "Ownage is ownage."  Blach has the Dodgers number in general and Clayton Kershaw's in particular. Amazing!

Josh Osich LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  It wasn't a clean inning, but the 2 K's are encouraging.  Giants gonna be facing a lot of LH batters this year.   They need Osich to keep this up.

Cory Gearrin RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  This must have been the closest the Dodgers came to scoring all day.

Tony Watson LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  Watson had a rough spring, but he sure answered the bell today!

Hunter Strickland RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(1).  ERA= 0.00.  Wow!  Bochy did the right thing and named Strick the Closer.  He got the job done!

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Hey!  For at least one day the Giants are in first place and ahead of the Dodgers in the standings by one game.

Johnny Cueto gets the call tomorrow facing another LHP, Alex Wood.

11 comments:

  1. I agree with you, Doc the injury to Madbum was an absolute dagger and the season could well be over before it even started for the Gmen. It's still fun to have baseball that counts and I'll be following pretty closely, but man that injury seems pretty critical to this team that didn't have a lot of margin for error to begin with

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    1. But last night it didn't matter.

      Blach baby! Wonderful way to start the season!

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  2. Blach: And Blach comes through! As does Bochy by pulling him out before he had to run through the order three times. Smart move by him, great job by Blach.

    Announcers: I had to turn the game off from the second through fourth innings. The ESPN announcers were awful and it was such a Kershaw love-fest I'm surprised they didn't run out to mound to **** his **** between pitches. Yeah, I get it, he's great. But there are other stories and would have been obnoxious no matter who it was, including Bumgarner or any other Giant pitcher -- current or past. Also the 'color man' was terrible, as was the woman. Only the play-by-play guy was okay. In the end it was a really crappy broadcast team.

    Fortunately the Kershaw love-fest slowed down. But I missed some good baseball.

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    1. MosesZD >> for the points you made; if the Giants game are being broadcast on Esspn or Fox > i open 2 MLB TV windows watch screen sound off 2 window KNBR sound on. None of that crappy announcing to give me a fit.

      On another point; I did say Bulldog Blach would pitch outstanding only that I called the score Giants 5 Dodgers .
      I hope I call it wrong all year!
      Richard in Winnipeg

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    2. I like Mendoza and am generally in with Vasgersian. Maybe it was cotneng more than the team. I will say, love for Kershaw is well deserved. He’s one of the greatest ever. Even if he’s a dodger, it’s pretty special we get to watch him in his prime.

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    3. Mendoza does a great job. She doesn’t really say too much, but when she does talk, she has something to say.

      She had a good observation yesterday about pitchers being up in the zone more to counter hitters’ trying to get a little more under pitches to improve launch angle.

      And agree with Bryce. Kershaw deserves a little fawning. Vin Scully used to fall all over himself praising Buster.

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    4. Vin countered it by falling all over himself talking about how fat Pablo was.

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  3. Nice job by Strickland! I'm wondering how he's progressing with the slider john Smoltz taught him. Smoltz threw a,wicked slider in his day!

    LG

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    1. He had a very good Spring Training. It's just nobody talked about it. But from what little I read about him, the Smoltz-slider he's using is turning into a wipe-out pitch.

      And I looked it up on FanGraphs. With the caveat the sample size is entirely too small to prove anything, in the past, his slider was weak, barely above average. Last night it hit Smoltz territory. And that's encouraging because Strickland needed that pitch, or something like it, to take it to the next level. He may end up with the closer job when Melancon comes back if he can keep doing that.

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    2. Heard he got a sinker too.

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  4. Giants just released Parker. Wonder if it was at Parker's request. Surprising.

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