It was deja vu all over again as Joe Panik became the first player in baseball history to hit home runs in consecutive 1-0 games. Really? That had to have been done by someone somewhere in the long, amazing history of major league baseball! Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 1 for 3, HR(2), Sac. BA= .429. Panik broke up a 0-0 tie leading off the top of the 9'th inning with a dinger off Kenley Jansen. Again, I thought Panik got noticeably better at turning on pitches and driving them last year. He's already done it twice to open this season. Panik's bomb was only the Giants second hit of the game. Brandon Crawford had the other hit and it was on an IF dribbler. Speaking of Jansen, his FB was 89-91 MPH and did not look like it had much zip. I wonder if all those multi-inning appearances in the post-season took their toll on his arm? We'll see.
Johnny Cueto RHP- 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 0.00. Were it not for Panik's heroics, Johnny Cueto would be the big story of this game. I think we would all agree that for the Giants to have a chance to weather this string of pitching injuries, Cueto has to pitch like an ace. He did that tonight despite an ump who I thought clearly squeezed him all night while giving the opposing pitcher, Alex Wood, a very generous zone. Cueto started the game with a crisp FB at 90-91 MPH and built that up to 93 before the night was done. He also had his secondary pitches and his variety of timing-buster moves working to perfection. He took a perfecto into the 7'th inning when he gave up a leadoff jam-shot single to Chris Taylor, but quickly erased him on a GIDP by Corey Seager to end up facing the minimum number of batters over 7 innings.
Tony Watson LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Watson looked very sharp again to preserve the shutout until Panik could untie it in the 9'th.
Hunter Strickland RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(2). ERA= 0.00. I told my daughter as Strick was warming up that we would find out what he's made of now. Closing out consecutive 1-0 games against the Dodgers would impress me. Well, I'm impressed! I do have to say he got away with a couple of mistake pitches, hanging sliders on the inside corner, to Logan Forsythe, but was otherwise impressive in nailing down his second Save in the first 2 games of the season.
Alex Wood LHP(Dodgers)- IMO, Wood had a generous strike zone to work with, but he also had nasty stuff. None of the Giants hitters appeared to be seeing him well, but the lefty batters in the lineup, Panik, Belt and Crawford looked particularly helpless.
Logan Forsythe 3B(Dodgers)- 0 for 3, 3 E. BA= .000. As Kruk would say, Forsythe had a rough night. Fortunately for him, none of his 3 errors played any role in the scoring other than possibly extending Wood's pitch count depriving him of a chance to go a full 9. Corey Seagar let a ball go under his glove at SS, so the Dodgers committed 4 errors in all.
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The Giants and D'Backs are now tied for first place with 2-0 records while the Rockies, Padres and Dodgers are all 2 games back at 0-2.
Derek Holland gets the start tomorrow night facing Kenta Maeda.
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In a somewhat surprising move, the Giants released OF Jarrett Parker. No word on whether Parker asked to be released, although that would not be a surprise. He may well think he has a shot at MLB playing time with some other organization. I guess we'll find out. The Giants may also think they have too many OF's in the upper minors. Even without Parker, it looks like the Sacramento starting OF will be Mac, Austin Slater and Chris Shaw, pushing Steven Duggar down to AA Richmond, and Duggar must be saying WTF to himself.
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Joe Panik's off-season agenda: "So, then, let's just take a look at what all the fuss is about launch angles lately."
ReplyDeleteWas pretty amusing watching Wood hit, when he had a hissy-fit after striking out looking on the pitch he'd been getting all night long when he was on the mound.
It can't possibly last, but, damn, this is more fun than I thought we'd have the whole season.
So, what do you make of the ump's strike zone last night? To my eye, it simply looked like the ump was playing favorites, but is that the true case? Much has been made of the Dodgers catchers abilities to "frame" pitches. In other words, it wasn't just last night. They consistently get more favorable calls from umps than other teams and it isn't really close.
DeleteFor those of you watching last night, do you agree Wood had a better strike zone to work with than Cueto? If so, did you see Dodgers catcher, Yasmany Grandal, do anything different than Buster? Do you think there is something about the 2 pitchers' deliveries that made it easier for the ump to call strikes for Wood? Or are you like me and just saw the ump playing favorites, consciously or unconsciously?
I agree; based on the narrowcast last night, it looked like Wood got more low pitches and more outside pitches called strikes than Cueto did.
DeleteI don’t remember thinking wood was getting extra room to work with. Tho there were a couple questionable calls, particularly a backdoor knuckle curve that he somehow got. I definitely thought cueto was getting squeezed. He was all over the corners and wasn’t getting it.
DeleteWhere did you find that info, Lyle? Or are you commenting just having seen the narrowcast on the broadcast yesterday? Thx
DeleteSo, I looked up Brooks Baseball Pitch Fx strike zone plot. There was a slight difference, but not as great as I thought when I was watching.
DeleteCueto had about 5-6 pitches called balls within the strike zone. He had zero pitches called strikes outside the zone.
Wood had 3-4 pitches called balls within the strike zone. He had 4 pitches called strikes outside the zone.
So the total bias is about 7-8 pitches out of approximately 180. Not nothing, but not as egregious as I thought.
While I only got to watch through the bottom of the 6th (late west coast starts suck for me) I would agree on the strike zone. I saw multiple 'barely balls' called as strikes for Wood, while Cueto had multiple 'barely strikes' called as balls. It wasn't a huge difference, but it did happen.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, it was a nail biter. Wood was dealing. Cueto was dealing. The batters looked helpless against those two.
Now off to watch the highlights. :)
Duggar at Richmond? Surely the Giants won't do that, that would set back his development, make him dislike the team, and disrupt his motivation. Surely it would be smarter to simply move Shaw back to first base?
ReplyDeleteIDK if the rosters published on the team websites are final, but Duggar is listed at Richmond. All 3 of Mac, Slater and Shaw have more AAA experience while Duggar missed most of last year with injuries, so it makes some sense. It just has to be a bit of a letdown for Duggar after coming so close to making the MLB team out of spring training.
DeleteBTW, Tyler Beede is listed on the Richmond roster too. I presume that is because he has been assigned to work on something very specific.
I imagine all go to AAA and Mac spends a lot of time at DH.
DeleteIf his assignment disrupts his motivation and makes him dislike the team, that's a serious character flaw that's his problem and not the team's, he's going to need to avoid that to becomes a player and avoid the pitfalls of feeling owed something, and later dealing with the big spotlight. Secondly, lol at the roster, there's no other choice really!
DeleteI think it's great. Hey kid, you've got a future, but go deal with adversity first, overcome your ego, then we want you to be our starting CFer. Brand new AA stadium this year, btw.
When Mac Williamson was getting special hitting tips was Panik loitering about the batting cage?? Pretending Not to pay attention to what was going on?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of season will the Team have if Panik and Strickland have career years? While others step up: Stratton / Watson. Media acted like McCutch and Longoria signings were the Big Club Move - what if Watson signing becomes the key acquisition? Why didn't the Dodgers re-sign him?
Maybe I like asking questions more than providing analysis. If Panik has pop all season is the No. 2 spot in the order appropriate? Meaning if Panik hits 20 Bombs does he stick at 2? Do we want Posey hitting behind Panik if those are the two most potent bats in the line-up?
A comment - I'd like to see Panda start a game at 3rd. Hopefully he gets a start in LA.
A breakout season for Panik and Strickland succeeding as Closer would be a huge boost. #2 in the batting order is perfect for Panik and even more so if he hits for more power.
DeleteI would like to see Pabs at 1B with Belt in LF and Blanco in CF against Maeda tonight.
Last season Panik played around with choking up and he went on a late season tear - when he hit these two bombs was he still choking up? or has he made yet another swing adjustment?
DeleteDuggar can't be too unhappy - worst case scenario he's in SF for 2019 onwards after McCutch and Pence leave the outfield. If the beautifully pitched games like we've just seen aren't sustainable there'll be some clearing out later this season and he'll get a chance. And no one can predict the injuries or the prolonged slumps which might make that happen sooner. What he needs to do is hit .400 in Richmond...
ReplyDelete