Game Wrap 4/14/2018: Padres 5 Giants 4

The Giants offense came to life but the pitching faltered and a bad replay call may have cost them the game.  Key Lines:

Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4, 3B.  BA= .327.  OK, here we go. With the Giants leading 4-3 in the top of the 7'th, Joe Panik hit a 1-out triple.  McCutchen then hit a liner to RF that did not give Panik much time to tag up.  The relay throw home appeared to be in plenty of time to get Panik but the replay clearly showed his foot hitting home plate well before any tag and it was questionable whether he ever got tagged at all!  Maybe the replay officials had a better angle, but it looked like he was safe.  Kruk and Kuip sure thought so!  That call turned out to be the difference in the ballgame.

Andrew McCutchen RF- 1 for 3, HR(2), 2 BB.  BA= .214.  Cutch's blast was a bomb that hit in well back in the upper deck in left-CF which is an enormous distance away in Petco Park.

Evan Longoria- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2).  BA= .176.  Longoria finally got the Giants on the board in the 4'th inning with a 2-run blast which also found the second deck in LF.  He doubled later in the game.  Hopefully this is a breakout from his early season slump.

Brandon Crawford SS- 1 for 3, 3B, BB.  BA= .277.  Crawford's triple in the 4'th inning led to a 3'rd run and gave the Giants a temporary lead.

Derek Holland LHP- 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 4.60.  Holland gave up his obligatory 2 runs in the first inning, then seemed to settle down.  He lost control of the strike zone in the 5'th inning as his pitch count soared above 80 pitches.  He finished with 86.

Reyes Maronta RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Kruk gave a nice demonstration of Maronta's drop and drive delivery with the help of slo-mo video.  Maronta looked great, but made the mistake of walking AJ Ellis with 2 outs in the 6'th.  Bochy went for the lefty-lefty matchup with Josh Osich and Carlos Asuaje and.....

Josh Osich LHP- 0.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 4.76.  Osich hung a fastball(can you hang a fastball?) to Asuaje who is not exactly Eric Hosmer.  Asauje spanked it up the middle for a hit sending AJ Ellis to 3B and that was it for Osich.

Cory Gearrin RHP- 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 3.60.  Gearring struck out the dangerous Joe Pirela to end the 6'th inning, but started the 7'th giving up a single to Freddy Galvis followed by a laser shot HR to Hunter Renfroe.  After he walked the next batter, he was done.

Tony Watson LHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00. Watson relieved Gearrin and promptly allowed 2 singles to load the bases with 0 outs.  He pulled himself together and pitched his way out of the jam without allowing any further runs.

Pierce Johnson RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.00.  Johnson continues to put together quality innings.  He has a nice arsenal of pitches and I saw one FB that reached 96 MPH on the TV radar gun.

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The Loss dropped the Giants record to 6-8, 5 games behind the NL West Leading D'Backs who destroyed the Dodgers 9-1.  The Rockies lost to the Nationals 6-2 and are in 2'nd place, 4 games behind the D'Backs.  The Padres move ahead of the Dodgers and are 6 games behind the leaders while the Dodgers drop into last place, 6.5 games off the pace.

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Tyler Beede tries to improve on his first MLB start and salvage a series tie tomorrow facing another rookie, LHP Joey Lucchesi who is hot stuff on the fantasy baseball circuit.