The Giants scored 4 runs in the 7'th inning leading to a come-from-behind win over the Dodgers to open their 4 game series in AT&T Park. Key Lines:
Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4, HR(5). BA= .235. Longoria is hitting .250 over his last 7 games, but .302 over his last 15. He's settling in as a reliable bat in the middle of the Giants batting order.
Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 4. BA= .315. Belt's leadoff bunt single in the 7'th started the 4 run rally, and that's why people who say he should not bunt to beat the shift are wrong. If the opposing team is going to give you an almost certain hit and more importantly put you on base, you take it. Had Belt not reached base there, Austin Jackson's groundball would have been Out #2 and the winning rally would likely have never happened. The Dodgers shift essentially gave this game away, but only because Belt took what they gave him.
Brandon Crawford SS- 1 for 3, HR(2), BB. BA= .205. Crawford has faced a lot of LHP's this season, but his BA is .205 against both RHP's and LHP's. Both of his HR's have come off LHP's. This HR came in the 2'nd inning after Longoria's 2 batters earlier to give the Giants an early 2-0 lead.
Gorkys Hernandez LF- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .321. Hernandez drove in the first run of the Giants 4-run rally with a groundball single to left and eventually came around to score the go-ahead run. Later, he forgot how many outs there were on a flyout he caught in LF, but no harm, no foul, right?
Kelby Tomlinson PH- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .286. Kelby is the Giants PH deluxe. He drove a hard groundball through the hole into LF which ran deep enough for a double and drove in the tying run. He later scored an insurance run to end the Giants scoring for the night. And that is why Kelby Tomlinson is currently my favorite Giant!
Derek Holland LHP- 3.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 5.76. Holland managed to get through 3 innings with 3 baserunners allowed, but the wheels came off in the 4'th as he allowed 2 walks and 3 doubles, the last to opposing pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu. Gotta think Holland's days in the Giants rotation are very limited.
Pierce Johnson RHP- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.77. Johnson put out the fire in the 4'th inning and gave the Giants another shutout inning.
Hunter Strickland RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(6). ERA= 1.50. Strick seems to be settling into the Closer role. I picked him up for my fantasy team on Opening Day and he's done good for me.
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The Win enabled the Giants to hop over the Dodgers into 3'rd place in the NL West, but still trail the Dangerous D'Backs by 6 games. The 2'nd place Rockies blanked the Marlins 1-0 to remain 4 games behind the D'Backs. The 4'th place Dodgers are 6.5 games behind the leaders while the Pathetic Padres slipped to 10 games off the pace. The Padres are 7 games behind in the Wild Card race so we won't write them out of contention quite yet.
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The Giants and Dodgers play a split doubleheader today to make up for the rainout in their first series in SF. Chris Stratton and Johnny Cueto go for the Giants against Rookie Walker Buehler and lefty Alex Wood.
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Holland did himself no good in his quest for the 5th spot so it's a big start for Blach tomorrow. If he comports himself as he usually does against the Big Bad Dodgers, he'll have a leg (or arm) up.
ReplyDeleteTruth is: the Dodgers, with Turner out, Puig scuffling, no leadoff batter (I thought WE had problems), Kershaw below His Excellence, and their 3 "youngsters" returned to earth for the moment -- well, they aren't GREAT. Good yes, but not a lock on anything.
Sure, they can turn it around but 100 wins? Not gonna happen.
Giants are but a return of the pitching staff and a Posey resurgence from being clearly better than they.
One more thing: LF dilemma? Why is the OF question about Pence? There is second overpaid guy in the last year of his contract out there AND the other new guy -- none of them -- 2018's starting OF -- is pulling his weight much less should be automatically penciled in the starting lineup.
Blanco AND Hernandez are doing just as well as any of THEM and Williamson is the BEST of the bunch until he falters.
Mac Wiliamson has cleared the Concussion Protocol and should start in at least 1 of the games today. Josh Osich went on the DL to make room for Austin Slater. Derek Law will be the 26'th man on the roster for the doubleheader.
ReplyDeleteInjury Updates:
ReplyDeleteWilliamson just put on the 7-DAy concussion DL (retroactively) and can start Tuesday.
Panik on the 10-day DL (sprained thumb). Hansen called up to replace Panik.
Melancon to the 60-day DL.
Strickland: His fastball is fast but doesn't have superior movement. But where he's better is the change-up and the slider, both of which have been much more effective for him than his 96 mph fast ball.
Belt: Loved the bunt. And I think you're right about the rally.
Definitely that was the right time for the bunt! No one on, no one out, two down, base runners needed.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, BB seemed to be the last credible batter in yesterday's line-up -- how wrong that proved to be!
Besides for speed, Hanson brings versatility to the Giants. One reason for his much improved performance in Sac this year is his reduction in K's (he actually, SSS, has fewer K's then W's!).
With his speed he can beat out some ground balls, but he can't beat out a strikeout. He may yet be the best signing of the year!
(Watson and Johnson may have something to say about that.)
Watson & Johnson have been very good (so far) signings. Holland... Yeah... Let's not go there... Hansen is interesting as he's been, in the past, a Top-100 prospect on many lists. But just never got it together. But now he's tearing up the PCL. So we'll see if it's a 'finally got it' or 'small sample size' thing.
DeleteGo Alen!
DeleteSaturday's biggest news.
So far, but with today's DH, this will be a big news day in San Francisco.
Somewhat true anonymous, however it was a leadoff bunt single. None out.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, CDAH, but wasn't that what I said:
DeleteNo one on, no one out -- thus the lead-off batter
two down -- score was Dodgers 4, Giants 2
base runners needed -- right time to bunt to get on