A very smart manager name Earl Weaver once famously said the secret to winning in baseball is great pitching and 3-run home runs. In recent memory, the Giants have mostly gotten great pitching but not so many 3-run dingers. They've been getting a few more this spring. Today it was Evan Longoria in the first inning. Ty Blach and the bullpen made is stand up as the Giants won their 3'rd and final game of the 4 games series agains the Hated Ones. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco LF- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .327. Blanco had a find day at the plate but did not figure into the scoring, maybe partly because he got picked off 1B after the single.
Buster Posey C- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .271. Buster started the first inning rally with a 2-out double.
Brandon Belt 1B- 1 for 2, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .317. You can't hit 3-run HR's without baserunners. Belt drew a walk behind Buster Posey in the first inning and scored one of those 3 runs. In the 3'rd inning, he drove in Buster who had drawn a walk with a double to CF.
Evan Longoria 3B- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .247. Again, take out the first 4 games of the season when he went 0 for 15 and Longoria has had a darn good season so far and a huge upgrade on the black hole the Giants had at 3B last year.
Austin Slater RF- 1 for 1, 2 BB. BA= .286. Slater got the start in RF to give Andrew McCutchen a rest and had an OBP of 1.000 on the day. With Mac out on Concussion DL, Slater should get more chances in LF. As for Cutch, historically April is his weakest month, but a pretty big margin, so expect him to heat up in the near future.
Ty Blach LHP- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 8/3. ERA= 4.10. Blach continued his mastery of the Dodgers with a QS. He faced 1 batter in the 7'th giving up a IF single to Max Muncy. Sam Dyson allowed Muncy to score on a double by Joc Pederson. The run, of course was charged to Blach. Oh, and Blach came within 3 batters of facing the Dodgers lineup 3 times.
Hunter Strickland RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(7). ERA= 1.32. Strick fell behind all 3 batters he faced and got 2 of his outs on line drive outs to the OF. Strick, if you can pitch that well from behind, think of how much easier it would be if you threw a strike or two early in count! Oh well, a good closer will get it done without his best stuff or best command and Strick did that. This was his 3'rd consecutive day of appearances because Boch had to use him proactively with a 5-run lead in yesterday's game.
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With the Win, the Giants reached the .500 mark and gained a full game on the entire division as all 4 division rivals lost. Arizona finishes the day still in first place, 5 games ahead of the Rockies, 5.5 games ahead of the Giants, 7 games ahead of the Dodgers and 10 games up on the Pathetic Padres.
The Giants win their 3'rd series in a row and are 7-3 in that stretch.
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The Giants finish out the 10 game homestand and will try to keep the Pathetic Padres from transforming into the Pesky Padres. Jeff Samardzija faces lefty Eric Lauer in game 1 tomorrow evening.
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Tough news on Joe Panik and his thumb sprain which is apparently much worse than it originally seemed. Joe is reportedly getting a second opinion on whether he should have surgery to repair the thumb which implies some torn ligaments. No word on whether the first opinion recommended surgery or rehab. Either way, Joe is likely to be out for an extended period, possibly 6-8 weeks.
2B duties will likely be shared between Kelby Tomlinson and Alen Hanson, possibly a platoon with the RH hitting Kelby facing LHP's and the switch-hitting Hanson facing RHP's. This is tough as Hanson my have more upside than Kelby, but IMO, Kelby has earned the right to make it his job to lose.
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Giants 24, Dodgers 24 for the long week end.
ReplyDeleteLike you said about yesterday's blow out, losing by 9 only counts as 1 loss, so the game score is 3-1, with the Giants winning all the contested games.
Another way of looking at the series is that one of Saturday's games was from the rainout series and the other from this series.
So, if you put the win yesterday in the earlier series, the Giants won that one 2-1.
If you give it to the Dodgers, then they just got swept!
Either way, how sweet it is!
Dyson pitching out of the 7th inning jam striking out Utley might have been the key to the win. Utley was 5 out of 6 with 2 hrs against Dyson, which had me nervous! Will Smith being activated would be huge, so that Tony Watson's arm doesn't fall off. Agreed that Tomlinson deserves a chance to fill in for Panik. Gotta give Strickland props for working with John Smoltz in the off season on refining his slider.
ReplyDeleteI totally enjoyed watching Jerry Hairston and Ned Colleti on the Dodger post game show referring to Blach as "Cy" Blach, and how he shouldn't have this much success against the Dodgers because he's not Max Schertzer, lol!
LG
There was a little headline/story on espn.com where it was revealed Dave Roberts benched Cody Bellinger in the 5th inning for 'lack of hustle' on legging out a double and Bellinger was reportedly surprised that Roberts saw it as a lack of hustle. This seems like a very bad sign to me if you're manager is already pointing fingers at players and vice a versa, and that it's happening through the media. Very bad sign if you're a Dodger fan, which none of us are, thank god.
ReplyDeleteCody B. ripped that ball to Triples Alley and not Doubles Alley (ha) - put his manager in a tough position.
DeleteYep, that was close to a meltdown there with both sides handling it poorly. I mean, isn't that the sort of thing clubhouse kangaroo courts are for, or is that an outmoded concept? If not a kangaroo court, isn't that what veteran leadership from a Chase Utley, to name one, is for? Maybe both of those had already been tried and Bellinger is not listening?
DeleteOn the Bellinger side, man, he not only defended himself, he openly questioned the manager's knowledge of the game when he talked about being down by 4 runs and not risking making an out trying to stretch it into a triple. I would say he might have a point if it was the 8'th or 9'th inning, but it was still early enough in the game to make it worth trying for that 1 run to get on the scoreboard and chip away at the lead. Not to take stupid chances, but had he been running hard out of the box, it should have been a fairly easy triple. The ball stayed in the air a long time.
So yeah, that is a delicate situation there in Dodgerland with both Roberts and Bellilnger having some answering to do. Whoever is in charge in their front office, and I mean whoever, needs to be asking some questions.
I looked at the replay. Bellinger was, literally, on one knee when he hit that ball and Slater had a good jump and played it well. I could see why Bellinger didn't try for three -- late start out of the box, good coverage by the OFer, the cut-off man has a rocket arm.
ReplyDeleteIt was the smart play and I think Roberts messed up by benching him.
I would not go so far as to say he was admiring it, but Bellinger also took a long time visually tracking where the ball was going after he got his knee off the ground. There are two sides to the story and they both have things to answer for if the GM/VP/President of the team wants to start asking questions.
DeleteBochy made what turned out to be a brilliant move in the 1st game Saturday when he put Pablo in to pitch the 9th. Besides the obvious in saving a BP arm and not using a regular who might try to do something and injure himself, Bochy added comic relief, put everyone into a smile ending a severe drubbing so team morale got picked up, and kinda said "Well this is what we think of your win, big deal."
ReplyDeleteThat Sandoval "chewed" them up stamped the Dodgers -- yes, you scored a lot of runs but you're not so great.
That said, it could have backfired, if Pablo hurt his arm breaking off some pretty respectful curves. Not sure how many smiles there would have been if LA had scored 5 more runs -- really hate to give up 20!
I know it's probably an overstatement but the Giants' 2017 was in my view in part due to a hangover from the playoff loss to the Cubs and overall post season fatigue of the previous years. I think the Dodgers are in the midst of a WS hangover, still thinking about what might have been has their eye of the prize this year. Just a random thought. -e
ReplyDeleteGood as place as any......Gotta say, I am beyond pleased that the Giants are at .500 as of today given all the injuries (mainly to the pitching staff) and the tough schedule (including a lot of away games until the last 7)...Hats off to Bochy and the players...Of course, it's only .500 and it's early but at least it looks like the team is more "Giant-like" in attitude and resilancy than the disaster last year...Now we have the injury to Panic...that could really hurt....but maybe Kelby and Hanson (or maybe even Gomez, who's hitting well in RICH) can hold the fort....Sorting the OF out is also key.....but..if the Giants can hang in there until the Pitching staff is all healthy.....well........Lookin forward to a starting staff of Madbum, Cueto, Shark, Stratton and Blach with, what could be a pretty good bullpen even without Melancon ---Strick, Watson, Dyson, Moronta and Will SMith..Lot of its but hope springs a kernel...
ReplyDeleteAnd it's good to have youngsters like Mac, Slater and Duggar all seeming to be ready....The handling of the OF log jam and what to do with Pence, Jackson and Henrandez is crucial....Love what Duggar is doing in SAC..started off slow..but is hitting and, more importantly ,getting on base via walks...Looks good for the future...
But, I should know better than having some optimistic feelings about the Giants..
SteveVA
Remember when Bumgarner went down - it was just thought that if they could tread water at .500 until he returns and hopefully .600 after that the Giants will have a chance. So there they are - only now it looks like Longoria is emerging as the stud batting leader and taking some of that pressure off of Posey. If McCutch gets hot, Belt stays hot, Mac comes back hot = that's a seriously fearsome lineup!
DeleteIf the Giants win tonight, it will be the first Mar/Apr above .500 since 2014 -- 2014, not 2016 when the Giants had the best record in the Major Leagues July 10th.If the Giants can get through a tough May, they have insurance against the dreaded June swoon: MadBum!
ReplyDelete