Saturday, April 7, 2018

Game Wrap 4/7/2018: Giants 7 Dodgers 5

Andrew McCutchen capped a stupendous game with his 6'th hit, a walk-off 3-run HR in the 14'th innings to give the Giants a come-from-behind win over the Hated Ones.  Key Lines:

Joe Panik 2B:  3 for 7.  BA= .393.  Panik stays hot.  Gets driven home twice by Andrew McCutchen.

Andrew McCutchen RF- 6 for 7, 2B, HR(1), SB(1).  BA= .258.  Cutch came into the game batting .083(2 for 24).  Ended up with one of the better games in the history of the franchise.  Welcome to San Francisco, Cutch!  This one will be remembered for awhile.

Love the way he pulled his arms in on an inside pitch and just rotated on it.  Wow!  What a clinic in how to not get jammed! Also love how he knew it was gone the instant he hit it.

Buster Posey C- 1 for 5, HR(1), BB.  BA= .280.  Posey's first dinger of the season put the Giants up by 2 runs in the 4'th inning.  Hope this puts to bed any silliness out there about Buster not being clutch or not helping the Giants win.

Kelby Tomlinson SS- 1 for 1.  BA= .333.  Kelby comes through again leading off the 14'th with a single and coming around to score on Cutch's bomb.

Chris Stratton RHP- 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 4.35.   Not a pretty line, but he kept the Giants in the game for 5 innings which is not nothing.

Bullpen- 9 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 7 K's.  Special kudos to Pierce Johnson and Reyes Maronta for pitching 2 scoreless innings each. Maronta's was a bit of an adventure with 1 hit and 3 BB's allowed but he got through it.

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The Win improved the Giants record to 4-3, 1.5 games behind the D'Backs who lost to the Cardinals 5-3.  The 2'nd place Giants lead the 5-4 Rockies by percentage points after the Rocks topped the Braves 3-2.  The Dodgers drop to 2-6, 4 games of the pace while the Pathetic Padres loss to the Astros 1-0 and are 4.5 games behind the division leaders.

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The Giants try for a sweep of the rain-shortened series tomorrow afternoon with Ty Blach facing off against Clayton Kershaw.

13 comments:

  1. Epic.

    Too silly early in the season, and really this team has little business dreaming about the playoffs, but....Cutch eases towards Brian Johnson territory.

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    1. It was an historic game by Andrew McCutchen, that's for sure, but the Giants have a long tough road ahead of them to reach to playoffs.

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    2. Why not? That's one of the things that makes it fun. One of the things that kept me going, year-after-year as the Giants flailed around rarely doing anything but disappointing and, of course, having my Uncle (the Dodger, Rams & Lakers fan) rub it in all the time.

      And that's also what kept me a 49er fan after the abyss of the 1970s. I remember being told how the early indicators that 49ers had turned the corner under Walsh (in 1980 you could see it with the offense) was silly and I shouldn't get my hopes by all the people who later became "life-long" 49er fans when the Raiders moved away or the other teams they rooted for (mostly Broncos, Steelers & Cowboys) declined.

      It's what kept me rooting for the Warriors, no matter how painful the Joe Barry Carroll & Chris Mullins eras were. Especially as the Lakers were doing so well. Or that, at one point, they missed the playoffs 12 straight years which is, considering how it seems like almost everyone gets in the NBA playoffs, quite an accomplishment.

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    3. You go ahead and root Moses, ridiculously early as it is. Freedom to dream is one of the singularly wonderful things about fandom.

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    4. If they can somehow just hold water and play .500 baseball until Bum gets back we have a chance at a WC. Still adding Shark to the rotation, Will Smith /Melancon pushing out the two weak links in the pen to make that a strength before he comes back as well

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  2. And the New Recruits are off the pine and rolling! As Andrew McCutchen aptly said, "Let's Go!"

    It's a different season for this team, and they've already established within their own mentality: We are never out of the game, no matter the inning or the score. We can beat our rivals, and we can win after missing the perfect opportunity just the inning prior. The bullpen is a different beast from last year and vastly more rooted with confidence already.

    Got a nice feeling going already this season. Keep that train chugging, let's see what happens when Smith, Bumgarner and Samardzjia come on back. This team has a toonder that 2017 NEVER had.

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    1. It was a nice win, but let's not get carried away here. If you count the 2 inherited runners who scored on Josh Osich and Cory Gearrin, the bullpen actually gave up 4 runs including the go-ahead run in the top of the 14'th. I'm not sure what the win percentage is after giving up the go-ahead run in extra innings, but I'm guessing it's about 90%. The Giants were saved by the heroics of Kelby and Panik and an absolutely mind-boggling game by Andrew McCutchen.

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    2. Lol. That's true, I'm still not of my own conviction for this bullpen, but I'm terms of entertainment this squad is 50x what the last few seasons have provided. I am so very high on the additions, 3 very strong and time hardened bats, an infusion of outside leadership and spark, both leading to a likely return for the other Giants stars who were flat last year.

      I'm just saying right now, for the price, I think the offseason additions we're exactly what the doctor ordered, and Evans should be toasted.

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    3. Agree Evans had a good offseason. I would have liked to see them add one more SP, but since he apparently had a mandate to stay under the CBT threshold, he had to take a chance somewhere.

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    4. Agree, what a game last night, just happy to see this team show a lot of fight in them to come back and win!. Hopefully the pitching can come together. The starting pitchers need to pitch deeper then 5 innings to win games on a,regular basis. The relievers did great overall except for Dyson and Osich, but that's bound to happen when you have to use so many of them in a game.

      LG

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  3. I'm glad McCutchen came through. I loved his excitement when he hit the HR. And it was a heck of an AB where he just kept working and working and working.

    Longoria: He's still got a good glove, and it showed (again) last night. But he continues to be a rally killer.

    Belt: Not a spectacular night by any stretch, but that double that sent Pence home was nice.

    Stratton: He got burned by the Ump on the passed-ball. That pitch was a strike, but the ump called it a ball. All other things being the same, that batter would have been struck out later in the AB, shortening the Dodger rally and preventing the third run from scoring. But that's part of baseball.

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    1. That Cutch AB was electric - and yes, how he reacted after cranking that ball showed he has charisma - the type that can energize his teammates and fans and carry a team... would like to see Sandoval start at 3B today, Longoria has earned a day's rest!

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    2. Agree. Longoria is a tough guy, he won't take it the wrong way of he sits for a game. Getting Sandoval some starts could and should be very beneficial.

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