Game Wrap 5/13/2018: Giants 5 Pirates 0

The Giants hit rockets off Pirates SP Ivan Nova throughout the game, but only tallied runs in the 6'th inning.  Derek Holland made sure that was enough as he stood in the gap and filled the Stopper role to a T.  Key Lines:

Gorkys Hernandez CF- 1 for 5, HR(2).  BA= .275.  Gorkys Hernandez crushed one to CF in the first inning that left his bat at more than 100 MPH.  It was caught on the warning track.  The Giants hit about 6 or 7 more rockets at more than 100 MPH off the bat before Hernandez finally hit one out of the park to lead off the 6'th inning to tally the Giants first run of the game.

Brandon Belt LF/1B- 3 for 5, 2 2B.  BA= .286.  Belt was stroking the ball around the field and helped the Giants add on in the pivotal 6'th inning with a 1-out single and later scored on Brandon Crawford's double.  Ironic that the single led to a run but the 2 doubles did not, but that's what kind of a day it was.

Gregor Blanco PR/LF- 1 for 1.  BA= .272.  Pablo Sandoval started the game at 1B with Brandon Belt in LF.  Pabs kept the line moving in the 6'th with a hard comebacker that caromed off Nova.  Bochy sent Gregor Blanco in to PR.   After coming around to score, he stayed in the game in LF while Belt moved over to 1B.  Blanco got a hit of his own in a later AB.

Brandon Crawford SS- 3 for 4, 2B.  BA= .263.  Crawford's BA is up to about where you would expect it to be.  He's hitting .320 over his last 7 games and .357 over his last 15.  He also made a scintillating play on defense when he threw out Jose Osuna, who had doubled, trying to advance to 3B on a grounder to SS.  Craw said "Not havin' it!"  and made it look easy.

Nick Hundley C- 1 for 4, HR(4).  BA= .290.  Do the Giants have the best backup catcher in baseball or what?  Hundley caught a great start by Derek Holland and put the game away with a 3-run blast down the LF line to cap off the 5-run rally in the 6'th.

Kelby Tomlinson 2B- 2 for 4.  BA= .250.  Kelby is physically just not capable of doing some of the things Alen Hanson has been doing, but he still gives tough AB's and is generally a pesky hitter.  He has been in a 1 for 16 slump coming in.  He appeared in 10 games during that stretch and had just 1 AB in 8 of them.  So, good to see him slap out a couple of knocks even if they did not contribute to the scoring.

Derek Holland LHP- 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 7 K's, GO/AO= 6/2.  ERA= 4.79.  The Giants needed a Stopper start and Holland did not seem like a likely guy to give it.  The 5 BB's are kind of ugly but other than that, he was superb keeping the Pirates hitters off balance and holding them to no runs until the Giants offense could finally break through.

Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 K. ERA= 0.00.  Will Smith looked sharp which would seem to bode well for the future.

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The NL West leading D'backs lost to the Nationals 6-4 so by my count, the 3'rd place Giants are now 4.5 games behind in the division.  The Rockies also lost, 7-3 to the BrewCrew so they remain 2.5 games behind the Snakes.  The 4'th place Dodgers got swept by the Reds, of all teams, and are 8.5 games off the pace and just 0.5 games out of last place!  The Padres topped the Cardinals 5-3 and are just 0.5 games behind the Dodgers and are 9 games behind the division leaders.

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The Giants do not get a travel day but I am sure the flight home was a happy one.  They start a 3 game series at home against the red hot Reds with Chris Stratton facing Sal Romano.