The Giants got a bounceback Quality Start from Chris Stratton and their offense added onto a 6-spot in the 2'nd inning for a Win that was not as easy as the score looks. Key Lines:
Alen Hanson 2B- 2 for 5, 2B. Hanson drove in a run with an oppo-field double down the LF line in the 6-run 2'nd inning. He later scored on a spectacular diving slide into home plate on Buster Posey's bouncer/fielder's choice to 3B. Hanson was initially called out by the home plate umpire but was ruled safe when the replay clearly showed his left hand touching the plate before any tag was put on him. Hanson later singled but was picked off 1B on a snap throw that he did not even appear to be leaning on.
Andrew McCutchen RF- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .224. Despite his anemic BA, Cutch has an OBP of .352 and has been making pitchers work. His bat seems to be slowly coming around as he is hitting .263 over his last 7 games, .244 over his last 15 and .214 over his last 30 games coming into tonight.
Buster Posey C- 2 for 5. BA= .292. Gotta admit, the only thing I remember Buster doing at the plate was the Fielder's Choice bouncer that scored Alen Hanson, but he got his 2 hits.
Evan Longoria 3B- 1 for 5, HR(7). BA= .250. Longoria's dinger was an opposite-field shot into the bleachers above the short RF porch. Credit for going the other way in this stadium.
Brandon Crawford SS- 3 for 5, HR(3). BA= .223. Crawford showed signs of hitting the ball harder in the San Diego series in which he went 3 for 9. Hopefully tonight's game is he start of better days for Brandon.
Austin Jackson CF- 0 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .228. AJax has been on base 8 times in 14 PA's over his last 4 games including 6 walks.
Gregor Blanco LF- 1 for 4, 3B. BA= .297. Blanco's 2'nd inning triple drove in the Giants first 2 runs and really ignited the 6-run rally. I noticed his walk up music was Whiter Shade of Pale. Don't know if that is his choice of walk-up music or the Braves PA crew.
Chris Stratton RHP- 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.99. Stratton was coming off a very rough start which went down the day he got back from paternity leave. He did not appear to have his best stuff in this one and got off to another rough start allowing a 2-run dinger to Freddie Freeman in the first inning, but settled down and battled through 6 innings. It looked to me like he had very inconsistent commend of the curveball, which got better as the game progressed.
Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. Smith gave up a leadoff single to PH Charlie Culberson, a former Giant. Culberson took 2B when Gorkys Hernandez bobbled the ball in CF. This enabled him to advance to 3B on a flyout and score on a Sac Fly for the unearned run. Tony Watson and Sam Dyson pitched uneventful 8'th and 9'th innings.
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As of this writing, the D'Backs are trailing the Astros 8-0 in the 8'th inning so the Giants will likely gain another game on the NL West leaders and be 4.5 games behind. If that holds up, the Rockies, who topped the Mets 8-7 will be in 2'nd place, 3.5 games out. The 4'th place Dodgers are a couple of outs away from a combined no-hitter of the Pathetic Padres in Mexico City. If that holds up, the Hated Ones will be 6.5 games behind the leaders with the Padres bringing up the rear of the division, 11 games out.
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Ty Blach will try to secure the Giants 5'th series win in a row tomorrow evening facing Brandon McCarthy, who is 4-0, but has only completed 6 innings in 1 start this season.
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Andres Torres, Ryan Vogelsong, Gregor Blanco, Yusmeiro Petit. The Giants have a storied track record of signing guys to minor league deals who make significant contributions to championships. Maybe Alen Hanson is that guy this year? I have to say I am impressed with his athleticism, speed and enthusiasm. I'm willing to take a few errors of aggressiveness for those qualities.
ReplyDeleteI remember Posey's hits. And him grounding into an inning-ending DP. Posey has a lot of positives at and behind the plate. But he's a DP machine and not very good on the basepaths when it comes to stretching hits out...
ReplyDeleteBrandon Belt is tied for 18th in WAR (which ever one they use at ESPN). I wonder if this is the year he breaks 5 WAR. I thought he was going to make it last year, but then he got the concussion.
The Giants may have enough bats this year to hit Posey 5th. At 3 & 4 he's just too likely to have a runner on 1st when he comes up in the 1st inning.
Delete5 is a better position for him to clean up the runners and not hitting into dp's.
(This is based on Giants getting runners on base at the top of the lineup which they are doing better with McCutchen, Belt, and 1 other guy like Panik.)
Hanson appears to be OK with the glove also. Arm? He has a lot of early minor league games at SS, a couple in Sacramento. Is Kelby's arm better?
ReplyDeleteLA Dodger Dogs: Leading batter (with qualifying at bats) is none other than the trade throw-in Matt Kemp, fresh from the ash pile of done dudes. Now a liability in the OF, he's slashing .310/.351/.506 -- Hunter Pence should do so well!
One more thing, with another injury, Dogs bring up 21-yo Alex Verdugo and he's 8-21 in 6 games, is he yet another rookie phenom for them?
Oh yeah, Walker Buehler, 23-yo "fill-in" pitcher threw the first 6 innings of LA's no-no last night compiling 93 pitches. Pulled with no hitter going! Too many pitches. (LA used 3 more relievers, 1 per inning.) Buehler's been pretty lights out including a credible performance against SF, which was his worst of 3 starts.
Where do ALL these guys (including Bellinger, Seager, and Pederson) come from?
Our last new position player was Joe Panik -- maybe 27-yo Big Mac will break the drought!