Brandon Crawford drove in both of the Giants runs with a 2-run homer in the 4'th inning of Nationals ace Max Scherzer while Derek Holland held the Nats scoreless for 5 innings and 4 out of the Fabulous Five bullpen members slammed the door the rest of the way. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval 1B- 0 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .282. Interesting article in Fangraphs by Jeff Sullivan who noticed that Pabs has suddenly stopped swinging at first pitches. Up to this season, Pabs swing % on first pitches was right around 50% and very stable and about the same as the percentage he swings at all pitches. This year, he has swing at about 3%. Yes, you read that right. Not 30% but 3%. He's maintained his swing percentage at Not First Pitches at right about his career average. Whether that first pitch strategy helped him draw the 2 walks in this game, who knows? I'm not even sure if he swing at the first pitch in those two PA's or not since I was cooling my heals in the Salt Lake City Airport which would be the worst $%@&hole in the entire country if it weren't for LAX. But I digress. The point I am getting to is Pablo drew 2 walks and scored 1 of the Giants 2 runs on Brandon Crawford's bomb.
Brandon Crawford SS- 4 for 4, 2 2B, HR(8). BA- .338. 1 Base short of a cycle. I gotta say, I am running out of things to day about the stupendous season Crawford is having, at least since May 1. He's hitting cleanup in the Giants lineup for a reason and may be on his way to MVP contention. I mean for the National League! .533 over the 10 games in the month of June after hitting .412 on May.
Derek Holland LHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.54. This is what the Giants hired Holland to do. Keep it close for 5 innings and let the bullpen take it from there. Holland has pitched at least 5 innings in 10 of his starts and at least 6 IP in 5. He's not allowed more than 4 ER in any game he has started. This was his second start of the season in which he did not allow a run.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Tony Watson, Hunter Strickland. 1 shutout innings each with Strick earning his 13'th Save. Hey! The Core Four is no more, but now we have the Fab Five: The 4 we saw today plus Will Smith.
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The Win allowed the Giants to keep pace with the NL West leading D'Backs who lead the Giants and Dodgers by 2.5 games after sweeping the Rockies over the weekend. The Rockies, who started the weekend in 2'nd place, 0.5 games out of the lead are now in 4'th place, 3.5 games behind. The Pesky Padres topped the Marlins 3-1 to remain 5.5 games behind in the cellar.
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The Giants take their roadshow to Miami to face the Marlins with Madison Bumgarner starting the first game of the series against Wei-Yin Chen.
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Maybe the Sexy Six or the Smokin’ Six in the bullpen, with Reyes Moronta added to the corps of Melancon, Smith, Dyson, Watson, and Strickland. Moronta is already up to .5 fWAR, with an ERA of 1.52; and Bochy is entrusting him with more highly leveraged situations.
ReplyDeleteThe Scintillating Six?
DeleteJust add Ray Black and be the Magnificent Seven
DeleteAccording to Rosenthal's latest tweet someone with inside knowledge of the Giants' cap has let him know that they're barely under. So that's good to know. But, still, I'd fire-sale Gearrin & Jackson and bring up Black & Duggar.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Terrific Trio are heading The Rotation (or is that IF?) who're the Odd Men out from the Fearsome Foursome of Stratton, Holland, Suarez, or Rodriguez? Bet it will be the guys with options, which wouldn't include Holland. The other 3 surely do.
ReplyDeleteThat only leaves the Tenuous Two, Blach and Gearrin, and one of them is on Life Support.
With the Scintillating Six, that makes 15. Two, probably 3, are banished (or worse) to Sacramento. Ray Black's gonna have to wait.
Belt's back Friday to face Lefty Wood (? -- might as well wait until Saturday), then Stripling, and Buenuelos (?). WOW, the Dogs are really beaten up on their pitching staff.
Gotta be impressed with the Giants being 33-32 with all they have been through with injuries (especially SP--I know the Dodgers, too) and a pretty tough schedule to boot...Come next Monday the Giants will have played 30 Home and 42 Away and some tough teams...Hope they can at least win 3 of the next 7 road games--it should be doable...
ReplyDeleteRegarding the relievers, what a bullpen it has turned into!...Actually, the only weak link is Gearin...I think BLACH can be a pretty valuable reliever for them and together with Moronta might add to the Fab Five and get a Magnificient Seven....Ok, that's an exaggeration but....Still ,all in all, a good bullpen!
And say the Giants remain playing good ball and in good contention for the West Crown by mid July...I think they will be lucky if BOTH Cueto and Shark come back healthy to go along with MadBum, Stratton (4th) and Holland/Suarez (5th)..But, it's very likely, if they are in contention, they might feel the need to deal for a SP either way...That's where I worry what young OF will go and/or other prospects...also, given how close to the luxury tax level they are, they might have to package a good prospect with a vet contract to some team...Should be very interesting..but I hope the Giants are in that position...rather then just selling off vets and quitting the season
SteveVA