A 3-base error by CF Austin Jackson in the 4'th inning was ultimately the difference in this game as the Giants were never able to overcome an early 3-0 Dodger lead. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval 1B- 2 for 3, HR(5). BA= .281. Pabs poked a 2-run dinger to LF in the 7'th inning to bring the Giants within 1 run, but the Giants were not able to get that tying run. Pabs is hitting .304 over his last 7 games and .356 over his last l5.
Austin Jackson CF- 0 for 3, E(3). BA= .246. Oh boy! Here come the boo birds, a whole flock of them! Yeah, gotta say. As much as I iike what Bobby Evans accomplished this offseason, I've never understood the Austin Jackson signing. He was so anxious to get rid of Denard Span he gave away Christian Arroyo to pay the Rays to take him, but then turned around and signed Jackson, who statistically was a worse defensive OF and definitely a worse hitter, so his performance in this game is no surprise. Not much else to say about it. I guess Jackson was less of a hit against the CBT, but Evans could have done just was well dumpster diving for a minor league deal. There were a couple of good defensive CF's available in the Rule 5 draft that he passed on too.
Derek Holland LHP- 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 4.48. Pretty much an average game for Holland. You hope he'll keep the game close for 5 innings and give the bullpen a chance to win it. If you get more, it's a windfall. He did that in this game and the unearned runs was ultimately the difference.
Pierce Johnson RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 5.46. The Giants needed an extra arm in the bullpen after Ty Blach's 6.2 IP Thursday. Johnson took Evan Longoria's place on the roster and gave the Giants 2 scoreless innings.
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With the Loss, the Giants dropped into 4'th place 5.5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs who beat the Mets 7-3. The Dodgers remained 2.5 games back in 2'nd place. The Rockies topped the Rangers 9-5 to remain 5 games behind the leaders and move in to 3'rd place. The Pesky Padres pounded the Braves 9-3 to remain 6.5 games behind in last place.
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Madison Bumgarner tries to even the series tonight facing lefty Alex Wood. Brandon Belt is expected to be activated from the DL for the game.
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Schedule: With this BS road-game, coming off a 16-inning game, I was expecting much worse. So in that I'm happy. But the Giants have had a brutal first-half schedule. When this three-game series with the Dodgers is over, the Giants will have played over half (42/81) of this season's road-games. By the All-Star break they will have played 46/81 (57%) of them. That's really tough on a team.
ReplyDeleteJackson: Yeah, I thought it was a stupid signing. I really thought they should have gone with Slater, Williamson & Duggar in the OF with Pence & Hernandez on the bench.
Rays: Speaking of ex-Giants traded away, Arroyo, in his short call-up, hit .264 while Matt Duffy, whom we traded for the bust Moore is hitting .312 and is playing excellent defense. And, of course, Span who is, as you mentioned, out-playing Jackson.
Does Bochy get to make the roster decisions? He's part of it but as long as the FO keeps Jackson on the active roster, Bochy has to play him -- save him for a late-inning defensive replacement? LOL, he's the worst OFer on the team! Or is Pence?
ReplyDeleteThe Giants are in a conundrum -- are they trying to save face by not admitting the Jackson signing was a mistake and/or are they maintaining loyalty by not DFAing Pence?
Interesting comments from SFGate article this morning - pressure to drop JAX (or Pence) and call up Slater - I want to see this happen. From today's Chron ...
ReplyDelete"The Giants have a delicate problem that needs to be addressed soon, a crowded outfield with two underperforming players — Jackson and Hunter Pence — and perhaps better alternatives on the bench (Alen Hanson) and in the minors (Austin Slater).
Slater is killing the Pacific Coast League, hitting .343 with a league-leading 22 doubles. The season is no longer young. The Giants have to find a way to get Slater to the majors, even if a tough decision on a veteran needs to be made."
Jackson as a depth signing was sort of so-so, classic backup if Williamson/Slater couldn't hack it at 6 times the MLB Minimum. 36 starts in CF later... 54 Ks in 154 PAs, just not doing much out there. I was at the game last night, his at bats weren't good, that catch wasn't easy but it should have been made. The two biggest non-contributers are Jackson and Corey Gearrin, whom the Giants can't waive. At 1.65MM, Gearrin should be imminently eligible for DFA, and that's how close to the salary cap the G's have placed themselves.
ReplyDeleteHolland gave up a lot of hard contact, especially 2nd and 3rd time through. Mac Williamson was busy and made good plays. I worry for the pen later in the season with the starters being so mediocre. Every team in MLB has to deal with injuries, Giants have to fill the gaps and get something going. Hansen has been good, and the Pablo Sandoval redeption tour is a lot of fun. Now if they could get a couple pitchers on that track!
Shankbone! Where have you been, buddy?!
DeleteHey DrB - Just been busy with life. Still watching games, following along. I don't think most understand how much of a grind a blog is! Through a mix up with google I lost mine to the interwebz. I'm still reading, just not commenting much! Keep rocking along, you do a great job as always.
DeleteShankbone! Great to see you surface! Was so bummed to see your site become, what, a Korean cosmetics site or something?
DeleteAnyway, I've missed your take on all things Black and Orange. I hope you have the time to pop into Doc's site a bit more often this year.
"Giants getting it done with red-ass grit and duct tape..." Still makes me smile.
Hope you're well.
With the "tough" part of the schedule behind the Giants plus Samardzija, Cueto, and Belt coming back starting today through the end of the June-swoon, it may be feasible to tough it out with the 2 overpaid (which may be 3!) OFers.
ReplyDeletePence will probably hurt himself either running out a grounder or crashing a wall but Jackson takes no chances and is the Giants for the full fare unless they can get someone to take him and part of his millions by giving up a semi-precious prospect -- one someone would think was worth a few million dollars. Ha, that ain't gonna happen.
july is gonna be a meat grinder, they are at home but, against mostly playoff teams and the friars are not gonna be an easy task. now is the time to start making a run or we could very likely be talking about the giants being sellers and start talking about culture change.
DeleteIf you can't beat the playoff teams at home when you have your "full" team, you aren't a playoff team.
ReplyDelete