Dereck Rodriguez navigated his way through a beanball war to give the Giants 5 solid innings while the offense and bullpen took care of their business for a Giants Win. Key Lines:
Buster Posey C- 1 for 4, HR(5), HBP. BA= .289. Buster went deep in the first inning to get the Giants on the board first. Then things go weird in the 2'nd inning. With 1 out and runners on 2'nd and 3'rd and the pitcher due up next, Dereck Rodriguez used the open base to hit Lewis Brinson with an obvious purpose pitch. The ump immediately warned DRod and both benches. Don Mattingly went nuts and stormed out to argue the warning. As he was turning to go back to the dugout, he looked over at Buster Posey who appeared to be minding his own business just squatting behind the plate and pointed. The lip readers finally figured out that Mattingly said "you're next!" Sure enough, next time Buster came up Straily hit him up on the arm despite knowing that both he and Mattingly were going to be hitting the showers early. That seemed to end the feud....at least for this game.
Alen Hanson SS- 3 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .313. Hanson played SS in place of Brandon Crawford who is on paternity leave and continued his hot hitting. Where would this team be without Alen Hanson?
Gorkys Hernandez CF- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(8). BA= .286. If I told you at the beginning of the season that Gorkys Hernandez would be tied for 3'rd on the team in HR's and have 3 more than Buster Posey by the middle of June, I don't think anyone here would have believed me. Wow! What a transformation! Goes to show how much difference a nagging injury will make.
Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 4.56. On his final batter of the game, Young Dereck just rated back and threw a 94 MPH FB right by him. Nice job by the kid to work his way through the craziness an finish his start off with an emphatic statement. Dereck Rodriguez and Andrew Suarez have taken some of the sting out of Tyler Beede's struggles.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K's. Ty Blach seems to have found a home in the bullpen with 2 ER allowed in 14 IP since moving there on 5/29. Mark Melancon still doesn't look quite right but got through his inning. Will Smith was lights out again with 3 K's in 1.1 shutout innings. Fantasy Alert: Sam Dyson got the first Save opportunity with Hunter Strickland hitting the DL for good long time.
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The Giants gained a game on the NL West leading D'Backs, who lost to the Angels 5-4, and now trail the leaders by 4.5 games. The 2'nd place Dodgers split a twin bill with the Cubs and are 1.5 games back. The Rockies topped the Mets 10-8 and are 5 games behind in 4'th place. The Padres lost to the A's 4-2 to remain 7 games behind in last place.
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Derek Holland tries for a series Win tomorrow afternoon facing Jose Urena.
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As several people mentioned in the comments today, Hunter Strickland broke his hand punching a wall after last night's 9'th inning meltdown. Frankly, the news was not slightly surprising to me. Strickland has shown himself to be a hothead on multiple occasions. Last year, his reckless HBP of Bryce Harper ended Mike Morse's season and possibly his career. Now he has all but ended his own season with another demonstration of poor judgement.
Pierce Johnson gets called back up to replace Strick in the bullpen. Bruce Bochy announced that Tony Watson and Sam Dyson would share Closer duties for now, but as mentioned above, Dyson got the first Save Opportunity. Bochy has never gone without a set Closer for long. Bet on Sam Dyson.
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Hernandez: Lingering injury? From 2006 through 2017? Because he's never hit 8 HRs anywhere. At any level. Ever. His career best was 6 HRs in AAA. That's why I don't believe in his power-surge or his performance. He's almost 31 years old and should be on the decline, yet he suddenly jumps in performance? There aren't many good explanations beyond career/fluke year unless he's juicing or he did not take baseball seriously enough for the 12 seasons prior.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you look at the advanced metrics of his hitting, what stands out is a 20.5% HR/FB ratio (37th in MLB for 170+ PAs). Everything else (except his .375 BABIP) is running right around his career, low-power norms.
Hanson: He even made a good defensive play last night. As for where we would be without his hitting... At least a couple of games further back in the standings. His hitting has been great, but defense as had quite a few shaky moments. But with that said, his offense has made up for the fielding.
Williamson: Hasn't been the same in the batter's box since the concussion. Still showing good defense though.
Hernandez had a sore wrist all last year and who knows how long before that. He had surgery over the winter and is driving the ball this year.
DeleteHaving said that, there is a high probability that he is experiencing his career year.
DeleteNot to panic over fielding, but Joe has been a little shaky lately.
ReplyDeleteAndy Fletcher had a horrendous day behind the plate yesterday, consistently bad, calling strikes balls and vice versa, both ways, both teams. An egregious miss of a clear strike 3 cost Rodriguez a run.
Hanson mad a couple of nice plays yesterday, but for sure he's neither Crawford nor Kelby with the glove. Boch should try him in center against a RHP when he gives Gorkys a rest.
Hanson is certainly fast enough to cover the ground in CF.
DeleteWould enhance his value to the Giants.
Richard in Winnipeg
Wow, massively disappointed by Strickland. Even if he were losing his closer spot by merit, he's still a really important part of this team and this bullpen. So breaking his hand on the wall is just absolutely selfish, and he's hurt the team. He really can't be trusted as a long term member of the team is what he's showing, and that's going to hurt the team overall, but it's also sad for the young man himself. You cannot be subject to living through your emotions in life, this is the crap that you create..
ReplyDeleteThat said, #FreeRayBlack!!
Sure, it's obvious that, at 29, Strickland should have control of his emotions.
ReplyDeleteAt 78 yo, I have empathy for him -- it ain't easy! It's not just "work on it" although that can help. Well-balanced people who can smile through aversion don't realize how lucky they are.
This is not meant to excuse his behavior, but there's a lot more to it than "grow up."