Game Wrap 6/19/2018: Marlins 5 Giants 4

A 9'th inning meltdown by Closer Hunter Strickland ruined an otherwise terrific game by the Giants.  Key Lines:

Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .290.  Buster's leadoff double started a 3-run rally in the second inning.  He scored on Joe Panik's single and Panik came home on Pablo Sandoval's HR.

Mac Williamson LF- 1 for 3, BB, Assist(2B).   BA= .238.  Mac hit an RBI single in the 3'rd inning and later drew a walk in what I thought was a nice AB.  I still think if Mac can avoid injury and the Giants give him the reps in LF, he'll turn into a major force in the lineup.

Pablo Sandoval 3B- 1 for 4, HR(6).  BA= .271.  Pablo's shot was hit RH, a relative rarity for him.  TV said he had gone something like 41 RH AB's without a dinger.

Andrew Suarez LHP- 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 7 K's.  ERA= 4.70.  The big silver lining in this game was Suarez' performance. He had his strikeout pitch going and carried a QS into the 7'th inning.  This was just his 3'rd QS out of 11, yes, he's had 11 starts this season!  But he's pitched in some bad luck and has 57 K's against just 12 BB's in 59.1 IP.  That adds up to an FIP of 3.58 and xFIP 3.28.

Sam Dyson RHP- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 2.51.  With Hunter Strickland looking increasingly shaky, a strong case can be made for Dyson to move into the Closer role, at least until Mark Melancon proves he's healthy for good.  While closer by committee has never worked well, I don't think Closer should be a "sacred cow" position and should almost always come with a short leash.

Hunter Strickland RHP- 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 2.84.  This kind of turned ugly when Strick buzzed one up around Lewis Brinson's head.  Kruk did not think it was on purpose, but when Brinson hit a long single to RF to tie the game, Brinson was barking and gesturing as he ran down the 1B line leading to some serious stank-eye out of Strick.  After relinquishing the lead on the next batter, Strick got in some final words at Brinson on his way to the dugout.  We'll see if those two face each other again this series, but if not, Strick has proven he has a very long memory.

Me?  I tend to believe the chin shaver was a purpose pitch by Strick, not necessarily to send a message so much as to back Brinson off the plate, which brings up pitch selection.  After the head buzzer, Strickland got strike one with a heater on the outside corner and another with a heater on the inside corner.  I thought Brinson was set up for bounced slider or two, but the next pitch was another heater on the outside that wasn't far enough outside which is right where Brinson likes them.  He reached out and poked it into R-CF for the game-tying single.

While Strick had not allowed an ER since May 28, he had allowed a couple of unearned runs and his K/BB is an unsightly 5/5 over his last 7 games and 9/8 over his last 15.  This was his 4'th Blown Save of the season.  Probably time to shuffle the Closer deck for Bochy.

*********************************************************************************

The Loss dropped the 3'rd place Giants to 5.5 games behind the D'Backs in the NL West after the Snakes beat the Angels 7-4.  The Dodgers were idle and are 2 games back.  The Rockies and Padres lost and are 6 and 7 games off the pace respectively.

*********************************************************************************

Dereck Rodriguez tries to even the series tonight facing Dan Straily who broke Evan Longoria's hand with an HBP in his last start.