Gorkys Hernandez had a sensational At Bat to draw a bases-loaded walk and drive in the winning run in the bottom of the 8'th inning. The Giants survived a shaky 9'th inning to hold on for the Win. Key Lines:
Gorkys Hernandez CF- 1 for 3, HR(10), BB. BA= .284. Gorkys actually played a role in all 3 Giants runs. He muscled up in the 3'rd inning for his 10'th HR, a drive over the CF wall. In the 7'th inning with runners on first and second and no outs, he tried for a bunt base hit down the 3B line but settled for a Sac, moving up both runners. The lead runner, Austin Slater, scored on Andrew McCutchen's SF. To me, the highlight of Gorkys' night came when he drew a 2-out, bases loaded walk off Adam Ottavino to drive in the winning run. Neither of the last two takes that were called balls were easy. Great, great AB in a clutch situation!
Brandon Crawford SS- 3 for 3, BB. BA= .316. Crawford started the winning rally with his 3'rd single of the game with 1 out in the 8'th inning. He stole 2B when Lemahieu could not hang onto the ball which caused Ottavino to walk Joe Panik intentionally. Ottavino then intentionally unintentionally walked the lefty hitting Alen Hanson to face Gorkys.
Austin Slater LF- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .267. Slater drew an intentional walk and had a nice basehit grounder through the left side of he infield. He looked lost on to other AB's that ended in K's.
Hunter Pence PH- 1 for 1. BA= .204. As Kuip said, Pence had his Magic Wandu going on the PH AB with a chopper down the 3B line that Arenado tried to let go foul but it hit the 3B bag with about 3 inches to spare and Pence had another basehit.
Derek Holland LHP- 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 4.24. Holland allowed a 2'nd inning HR to Ian Desmond but was otherwise nails with strong peripheral numbers. Holland has an ERA of 3.35 over his last 7 starts. He has allowed 6 ER in 18.2 IP over his last 3 Starts for a 2.88 ERA.
Mark Melancon RHP- 0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.89. After retiring Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado on groundouts, Melancon gave up a single to Trevor Story and a double to Ian Desmond to allow the tying run. The double by Desmond could have been caught by Cutch in RF but it would have been a good catch of a sinking liner.
Sam Dyson RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.95. Things did not look good when Dyson gave up a leadoff double to catcher Tom Murphy. It was a Texas Leaguer to CF that Gorkys could not quite get to and it kicked off his glove allowing Murph to get to 2B. Murph had to reach to get a bat on it, so it was a BABIP hit. Dyson got a K but then walked PH Chris Iannetta. Dyson then got the groundball to 2B and Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford worked their magic for a game-ending GIDP.
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The D'Backs topped the Marlins 5-3 while the Dodgers dropped one to the Cubs 9-4 so the Giants are 4.5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs. The Dodgers are 2.5 games back in 2'nd place. The Rockies drop 7 games off the pace while the Pesky Padres won to remain 10.5 games behind in last place.
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Madison Bumgarner tries to keep the winning going against Kyle Freeland tomorrow evening in AT&T Park.
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OK, that was about the ugliest game ending DP I think I've ever seen...
ReplyDeleteHolland: I only got to watch the game through the first two innings. I saw that rocket and thought 'uh-oh.' I wish I could have stayed up late and seen him buckle down and dominated the Rockies lineup.
ReplyDeleteMcCutchen: Of course he didn't make the defensive play. He's tied for second-worst fielding (FanGraphs) OFer on the team with Hernandez. Statcast has him at -6 Outs Above Average (228th in MLB) and there is not a single catch "star" range in which he's above average. Which includes the one-star catches with a 91%-95% success rate (he's at 82%)! There is no kind way to put it -- he's a bad fielder and his failures massively sabotage his worth as a player.
If, and this is royal king-sized IF, the Giants are still "in it" in September, they'll be able to bring in a defensive OF with a lead in the late innings.
DeleteThe two sitting yesterday, Jackson and Pence, are no better defensively than McCutchen and Hernández and are woefully inadequate offensively, notwithstanding Pence's two wandu hits which only put an exclamation on his inadequacies.
Slater is not a defensive stud but Williamson and Duggar should help. A little.
But the IF remains: can the Giants hang in there? Incredibly, other than that 9th inning collapse against SD last week, the Giants have not lost a game by more than 2 runs since May 29, and are 16-9 since then and have a very positive RS/RA margin (+29).
BUT, today is game 81, and even getting to 90 wins is NOT a guarantee but will take a .598 winning percentage, 49-33. Maybe with Cueto, but they can't believe that Samardzija will be better than 50-50, so Holland and one of Stratton/Suarez/Rodriguez will have to be better than that even if Bumgarner goes 11-4 (17 starts) and Cueto 8-3 (14 starts).
Anything is possible, might even make it with 88 or 89 if AZ, StL, and Atl co-operate, conceding the divisions to LA, WA, and Mil/Chi (loser being the other WC).
Gorkys! Another great dumpster dive by Evans!
ReplyDeleteFrankly where might we not be without him so far?
Richard in Winnipeg
Holland, Watson, Hanson, Hundley, Sandoval, and D Rodriguez have been signed as Free Agents in the last 12 months.
DeleteHernández was signed as a FA in 2015. Until this year he's barely been worth a minimum ML salary and still carries a negative career WAR. This year, his offense does overshadow a miserable dWAR.
What a turnaround for Gorkys! Go back 365 days and there were dozens interweb rants to DFA him. Even if this is an Andres Torres one-off career year, good on him!
DeleteHernandez was pretty poor in 2016 & 2017. He's having a career year. It's probably a fluke because 31 (almost anyway), is not when you expect a no-power, meh-hitting, 5th OFer to break out! But it is a time when marginal players have fluke seasons and GMs pat themselves on the back only to have the ugly head of regression win the day.
DeleteCase in point -- Andres Torres 2010. 5.1 bWAR. The total bWAR of his 9-year career -- 7.6. As for what Hernandez is doing, honestly, it's not up to Torres' fluke season. Hernandez only looks good because most of the rest our OF is so bad. We, as a team, are tied for 28th in OF fWAR with the Orioles with 0.3 fWAR and only the White Sox are worse. And we're on pace to have less OF fWAR this year than last! We only had 0.9 fWAR in the OF last year. We're halfway through and we have just 0.3!
So, yeah, he's having a nice year. I'm glad. I'd rather he did than didn't. But I contend that he's been no 'great find' over his Giants career.
Further, he'll have to continue this kind of production for the rest of this year and well into next before I change my mind. Especially in light of even at this 'career year' pace, he'd have been the #5 OFer on the 2014 Giants behind Pence, Blanco, Pagan and Morse.
First, preferring 2014 Morse, fWAR of 1.6 in 482 PA,, to 2018 Hernandez, 0.8 fWAR in 218 PA, is a bit bizarre, isn’t it? Second, strange too, at least to me, is the adding together of an OF WAR. We all know that there’s a LF problem: deservedly beloved Pence is too old, Mac was reconcussed, and Jackson, after a fine 2017 with Cleveland, has become a recidivist to earlier years. We’ll have to see whether a recovered Mac and/or Slater can relieve, even perhaps solve, this problem. But that has nothing to do with McCutchen, 1.0 fWAR so far despite his very difficult start to the year, or Gorkys Hernandez, who now projects to 2.3 fWAR over 600 PA. I’d think it reasonable to guess, too, that as McC fully accommodates himself to being a right fielder in a park where RF is almost capriciously hard to play, his defensive problems will dwindle, no?
DeleteMaybe it ends when they go back on the road, but it is so good to see guys like Holland (outside of gopher balls!), Rodrigues, Suarez and Stratton pitch (post baby stuff)..WHo knows if Cueto and/or Shark will ever get healthy this year and/or perform like the Giants want..Good to have decent options but some hard decisions to be made if nobody gets hurt....None of Holland, Stratton, Rodriguez or Suarez really deserve to be sent down (yet) and there wont be room in the bullpen (nor should they go there) Don't rush either of Cueto or Shark back
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
Shark is going to come back and hopefully pitch a complete game shutout so they can quickly trade him for a salary dump. St Louis might like him as Busch Stadium gives up the least HRs -- I'm sure that's what the plan was for SF but they still hit him out. Why demote the rookies - it's exciting and inspiring to see these three pitchers blossoming as well as the resurgence of Holland. Cueto another story - he and Bum could lock down the top of the rotation and then pick your hottest three of the other four.
DeleteAnd thank you as well Dr B - it's fun to play armchair GM with you and the other bloggers...
DeleteDr. B,
ReplyDeleteI just want to say thank you for all the work you put into this blog. I am an avid reader between 9:00 and 9:15 in the mornings as I finish one meeting and usually head off to another. It is my moment of sanity in a busy day!
Greg
Agreed. I was just thinking that I hadn't expressed my appreciation in while for all that Doc does. Thank you for your huge efforts on a daily basis that keep us up-to-date.
DeleteJump on that band wagon!
DeleteDrB is the only thing worth reading on losing days. It's been the ice cream on the win-cake lately!
FiveThirtyEight moved the Giants UP to a 1% chance of winning the World Series and a 20% chance of making the playoffs.
34 days until the Bell Tolls -- 5 weeks until August 1.
Nate Silver now believes it would be less than a miracle that the Giants win the World Series!!!
Delete100-1? I’d take those odds for $20 at this point.
$100
DeleteThanks for the kind words, everybody! I am gratified that people read and comment.
ReplyDelete