Brandon Crawford hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 9'th inning to break up a scoreless pitching duel started by Madison Bumgarner and Kyle Freeland. Key Lines:
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 4, HR(9). BA= .319. Crawford had a single earlier in the game. When he came up with 1 out in the bottom of the 9'th inning facing a lefty brought in just to face him, I thought he had a look in his eye. Kruk and Kuip did to and said he was looking for something middle-in. He got it on the 3'rd pitch, a breaking ball that had just a tad too much hang time and he drove it into the arcade for the game winner.
Madison Bumgarner LHP- 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 2.51. Bummy was throwing some sick stuff and was perfect through 4.2 IP. CarGo then hit a broken bat flare down the 3B line for a double and the first Rockies' baserunner. Bummy wasn't kind of lost his command out of the stretch and walked the next 2 batters to load the bases. Bum struck out Freeland and that was the only serious Rockies threat of the game.
Will Smith LHP- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.17. Smith just abused the 4 hitters he faced including LH hitter Charlie Blackmon in the 9'th inning. Q: Are Will Smith and Tony Watson a better lefty bullpen duo than Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez?
Reyes Moronta RHP- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.02. Moronta gave up two hard hit balls to Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story, but both were hit right at Giants fielders to complete the 9-inning shutout.
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With the Win, the Giants remained 5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs who edged out the Marlins 2-1. The Dodgers are leading the Cubs 7-5 in the 9'th inning and sit 3 games behind in 2'nd place. The Rockies fall 7.5 games back in 4'th place while the Padres lose to the Rangers and fall 11.5 games off the pace.
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Chris Stratton tries for a series sweep tomorrow afternoon facing Jon Gray.
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Giants announced that Jeff Samardzija's return from the DL has been pushed back after his subpar rehab start for Sacramento. He will make at least 1 more rehab start. He is reportedly healthy but Bochy said the Giants want him to go at least 6 or 7 innings before returning to pitch in MLB games.
ReplyDeleteBumgarner: I'm like "I'm just staying up for the 1,500th strike out." One batter later... "Well, that was quick..." So I watched a couple of innings for the heck of it.
ReplyDeleteCrawford: I never expected him to have an OPS significantly above .800 on a good year. He's at .883 right now. I'll take it even though I keep waiting for the slump shoe to drop.
Will Smith and Tony Watson a better lefty bullpen duo than Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez?
ReplyDeleteNeither is a loogy in the Lopez sense.
Both are good against RHB and can pitch to both.
May be hard to keep them past next year especially Smith who will just turn 30. No one seemed to want Watson this year.
Both are having career or near career years.
Hard to "beat" Affeldt and Lopez for longevity or Lopez for nastiness against LHB.
Perhaps better for one year but Giants won't have them for as long.
To answer your question: sheerly off stats & peripherals, Smith & Watson are better than Affeldt and Lopez, but we haven't seen them under tremendous pressure in very high leverage situations yet. Let's see one of them have to strike out the equivalent of Ryan Howard then induce a DP with the bases loaded in a tight race or go 3 innings at the end of a game against a lefty-leaning lineup.
ReplyDeleteAndy in OC
Colorado haven't been the scoring machine this year you'd expect but they've been "rocky" against Stratton.
ReplyDeleteGiants have been good against Gray, especially McCutchen. Hanson batting left in left field? No Posey, hopefully no Jackson -- $10 bucks BB plays him -- argh.
Need 6 runs to win!
BTW: mid point @ 42-39! Just about every analyst had Giants mid pack (15-16) or below -- with a full rotation!
42 wins is 12th overall in MLB and Giants have used 8 rookie pitchers and 3 who were rookies last year. And Sandoval!
Given what has transpired, 3 games over .500, 2 games out of the WC, and 4.5 games out of the division lead -- not too bad.