The Giants broke through with a 5-spot in the 6'th inning to break open a pitching duel between Rookie Dereck Rodriguez for the Giants and veteran Jake Arrieta for the Phillies to give Dereck his first MLB Win and the Giants a sweep of the weekend series. Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4. BA= .297. Panik was 6 for 11 with 2 BB's out of the leadoff spot for the series and was really the offensive story of the series.
Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .303. Buster's HR in the 8'th may have been hit in a bit of anger as Phillies reliever Hector Neris threw 2 fastballs waaaay inside that had Buster staring into the Phillies dugout.
Andrew McCutchen RF- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(4). BA= .248. Cutch is hitting .308 over his last 7 games. His 3-run dinger capped the 5 run rally in the 6'th. Maybe he is finally heating up with the weather.
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 4. BA= .314. The first 4 batters in the lineup were a combined 8 for 16 with a 2B and 2 HR. Crawford also made his usual fantastic play at SS while making it look easy. He dived to his right to grab a grounder out on the grass, stood up and fired a rocket to Pabs to nab Jorge Alfaro who couldn't believe Crawford made the play.
Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K's, GO/AO= 7/3. ERA= 1.93. Wow! The story of this series was young starting pitchers and Dereck Rodriguez(D'Rod? Definitely do not call him Pudge's kid or his mom will have a word with you!) put an exclamation point on it today. He pounded both sides of the plate with 93 MPH heat and broke out a sharp diving breaking ball. He even showed a few diving, fading changeups that I am sure Buster Posey will encourage him to throw more to LH batters. First MLB Start and W. Definitely earned himself another look.
Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 0.00. Encouraging line for the Giants highly paid former Closer.
Will Smith and Reyes Moronta pitched scoreless innings to wrap it up.
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The Win left the Giants tied with the Dodgers for 3'rd place in the NL West, 2.5 games behind the D'Backs. The Rockies lost so are 1.5 games back in 2'nd place. The Padres bring up the rear at 5.5 games back.
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The Giants start a 3 game home series against the D'Backs tomorrow evening on Draft Day with Derek Holland facing Zack Godley.
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Melancon: The line is nice. But watching him pitch... He was AMAZING and looked every bit the guy they signed. Three swing-and-miss strike-outs. The batters never had a chance as he kept them off-balance the whole time. And while I suspect they're slow playing him, he keeps that up and he'll be the closer sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteD-Rod: He was pretty sharp and showed reach-back of 95 MPH.
Smith: Was kind of shaky at first, but worked himself out of it.
Arrieta: He was not happy after the game and lit into the Phillies and their shifts. The Phillies are one of two teams that has a negative-runs-saved performance in the shifts this year. Some snarky people agreed and said the Phillies shift should have included an OFer in the stands... I got a kick out of that.
Ah-ha! I think the first 2 batters to reach in the big inning were a direct result of the shift. Maybe Arrieta was thinking about the shift when he threw that pitch to Cutch?
DeleteThere was at least one single-turned-ground-out due to the Phils shift yesterday as well. I think it was Longo (??) who hit a sharp grounder up the middle right into the glove of the awaiting defender.
DeleteThe shift giveth. The shift taketh away.
Not to be real negative after a win - But is anyone else fed up with how many starts Pablo is getting all over the diamond? I was fine with him being a a nice story on the bench getting the vet minimum. But what is he doing getting all these starts (I understand injuries). If you aren't going to bring up a kid, let Hanson play 1B to get his swing back.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I get the Pablo hate. He's filled in at a couple of positions when starters were injured. What's wrong with that?
DeletePablo could very well be the most valuable Giant this year due to his versatility. This is exactly the kind of guy you want on the bench on a team with any type of playoff hopes. He can literally play all over the field, can bat from both sides and has some upside if he finds his groove again. Play him all day longer over Hanson and Kelby whenever possible I'd say, those two are the types of bench players out of a team that has no other options or choice
ReplyDeleteBilly Baseball
We have a different definition of "can play". He has no business being at 2B. His bat has no business being at 1B , and most big leaguers can field that position. His entire season slash is pretty bad, but that last 30 days have been terrible. And he has been a bad baseball player for years now, why are we expecting him to get into a groove ?
DeleteHanson has like a .600 SLG. It's not sustainable but we should ride the hot hand until he cools off
Pabs is hitting .313 with a .353 OBP over his last 7 games not counting tonight. What's wrong with those numbers?
DeleteAnon,
DeleteHanson has 3 errors 2B in 55 chances so not sure he has any business playing second either. We are talking a bench player, and the way Pablo is being used and how versatile he is is exactly what you want. Is he going to get a Gold Glove at any of his positions at this point? No but he is serviceable at them and he can legitimately run into a HR from time to time like he did last night. Plus reportedly he is a good club house guy these days. Hanson has a nice little streak going but you are right it is not sustainable and the chances are he will not even still be on the big league roster by the end of the year as the Giants have to make other moves. Pablo needs to stay somewhat sharp as he will be a critical piece as the Giants progress in terms of filling in.
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