The Giants offense erupted for 7 runs in the 4'th inning and the Giants coasted to a big win over their division rivals. Key Lines:
Buster Posey C- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .306. The double was a gargantuan shot into Triples Alley that drove in 2 runs and capped off the 4'th inning rally.
Andrew McCutchen RF- 1 for 5, HR(5). BA= .246. 2'nd dinger in 2 games for Cutch. It led off the big inning in the 4'th.
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 2, 2B, HR(7), BB, HBP. BA= .320. The dinger was B2B with McCutchen. Crawford stays hot in June, 7 for 14, after hitting .412 in May.
Pablo Sandoval 1B- 3 for 4, HR(3). BA= .277. What was that about Pablo playing too much?
Hunter Pence LF- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .177. ...and it took exactly 2 games for Mac to lose his starting LF job which was supposedly his for the rest of the season after Pence came back.
Alen Hanson PH- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .320. The key blow of the 7 run rally was Bochy PH for Holland in the 4'th inning with the bases loaded and 1 out. Hanson delivered with a double down the LF line to drive in 2 and put runners at 2'nd and 3'rd.
Nick Hundley PH/C- 1 for 1, HR(6). BA= .267. Nice game for padding the stat line and Hundley got into the mix.
Derek Holland LHP- 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.91. Holland pitched pretty well but gave up 2 runs in the top of the 4'th inning. Bochy made a bold move to PH for him in the bottom of the inning when he had a chance to break the game open. It worked to perfection.
Bullpen- 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. Pierce Johnson went 2 scoreless innings. Cory Gearrin gave up the run. Ty Blach made a relief appearance to mop up in the 9'th.
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The Win got the Giants to .500 on the season and closed them to 1.5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs. The idle Rockies are in 2'nd place, 1 game behind. The Dodgers were also idle and are 2 games behind in 4'th place. The Pesky Padres pounded the Braves 11-4 and are just 4.5 games back in last place.
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Madison Bumgarner makes his long awaited season debut in Game 2 facing lefty Patrick Corbin.
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...and Pierce Johnson gets rewarded for his 2 inning effort with an option to Sacramento to make room for Bummy.
ReplyDeleteA little surprised that Gearrin wasn’t the odd man out, but I guess the option made a difference.
DeletePretty unsafe to have options for young Giants.
DeleteTwo more of Blach, Suarez, and Rodriguez are probable River Cats this month unless Gearrin gets chopped and will Alen Hanson be the victim of a healed Belt -- or Mac?
Kelby or Alen -- who should be the B/U IFer? Or will Jackson be DFAd and Hernandez be the defacto CFer?
Will the Giants need 8 RPs, not 2 extra OFers and IFers, before the SPs start going 6 innings and more?
Or is a Super Panda going to be the ultimate B/U for 9 positions?
I know other teams have injuries too, but to be 30-30 with no Madbum, only a few games of Cueto, really no Smardzja, Panik/Belt even WIlliamson is a pretty good achievement..You get startting pitching to go with what looks liek a pretty good bullpen and a decent line-up..and you never know!....Panik makes a difference and so glad we have the Utility Panda
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Pence/Williamson thing...Pence still looks like he's flaiing!..I actually think WIlliamson needed a rest....Have no problem with him sitting last night..BUT he should be back in tonight....Was anything said by Bochy?
SteveVA
Crawford: At the end of April he had a slash line of .190/.244/.316 and since then he's hitting .422 with power and has raised his season averages to .320/.364/.495.
ReplyDeleteMcCutchen: Hit .281 for May. Only .250 (so far) for June, but an .813 SLG. So I'll take it. And his field has improved, though he's clearly never going to be a solid defender and I think everyone knows how important I rate defense...
The Record: Considering Bumgarner hasn't pitched a regular season inning, Cueto hit the DL, Samardzija hasn't been right all season and most of our new additions scuffled through at least April... It's amazing. And we can fairly put the majority of it on the shoulders of Belt, Crawford, Posey and Hanson at the plate. plus some very good infield defense by the two Brandons, Panik and Posey as they've carried some pretty lack-luster pitching.
I mean, let's face it, Holland, Blach, Suarez & Stratton have had some good moments, but they're really had a lot of stinkers. When you look at their ERAs, Stratton (at 4.50) is the #68 (tied) ERA pitcher with enough innings to qualify. Blach is 76th. Holland 77th. And while Suarez doesn't qualify, he'd come in two places better than Black and knock both Blach and Holland down a spot if he did.
We're talking a #4 and 3 #4/#5 guys. Guys you hope to come out with a 45% win rate. And while I'm on the subject of pitching ---
D-Rod: I hate to be premature, but I was very impressed as he already has very good curveball, good command of his FB and if he sharpens up his other secondary pitches, especially his sinker, he could be a huge steal.
30-30 through 60 games, 1.5 games out of the division lead, and Bumgarner, Cueto, Samardzija, Melancon, and Smith have fewer innings pitched than Reyes Moronta, Pierce Johnson, Roberto Gomez, Dereck Rodriguez, and Jose Valdez!
ReplyDeleteStarting today and every week this month the team will be getting better with 4 spokes of the wheel returning to action.
As for the outfield congestion, Bochy said yesterday, “We just want to start getting Pence and [Austin] Jackson in there, occasionally, to keep them going. This is a workable situation with this outfield, and occasionally, guys are going to get some time, but as always, your play dictates how much you play. The bar was set so high when Mac came up that a lot of people thought that he’s just going to keep hitting home runs. Those things aren’t that easy. I’m looking more at the consistent contact, and I think that’s been alright.”
OF isn't a Giant strength no matter who plays and it's not likely to be. Giants bet the available money on three obvious position weaknesses and there has been marginal improvement -- maybe.
Williamson might make a few games difference overall -- a 3-4 WAR the rest of the way would be spectacular but it's just 3 or 4 wins and he doesn't help with the problems in RF and CF.
Success will come from the pitching and the IF.
Plus, Pence did hit very well at the end of last year. He has earned the right to fail and if the return of Bumgarner, Belt, Samardzija, and Cueto make the Giants a consistent 4-3 team, Williamson is the icing and the rest of the team is the cake.