The Giants offense unloaded on Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals to pick up rookie Andrew Suarez to take game one of the weekend series in Washington and I'm bursting with excitement! Key Lines:
Andrew McCutchen RF- 2 for 5, HR(6). BA= .257. Cutch has found his gear. After hitting .281 for the month of May, he's hitting .323 in the 7 games of June so far with a .774 SLG%. He's hit 3 HR's in 5 games and is 9 for 24 on that span with 6 XBH's. If the Giants stay in contention, it's great to have him around for the season. If not, he should make a heckuva trade piece at the deadline.
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 4, 2 2B, HBP, SB(2). BA= .327. Talk about finding your gear! Brandon Crawford can't stop, won't stop hitting the darn cover off the ball. 12 for 25 with 5 doubles and a dinger. .480/.567/.800. That comes after this line for the entire month of May: .412/.446/.618. As Bill King would say, "Holy Toledo!"
Pablo Sandoval 1B- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .287. And Pabs is as hot as he's been in his career. .357 over his last 7 games with a SLG% of .643. .318 over his last 15 and .304 over his last 30. Now, look at me with a straight face and tell me you are not happy for Pablo and what he's doing for the Giants right now! Talk about redemption!
Alen Hanson 3B- 2 for 3, 3B. BA= .364. Alen Hanson says to Cutch, Crawford and Pabs, "you guys are chumps! I'm 8 for 11 over my last 7 games with 2 doubles, a triple and 2 HR's." Now, how insane is that?
Hunter Pence LF- 2 for 4. BA= .209. OK, I didn't see the game and I'm sure Pence had his adventures in LF, but I ain't havin' any negativity here. Not tonight! I do think Mac should have been starting though.
Gorkys Hernandez CF- 2 for 4, HR(7). BA= .289. Just when I thought the Magic Wandu had left Gorkys, it shows up again with another big night.
Mac Williamson PH- 1 for 1. BA- .276. Mac went 0 for 4 in his first game off the DL on 5/25. Since then he is 10 for 35, .286. He should be playing LF every single day.
Andrew Suarez LHP- 4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 5.06. On any other night, this might have been a bad start for the rook, but tonight it was fantastic. Got 'em into the 5'th inning with the lead. Yep, I'll take it. No questions asked!
Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.00. This probably bears some watching. Not convinced Melancon is completely healthy and not ready to trust him in any high leverage situation yet.
Watson/Dyson/Smith- 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. The Tremendous Trio nails down another one. Highest ERA of the 3 is Dyson at 2.22.
Stephen Strasburg RHP(Nationals)- 2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.46. Strasburg left the game with a bum shoulder and is expected to get an MRI. The last time he made more than 28 starts in a season is 2014.
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The D'Backs beat the Rockies 9-4 to extend their lead in the NL West to 1.5 games over the Rockies. The Giants kept pace with the D'Backs and are now tied for 2'nd place with the Rocks. The Giants Win puts them 1 game over .500 on the season at 32-31. The Dodgers are sitting 2 games out of first place pending the outcome of their game with the Braves. Walker Buehler abruptly left his start in the 6'th inning after a 10 pitch AB by John Camargo in which he threw 2 fastballs under 92 MPH. The Pesky Padres lost to the Marlins 4-0 to remain 5.5 games behind the D'Backs in last place.
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Dereck Rodriguez gets a chance to prove his first MLB start was not a fluke tomorrow facing lefty Gio Gonzalez.
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Pence, with 2 out and one on in the bottom of the 4th, went back and slightly toward CF after a liner hit by the LH Soto that sliced back over his head as Pence approached the wall. The ball went just above the top of his glove and most thought he had caught it. He looked awkward and he thought he should have caught it.
ReplyDeleteAfter 1395 games playing RF, in his 18th game in LF, maybe his instincts didn't recognize the "reverse" slice -- reverse for him. Had he gone straight back he might have gotten to the fence in time to make a better jump. And maybe the catch.
He actually made several nice plays in LF during the game. He caught 5, McCutchen 4, and Hernandez 4.
The Giants just are not likely to sit a long-time veteran who has played 7 years and nearly 700 games for them, inspired the team, given all he had and then some on the field, and contributed to two WS wins.
In his last 4 games Pence is 4-8 .500/.600/.625 with 1 R and 2 RBIs, Giants are 3-1.
In his last 5 games McCutchen is 9-26 .375/.375/.875 with 5 R and 6 RBIs, Giants are 4-1.
In his last 4 games Williamson is 4-11 .364/.417/.455 with 2 R and 0 RBIs, Giants are 4-1.
This is the Giants much maligned OF -- if only one of them could play CF!
40% of the season played, the Giants are still MISSING 2 starters (with a third rehabbing at the major league level), their All Star 1st baseman, a legitimate CFer, playing with a put-together-on-the-fly rotation AND relief core, and are part of a 3-way tie for 2nd place above .500!
Really, whodda thunk!