Friday, July 27, 2018

Game Wrap 7/26/2018: Brewers 7 Giants 5

An exhausted bullpen, some BABIP bad luck and a bad strike zone by the home plate ump all contributed to losing a winnable game.   Key Lines:

Chase d'Arnaud 2B- 1 for 4, SF.  BA= .286.  Another injury fill-in player who contributes.

Austin Slater 1B- 0 for 2, 2 BB.  BA= .300.  With Brandon Belt hitting the DL, Slater got the start at 1B agains the lefty Wade Miley.  He showed good plate discipline in drawing 2 walks which led to 2 runs score.  He also took a bad hop off the chin in the 8'th inning to start a 2-run Brewers rally.  That ball was ruled a hit.

Buster Posey C- 2 for 3, BB.  BA= .286.  Buster has become pretty much a singles hitter with an OBP of .394.  He was in a 3 for 24 slump coming into this game.  Buster made a rare and understandable baserunning mistake in the 4'th inning as the lead runner in a 1'st and 2'nd with no outs situation.  He read basehit on a line drive by Brandon Crawford that was caught by Christian Yelich who threw to 1B too late but the first baseman had plenty of time to throw on to 2B to double up Buster.

Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4.  BA= .250.  Longoria returns from the DL with a 2-hit night.

Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 4.  BA= .286.  Crawford is hitting just .181 for the month of July, but is now 4 for 12 over his last 3 games.   In addition to the 2 hits, he hit another ball hard that was caught in RF in the 4'th inning.

Steven Duggar CF- 2 for 3, 2B, BB.  BA= .286.  Duggar is starting to look pretty comfortable at the plate and so far is hitting lefties better than righties.  He contributed to 2 Giants rallies in this game.

Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K's GO/AO= 9/2.  ERA= 2.75.  This should have been the lead story of the night as Young Dereck pitches his 5'th consecutive Quality Start.  He had a scoreless 3-inning relief appearance just before the All-Star Break to boot.  No matter what happens to the rest of this season, witnessing Young Dereck's rookie season has been a joy.  Up to now, he has been neutral on ground ball tendency, but had the BrewCrew killing worms in this game.

Reyes Moronta RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 1.76.  Dominant inning for Moronta who had a 98 MPH FB with command paired up with a wicked hard breaking ball.  It looked like more of a hard curveball than a slider.

Mark Melancon RHP- 0.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K's.  ERA= 3.57.  Melancon had some pretty serious bad BABIP luck as the first hit was the bad bounce off Slater's chin.   The second found a hole where Brandon Crawford was standing before he moved to cover 2B on a hit and run.  Gotta say, though, all 4 balls were hit hard and Melancon still does not seem fully healthy out there.

Chris Stratton RHP- 1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 5.14.  Stratton got out of Melancon's bases-loaded jam with a dominant strikeout of Eric Thames in the 8'th inning but let the game get away in the 9'th turning a 4-3 deficit into 7-3 which the Giants 9'th inning rally could not overcome.

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The Loss dropped the Giants 5.5 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers.  The D'Backs also lost to drop 1.5 games behind while the idle Rockies dropped 2 games back.

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Madison Bumgarner tries to even the series tonight facing Chase Anderson.

8 comments:

  1. Posey's .394 Slg fits right in with the Giants 12th in the NL .392 -- 13th in HRs.
    Other than the HR deficiency (AT&T related?), SF is a very average team, and, other than Crawford, devoid of stars.
    If the FO wants to keep butts in the seats with this team, they better up the promotions and lower the prices, especially for suds!
    One can kinda get used to losing but it's no fun to shell out top dollar and get your heart broken.
    4 days and counting to get rid of some superfluous excess, but perhaps no one wants giant castoffs.

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    1. they should listen to offers for sam dyson and i think there will be some changes this offseason but, not likely the ones i want to see. i see bochy retiring or a mutual parting of ways since i don't see bochy wanting to be a lame duck manager. if that happens i hope the FO will make an outside hire and allow the new manager to decide whether or not to retain the current coaching. culture change could be coming soon.

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  2. Melanon not missing enough bats - that was a BlacH-like inning.

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  3. From the nay-Sayer, glass half -- no 3/4's empty -- corner:

    Twitter today @MarcFarzetta:
    Phillies HR totals (player), last 6 Gms: 6 by Hoskins, 4 by Franco, 3 by Williams, 2 by Herrer, and 1 each for Kingery, Alfaro, Plouffe, and Santana

    Giants HRs, last 6 Gms: Pence 1, McCutchen 1, Belt 1, Jones 1, Sandoval 1 -- total HRs: 5, total runs scored (on HRs): 5!

    Things could be worse: Lookie who the Mets are signing (MLBTR):
    "While (Austin) Jackson has had a dreadful season (you think?) at the plate, hitting just .242/.309/.295 through 165 PAs, he’s only a season removed from raking (?) at a .318/.387/.482 pace with the 2017 Indians. Jackson also still drew positive grades for his baserunning (?) with the Giants, though he drew poor defensive ratings from Defensive Runs Saved (-10), Ultimate Zone Rating (-7.5) and Outs Above Average (-3) through just under 300 innings in center field this season. That said, Jackson’s defense would likely rate better in a corner slot." (Maybe a corner of the bench?)

    Imagine, SF had to give the Rangers Jason Bahr and Cory Gearrin to get them to take (and release) Jackson, then the Mets get him for nothing! Score for the FO!

    Effectively Bahr and Gearrin for Jackson
    Reynolds and Crick for McCutchen
    Arroyo, Krook, and Woods for Longoria (Another FA signee Denard Span figures in there, too.)

    And the Giants are 52-52 through all this (mis) adventure!


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  4. Great piece today in McCoveyChronicles by Brady Klopfer:
    The Giants have found some key young pieces
    Highlighting Young Dereck (26 yo), Young Andrew (25 yo), Young Reyes (25 yo), Young Alen (25 yo), Young Austin (25 yo), Young Steven (24 yo), and (not quite so) Young Ray (28).
    Maybe an Honorable Mention to 24-yo Ryder?
    And the multiple 27-yo's? Mac -- raking in Sacramento -- savvy-vet Joe, Ty, plus had some early fill-in from Chris.
    Now, if the 30+ contingent would chip in with the kids and the 28-yo's Mad and Will, this team could still win mid-80's games this year.

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    1. OR if the 30+ contingent would just retire or go play for other teams instead of declining in front of our eyes while they wait for their Wall of Fame nostalgia-marketing plaque to dry. Then we could enjoy watching some young and growing stars catch fire and win rather than the dying embers of an old campfire (glorious as it was)

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  5. And all this mediocrity is rewarded with a mediocre draft slot. One thinks about a few recent SP draft choices like Beede and Stratton, and the best of the lot is...Dereck Rodriguez. Yes, injuries have been a factor but the Giants could have struggled to play .500 ball without, say, Jackson and McCutchen and they'd still have Crick and then Dyson and Melancon would be expendable, even at a loss. Of course, it's easy for me to say!

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  6. Giants could put this team on the field this year (if they could all be healthy on the same day):

    OF: Williamson --- Duggar --- Slater

    IF: Jones --- Crawford --- Panik --- Belt

    Battery: Bumgarner & Posey

    Pen: Black, Moronta, Law, Rogers

    Game 2: Suarez

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