Pablo Sandoval was the hero for the second consecutive game as he beat Joe Madden's stacked infield for a walk-off single in the 11'th inning to back a stellar pitching effort by Andrew Suarez and the bullpen. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval 3B- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .260. Hunter Pence had a 1 out triple in the 10'th inning. Joe Madden brought Ben Zobrist in from the OF to be a 5'th IF. Steve Cishek rendered that a moot issue with consecutive strikeouts of Chase d'Arnaud and Steven Duggar. Madden got another chance to show off his managerial skills when Andrew McCutchen and Brandon Belt singled with McCutchen reaching 3B with 1 out in the 11'th. After an intentional walk to Brandon Crawford, Pabs came up and slapped a single over the IF for the walk-off hit.
In addition to his 2 hits, Pabs contributed to the Giants first run reaching 1B on an error. Alen Hanson then replaced Pabs at 1B on a fielder's choice and used his speed to score from 1B on a wild pick-off throw by Kyle Hendricks.
Buster Posey C- 0 for 5. BA= .280. Buster is hitting just .167 in July and his 2 for 21 over his last 6 games, 0 for 10 in his last 2. Buster won't be going to the All-Star Game as a reserve in order to rest a barking hip. He might need a rest sooner than that. He really looks like he has no legs under him right now.
Hunter Pence LF- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .214. Pence may have earned himself a few more looks in the Giants very unsettled LF situation. The triple into Triples Alley in the 10'th was vintage Hunter Pence. If he's lost a step, it didn't show on the basepaths as he had thoughts about turning it into an inside-the-park HR.
Andrew Suarez LHP- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 8/2. ERA= 3.75. The 4 BB's don't look so great, but there's nothing wrong with the rest of the line as he missed bats and kept most of the contact on the ground. In an age when groundball pitchers are an endangered species, Suarez has a GO/AO= 1.68. Only Ty Blach and Sam Dyson have stronger GB ratios on the team and Suarez has the best K/9 of those 3. His GB% of 52.4 is #9 among pitchers with at least 70 IP.
Suarez now has 3 consecutive Starts in which he has gone at least 6 innings while allowing 1 run. He allowed 1 run in 5.2 IP, in the game before. His ERA is 2.28 in 47.3 IP since May 28.
Bullpen- 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. The Bullpen was nails with Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, Will Smith, Reyes Moronta and Ty Blach throwing 1 shutout inning each. Their combined GO/AO was 10/0.
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With the Win, the Giants gained sole possession of 3'rd place in the NL West, 3 games behind the D'Backs who were idle. The 2'nd place Dodgers topped he Padres 8-2 and are 0.5 games behind the D'Backs. The idle Rockies remain 3.5 games back but fall into 4'th place while the Padres fall farther off the pace at 12 games behind the leaders.
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Johnny Cueto tries to rebound from his rough return from the DL tonight facing lefty Jose Quintana.
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That was an amazing game. The only real blemish was Hanson's high throw that blew the DP and allowed the one Cubs' run to score. And Hanson made up for that blemish by stealing home on the wild 1B pick-off attempt.
ReplyDeleteSounds like another pitcher is dinged up, Holland is scheduled to make a spot start but Bochy didn't say for who. Everytime it seems like we are getting healthy another shoe drops
ReplyDeleteJust an extra day of rest for Cueto, then he'll have until after the ASB to pitch again.
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