Sunday, August 12, 2018

Game Wrap 8/12/2018: Giants 4 Pirates 3

Young Dereck Rodriguez pitched another gem of a game, leaving after 7 innings with a 4-1 lead.  The Giants hung on to top the Pirates and gain a split of their 4 game series.  Key Lines:

Joe Panik 2B- 1 for 3, SF.  BA= .237.  Joe Panik might be starting to get a little traction as he is hitting .261 over his last 7 games.  He drove in 2 of the Giants 4 runs today.

Steven Duggar CF- 2 for 3.  BA- .263.  Duggar contines to be steady hitting .280 over his last 7, .265 over his last 15 and .263 over his last 25 which is how many games he has played at the MLB level.

Nick Hundley C- 2 for 3, 3B.  BA= .249.  Hundley has been scuffling of late but drove in 2 of the Giants 4 runs out of the 8-hole.

Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 7/2.  ERA= 2.25.  Young Dereck's fairytale season continues unabated. This was his 3''rd consecutive game in which he pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 run or less.  It was his 8'th consecutive Quality Start with a 3-inning scoreless effort thrown in the middle of that for good measure.  His FIP(3.14) and xFIP(4.00) say he's in for a modest regression as he has suppressed HR's like crazy and has a fairly low BABIP.  We'll see.  I am thoroughly enjoying the ride for now!

Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(8).  ERA= 2.11.  Smith has had a hiccup or two but this was a 1-run Save and he dominated it!

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With the Win, the 4'th place Giants remained 6 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs who crushed Cincinnati 9-2.  The Dodgers lost again to the Rockies to fall 1 game behind the D'Backs in 2'nd place while the Rockies nip at their heels 1.5 games behind the leaders.

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The Giants now travel south to take on the Bad Guys with Madison Bumgarner vs Clayton Kershaw kicking off a 3-game set.

8 comments:

  1. It would have been upsetting if the bullpen blew the win for Derek. The offense did their share scoring 4 runs giving a bigger margin of error for the bullpen. That hasn't happened enough this season. Will Smith was lights out.

    LG

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    1. I turned it off right after it became 4-3. Then followed it on my phone which is must less stressful as I couldn't take another blown lead by the bullpen this soon.

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  2. Just curious, is Ray Black hurt or being rested? Hasnt appeared since giving up the home run on Tuesday?

    SteveVA

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  3. Duggar: I like the fact that his batting is trending upwards.

    Panik: He may also be trending upwards, but (as much as I like him as a person) I think the Giants need to pull the plug. He can't stay healthy and since his back problems and concussion he's not been the same. And that's in the batter's box AND in the field. His defensive metrics have taken a serious nose-dive since 2015 and, right now, D'Aumard (who looks more like a utility man) and Hanson (offense & speed but slightly below average fielding) are both outplaying him.

    Slater: Not mentioned, but how is he maintaining a .438 BABIP? Does he have that good of bat control? And i ran BABIP search on players with 200+ PAs from 2014-through-2018. He's THIRD in BABIP with a career .389! There are only 24 players at .350 over that time frame including Jose Altuve, Goldschmidt, JD Martinez, Lorenzo Cain, Freddie Freeman... I mean, those are some seriously elite bats... Is he really that good in locating his hits, or will we have the rug pulled out from under us? And if so, just how much?

    D-Rod: Funny you mention regression. Yesterday Wrenzie tweeted out an article that identifies D-Rod as a regression candidate by a full run. I'm like... I can live with that because he'd still be a Top-30 pitcher!!!

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    1. my guess is the line drive launch angle and tremendous ball off bat velocity helps his BABIP

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  4. All Lefties in Los Angeles!
    Can it get any better than Bumgarner-Kershaw?
    Suarez-Wood?
    Holland-Ryu?
    Will Duggar and Crawford be the only LHB for SF (except Suarez tomorrow)?
    What about Panik, who's had a resurgence of sorts?
    Hanson with bad splits batting RH?
    All d'Arnaud all the time?
    Dodgers without All-World closer Kenley Jansen for a month moved Maeda and Stripling to the 'pen after bullpen blew leads Friday and Saturday and a walk-off yesterday.
    Arigatou says Maeda with his bonuses for starts!
    Bad Boys have lost 4 of last 5 -- all by 1 run.
    It's time to strike! Sweep LA!

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    1. Bumgarner 3, Kershaw 3
      Rings CYAs

      Teams are 5-5 going into 11th head-to-head meeting between Bumgarner and Kershaw.
      Kershaw leads in just about every stat in head-to-head meetings, but:
      Bumgarner 4-3 record, Kershaw 3-4
      Bumgarner 2 HRs, Kershaw 0

      Pitcher records against today's opponent:
      Kershaw 22-10
      Wood 3-3
      Ryu 4-6
      Bumgarner 15-10
      Holland 0-3
      Suarez 0-0

      Today is a MUST-WIN!

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  5. Giants runs and wins
    4 or more runs: 46-14 .767
    3 or fewer runs: 13-46 .220
    Got a little boost with the win yesterday, CBS Sportsline has upped the Gs to 1.2% of making the playoffs -- and you could have gotten 100-1 yesterday!
    87 is about 50-50, 88 is almost a sure thing, more or less (LOL).
    To get to 88 requires 29-14, .674, that will require 4 runs most games, rather than the 50-50 they've done all year. What do they need to win two-thirds of their games?
    Offense and Belt's coming back!
    Their median is somewhere between 3 & 4

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