Friday, August 3, 2018

Game Wrap 8/2/2018: Giants 8 D'Backs 1

Madison Bumgarner pitched his way out of 2 bases-loaded jams in the first 2 innings to leave a 2-1 lead after 5 innings, and the Giants offense erupted for 5 runs in the 8'th inning to put the game away. Key lines:

Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, 2B, BB.  BA= .293.  Buster's leadoff double in the 8'th started the 5-run rally.  He has a 5 game hit streak in which he is 11 for 22.

Evan Longoria 3B- 1 for 5, HR(11).  BA= .249.  Longoria's dinger gave the Giants a 1-0 lead in the first inning.  He also made a diving catch of a line drive in the bottom of the inning to help Bummy out of his first jam.  There was also a throwing error in the 5'th which allowed leadoff batter AJ Pollack to advance to 2B, but a nice stop on a smash by the next batter kept Pollack at 2B and he was eventually stranded.  Since coming off he DL, Longo is 8 for 29(.276) and has hit for the cycle.

Austin Slater 1B- 2 for 3, 2B, BB.  BA= .323.  Slater had the big blow in the 5-run 8'th inning when he singled up the middle with the bases loaded and Alen Hanson scored from 1B on a bobble by Pollack in CF.  Slater may not give you the dingers you want from a LF or 1B, but he sure keeps the line moving.  He is 4 for 9 with 4 BB's and 1 K in his last 3 games.  Going back to last season, his slash line in 206 MLB PA's is .296/.383/.397.

Steven Duggar 1 for 3, BB.  BA= .258.  Duggar drove in the Giants final run with a single up the middle.  He has been keeping his head above water offensively while delivering a slightly positive UZR in CF.

Madison Bumgarner LHP- 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 2.97.  Bummy was once again not himself out there but was able to get out of 2 early bases-loaded jams with just 1 run allowed.  The cost was a whole lot of pitches thrown.  He ended up with 101 in 5 IP, but left the game with a 2-1 lead against Zack Greinke and ended up with the W.

Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 3.48.  Melancon looked great against his first 2 batters, but gave up a hard single and a very loud line-drive out to RF Andrew McCutchen to end the inning. Bochy keeps putting him out there with 1-run leads.  He got away with it in this game.

Ray Black RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 2.79.  Ray Black is fun to watch!  He struck out Paul Goldschmidt on a 99 MPH FB on the outside corner at the knees that was almost in the catchers mitt before Goldy started his swing.  Another dominant inning for Black.  Since his rough MLB debut, he has 9.1 IP, with 0 H, 13 K's and 3 BB's.

Ty Blach LHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.39.  After the Giants blew the game open in the top of the 8'th, Bochy had the luxury of letting Blach pitch 2 innings of mop-up duty and he did it well.

*********************************************************************************

The Dodgers and D'Backs started the day tied for first place in the NL West with the Rockies 1 game behind and he Giants 5 games behind.  The Dodgers crushed the Brewers 21-5 to take sole possession of first place.  The D'Backs and Rockies fell to 1 and 2 games behind while the Giants remained 5 games out of first place and 4.5 games behind in the Wild Card race.

*********************************************************************************

Chris Stratton tries to get his season back on track against Patrick Corbin tonight.

8 comments:

  1. Bumgarner: He looked so bad during the first two innings I thought we were doomed. But somewhere around 50 pitches, he dialed it in.

    Duggar: Excellent defense... Like I said during spring training, I'll take Duggar hitting .250 with nothing more than doubles power and call it a win. Maybe even .240...

    Slater: I really don't care about dingers like other people do. The guy is a super-utility guy and is good at keeping the line moving.

    Black: His FB is fast and is very good. But it's his slider that impresses me. That thing is just wicked and really takes the piss out of batters with it's late, hard action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. re Slater - anyone notice how many walks he is drawing? and has cut down on K's too

      Delete
  2. Really would have preferred Blach getting worked back into the rotation over Stratton. Even if that means getting stretched out to 3-4 innings tonight with Stratton backing him up. Usually he gives us a chance to win, vs Stratton being a gas can

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bochy's leash tends to get very short late in the season when the Giants are in contention. My over/under for games Stratton has to get his act together and staying in the rotation is right about 1.

      Delete
    2. blach is much better as a reliever than a starter, it may be stratton for better or for worse unless tyler herb can pitch well enough to earn a call up. giants may want to consider putting osich and dyson on waivers in order to free up some money to add some players to the 40-man roster.

      Delete
  3. The tale of 2 games: Bumgarner’s luck and Greinke’s lack thereof.
    Before the 8th inning breakaway, other than Longoria’s solo HR, the top 6 in the lineup, the vets -- from McCutchen through Panik/d’Arnaud -- had contributed nada de nada to the scoring though the Gs managed to eke out a couple runs.
    Curiously, the first 3 runs were all scored with 2 outs (!) & driven in by vets: Longoria (2-out HR), Bumgarner (2-out single), & Pence (SF for the 2nd out).
    New guys continue to make things happen, and Hanson despite defensive mis-adventures remains an offensive spark and excitement on the bases.
    Another Posey-Positive, Buster’s double – his 2nd hit -- started the late rally & boosted his SLG back over .400.
    Question: will Joe Panik recover his stroke?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bumgarner also had a nice line drive to left to drive in the second run and put himself in line for the win.

    Duggar made a nice play coming in on squibber to center that I thought he'd catch below his knees and ended up with a comfortable catch at shoulder height.

    Hansen's speed played again on scoring on the error.

    The Giants are an exciting team when it works. I'm glad they scored a few runs and put the game away. It's not 25 or 23 runs but a blowout is nice and the pen is looking ok for the rest of the Arizona series after MadBum threw 47 pitches in the first two innings.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yankees odds on favorite to win >100 games, then face a 1-game elimination with Oakland or Seattle.
    NY may well pitch Severino (14-4, 1.08 WHIP, 9th in AL) against Manaea (10-7, 1.01 WHIP, 5th in AL) or Paxton (9-4, 1.05 WHIP, 7th in AL).
    Ouch.
    If the Giants win about 3 of every 5 games all the way to a WC berth, would they pitch Old Reliable or Young Dereck?
    Doh

    ReplyDelete