Blake Sabol's walkoff 2-run HR in the 9'th inning snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for the Giants. Key Lines:
Mike Yastrzemski CF- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(5). BA= .291. YtY is locked in. .407 with 3 HR's over last 7 games. This is, by far, the best he has looked since 2020. 5 HR's tied with J. D. Davis for team lead.
Thairo Estrada 2B- 1 for 4, SB(6). BA= .310. Estrada manufactured a run in the 2'nd inning with an IF single, SB. Took 3B on throwing error by catcher on the SB then came home when the CF kicked it around. Thairo has a 20/20 season in his sights. Can he make it 25/25? 30/30?
Blake Sabol C- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .224. It as probably Sabol's turn to catch anyway but with Joey Bart trying to stay off the IL with a tight groin, he was pretty much the only option. He's been scuffling at the plate but came through bigly with the 2-run walkoff. The 2 hits raised his rolling BA to .278 over his last 7 games. I don't think he's going back to the Pirates anytime soon. Just way too much longterm potential to let him get away and the 4 dingers make up for the lack of contact.
David Villar 1B- 0 for 3. BA= .152. Villar is really struggling at the plate but his defensive versatility has been an eye-opener. He was making gold glove plays at 2B last night and made some nifty ones at 1B tonight. He did get charged with an E on a dropped foul pop.
John Brebbia RHP- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.82. This was a planned bullpen game to avoid starting a LHP against the RH heavy Cardinals lineup. Per Twitter, Brebbia played The Opener for his warmup music and played the role perfectly.
Sean Manaea LHP- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 6.61. A bit surprising that Manaea was brought in to follow Brebbia since the whole point of the bullpen game was to the Cardinals RH leaning lineup. Manaea looked great.....except for that HR he gave up.....to a switch-hitting Tommy Edman batting RH.
Taylor and Tyler LHP/RHP- 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 8.22/0.68. The Rogers boys came up huge in the middle innings. Taylor seems to be putting his early season struggles behind him and Tyler has been lights out.
Scott Alexander LHP- 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 4.66. A word about Gabe Kapler here. Kap got the right matchup for Alexander in the 8'th. 2 switch-hitters and a LH hitter(but probably a RH PH). The process was correct. The player didn't execute(the leadoff single was a broken bat bloop).
Sean Hjelle RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 6.75. Hjelle did his job which was to keep the game within reach of a 9'th inning rally. Blake Sabol got him the W.
Anthony DeSclafani RHP tries to extend the Giants win streak to 5 games tomorrow evening against Steven Matz LHP.
Joey Bart C underwent an MRI which was reportedly normal so he may have avoided a true strain. He said he could come in and catch if he had to. Great news because without any great replacement options, the Giants are going to try to keep him off the IL. Inneresting that Ricardo Genoves C was reportedly brought up to the Taxi Squad over Gary Sanchez C who has struggled to hit for AAA Sacramento.
Fell asleep end of 8th. Great game wrap this morning. Reminiscing 2021
ReplyDeleteHope this doesn't jinx SF, but a whole lot of people buried FZ before he was dead...
ReplyDeleteWell, they are still 3 games under .500 after a 5-game win streak so he's not out of the woods just yet, but I get what you are saying.
DeleteInherited (with positive bWARs): Bart, Slater, Webb, Ty. Rogers, and Doval.
DeleteA few others hanging on plus some hope in the minors acquired 2018 and earlier, notably Matos & Luciano, if the latter can ever stay healthy.
Maybe Villar can be Jeff Kent – big shoes to fill but 26 yo was Kent's breakout year.
The issue with Zaidi isn't a short-term analysis because we're 3-games under .500. It's the decision-making. To explain that I'd practically have to take over DB's blog. But lets just keep it short.
DeleteHe is no longer cruising on the veterans that Sabean & Evans brought in. This roster, since he resigned Crawford and extended Webb, is nearly all his. The Giants defense is so bad it costs the team numerous wins every year and the players he bought in aren't good enough hitters to meaningfully overcome the bad defense.
Without pointing fingers at players, there's a reason the Giants BABIP has been well over .300 (.312 & .313) the past two years, despite 2022's league BABIP being .290 and this year's is .295... And while it seems like it shouldn't matter that much, winning in baseball is about very tiny differences, so it does.
The last time the Giants defense was this bad, Denard Span (bad hip) was the worst CFer in the MLB and was so bad that second-worst CF was only half-as-bad, Crawford missed 18 games, Belt missed 58 games, Panik had a bad back and was starting his physical decline and was negative after being a GG the year before, Nunez (probably the worst 3B in the majors) was starting, LF was a mess.
That put Evans on the hot seat. So I don't see why Zaidi shouldn't be... After all, I haven't seen him do early-period 'trade declining players and prospects for better vets and win' Sabean or 'that doesn't work any longer, I'm doing something else' Sabean. All I see is a constant churn with terrible players and short-term rehab contracts.
Criticism makes one better. That's a popular quote and may be considered convention wisdom.
DeleteWhether 7 games under .500 or not, people talk about his 'churning,' meaning excessive churning (a little bit of churning has been with baseball; happens now and then).
And people talk about drafting and developing players. People want to see and are waiting eagerly to see some success stories, these many years into his tenure.
I believe these people, fans like them, make him stronger, or should make him stronger.
The owner said in an interview with baggs, that they plan to pickup the 2024 option on FZs contract. Makes sense since Kaps contract runs through 2024. The reason they haven't announced it is they are working on an extension. The only scenario that I can see FZ and Kap not coming back in 2024 is if 2023 completely falls off the rails, losing 90+ games.
DeleteEnjoy reading everyone's comments. FZ and Kap should be on the hot seat if the team doesn't show enough progress to being a consistent winner. I think Evans was fired since he signed costly FA veterans and made ill advised trades to win now, and the farm system wasn't producing. The results were a 98 loss season in 2017 and 90 loss season in 2018. FZ was brought in to develop a consistent winning team by building a good farm system. If the farm system doesn't improve then FZ should be on the hot seat. This should be an interesting season.
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