Alex Cobb had a better than quality start but the Royals stifled the Giants offense in a disappointing home opener. Key Lines:
Blake Sabol LF/C- 1 for 4. BA= .241. Sabol drove in the Giants only run with a 2-out single up the middle. He also made an adventurous catch in LF where he made a diving catch only to have the ball pop out of his glove but he was able to bump it back up in the air with his bare hand and catch the rebound. he then moved behind the plate after starting C Roberto Perez left the game after injuring his right shoulder on a throw to 2B.
Roberto Perez C- 0 for 2. BA= .133. As noted above, Perez left the game with an injury to his throwing shoulder. Postgame diagnosis: shoulder strain. Perez will almost certainly go on the IL. Joey Bart C cannot come back yet from his 10-day IL stint. Gary Sanchez C isn't ready yet so Austin Wynns will have to be added to the 40-man roster. Who gets bumped? My candidates are Sam Long LHP and Isan Diaz IF.
Alex Cobb RHP- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K's, GO/AO= 8/2. ERA= 2.53. The Royals first run came on 3 groundball singles in the 2'nd inning, two of them to RF. Sound familiar?
Royals D: So it turns out it's pretty easy to come up with a better defense than any shift could produce. Just bring the RF into extreme shallow RF and swing the LF and CF over to Left-Center and Right-Center respectively. This alignment appeared to get into the Giants batters heads and contributed to shutting them down. When the camera pans the field to show the D it's surprising how few holes it has.
Home Plate Ump: I wasn't paying that much attention to balls and strikes until the 9'th inning but YtY was rung up on a pitch that had at least 2 inches of air between the ball and the inside edge of home plate. At that point, it appeared YtY was gaining the upper hand in the count with an opportunity to at least bring the Giants within 1 and possibly tie it.
Sean Manaea LHP get his first start of the season tomorrow afternoon facing Brady Singer RHP.
Just over a week in and down two catchers. I'm going to go wool-gather and think Happy Thoughts like how we fleeced the A's in the Vida Blue trade.
ReplyDeleteI actually laughed out loud at this one.
DeletePer Jason Stark: Darin Ruf is re-signing with the @SFGiants on a minor-league deal, sources tell The Athletic.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly came up big for the Giants in 2020 & 2021 after 3 years in the KBO but 2022 was a downer all-round except the Giants getting a terrific haul from the Mets in the deadline trade, so he actually had 3 good years for SF!