Luis Matos' first MLB home run was the difference in a hard fought win and which also clinched a series win over the NL West leading D'Backs. Key Lines:
Joc Pederson DH- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .272. Joc was in the thick of most of the Giants rallies. He drove in a run with a groundout in the first inning. Later singled and scored on Blake Sabol's 2-out single(more on that later) and then tripled in a run and scored on Sabol's sac fly.
Micheal Conforto RF- 1 for 2, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .239. Conforto has stepped up the last two games in YtY's abscence. He doubled in a run in the first inning. After that the D'Backs clearly pitched around him twice(more on that later).
Blake Sabol LF- 1 for 3, SF. BA= .260. Talk about stepping up. Sabol continues to show he has a special bat which the D'Backs found out the hard way. In the 3'rd inning, with Joc Pederson at first and 2 outs, Merrill Kelly RHP clearly pitched around Conforto to face Sabol but Sabol spanked a single to R-CF which easily scored Joc. He later drove in Joc from 3B on a Sac Fly for his second big RBI of the game.
Luis Matos CF- 2 for 4, HR(1). BA= .257. Just as I was wondering if maybe Matos is a bit short on power, he pulled a 2-run HR down the LF line to give the Giants a 7-5 lead and proved to be the game-winning hit.
Keaton Winn RHP- 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.75. Winn was lights out with a devastating FB/Split combo for 3 innings. Then he got BABIP'd to start the 5'th with a bunt single, SB, groundball single before giving up a line drive single to drive in a run. That brought in Sean Manaea LHP who got force-out at 2B except the on-field ump called the runner safe and it was upheld on replay despite a slow-mo video clearly showing Crawford's foot hitting the bag before the runner. Christian Walker followed with a double to drive in the last 2 of Winn's runners. In short, Winn pitched much better than the line indicates and that FB/split combo looks like a keeper.
Rogers Bros- 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. Winn's first 3 shutout innings and these 3 by Taylor and Tyler are really what won the game from the pitching side.
The Win cut the D'Backs lead over the Giants in the NL West to 1.5 games. They remain in the top spot in the Wild Card race 0.5 games ahead of the Marlins and 1.0 games ahead of the Dodgers pending the outcome of the Dodgers game against the Astros.
Anthony DeSclafani RHP tries to bounce back from a rough last start to complete the swweeeppp facing Ryne Nelson RHP.
I will just add that the home plate ump was terrible. He called strikes on numerous pitches well outside the zone in favor of Merrill Kelly and one big ball on what should have been strike 3 on Christian Walker by Sean Manaea and Walker hit a 2-run double the next pitch. I want to see the ump scorecard on this one but Krukow said the ump is not going to want to see it.
ReplyDeleteUmpire mistakes kinds aorta even out over a game but not if they occur in the 9th inning of a close game when the game can even end on an umpire error.
ReplyDeleteThe umpire error range as a whole isn't terrible-bad, but the range per umpire is terrible-bad: those who can't call balls-and-strikes should not.
But before they fix this, electronics will replace all of them.
Interestingly, the balance between pitching and hitting can then be "adjusted" season-to-season to provide more offense should the leagues decide it is needed merely by changing how high and how low the zone is called.
Welcome to the new game!
The ump scorecard is in: As it appeared, the home plate umps calls yesterday favored the D'Backs by a whopping 2.76 runs, even more than the 2.44 the Giants had to overcome vs Dodgers last weekend.
ReplyDelete