The Giants backed another Quality Start by Logan Webb with run support to complete an epic, historic beatdown of the Dodgers in El Lay. Key Lines:
Lamonte Wade Jr 1B- 1 for 4, BB. BA= .279. Let's see. A hit and a walk in 5 PA's is an OBP of .400. That will work for a leadoff hitter.
Luis Matos CF- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .333. The Dawn on the Luis Matos Era looks promising. Reached base 8 times out of 14 PA's. Scored 6 runs. Made fielding CF look easy. Many of his outs were hard hits. His 2-run double today broke this one open extending the Giants lead from 3-2 to 5-2. He came around to score on Blake Sabol C's single to extend it to 6-2 and the game was practically over.
Casey Schmitt 3B- 1 for 3. BA= .266. Schmitt took at pitch off his right forearm which appeared to be a replay of Mitch Haniger suffering a fractured ulna. You could see a large nasty looking egg on his arm and he appeared to be in significant pain. He came out after running the bases. Fortunately, X-rays were negative so hopefully an IL stay won't be necessary.
Logan Webb RHP- 7 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 12/1. ERA= 3.11. Not a great line but more than good enough with some run support. 10 of his last 11 starts have been QS's.
Luke Jackson RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.23. Jackson has been a boon to the bullpen since coming off the IL. With John Brebbia going to the IL, he looks to play a bigger role going forward.
Scott Alexander LHP- 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.52. Alexander has been terrific but allowed a leadoff double and a walk. He got one out on a FC but an error on the next batter loaded the bases. Alexander then exited the game with an injury later reported to be a sore hamstring which he also reportedly has been bothered by for awhile.
The Win completed a crushing sweep of the Giants bitter rivals. Not only did they jump over the Dodgers into 2'nd place in the NL West but they scored their most ever runs in a 3-game series in Dodger Stadium. The 15-0 win on Saturday was the most lopsided loss in Dodgers franchise history....at least since they were knows as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and it was their first sweep in LA since 2012 and we all know what happened in 2012.
The D'Backs lost so the Giants are now just 3.5 games out of first place in the NL West. They lead the Dodgers for the 2'nd Wild Card playoff spot by 0.5 games.
The Giants return home to Oracle Park where they have not been as successful as on the road lately. They start an important 4-game series against the Padres with Ryan Walker RHP serving as the Opener in game 1 tomorrow evening facing Michael Wacha RHP.
Churn Watch: The Giants announced that Alex Cobb RHP will go on the IL with an oblique strain. It's not believed to be serious and Cobb says he expects to be back close to the end of the minimum IL stay. Keaton Winn RHP was recalled to replace him and could be available for bulk inning duty.
Must be Slater's lack of power that sticks him on the bench: Giants are 5-0 in the last 5 games he's played (10 for 16, .625 BA, all singles) but he sat out the last 2 in LA.
ReplyDeleteIn the 20 games Slater has appeared (of 71 team games), he's slashing .431/.463/.529/.992 (174 OPS+) with positive defense (Fangraphs). Giants are 13-7 in the games he's appeared.
Of course, the dreaded splits work against him: he's only slashing .350/.409/.400/.809 in 22 PAs against RHP. That's definitely SSS but he'll always be SSS if he doesn't play.
Since he was drafted after 3 years @ Stanford (.341/.387/.493/.880) he's probably smart enough to know he's a Free Agent after one more year on the Giants' bench.
The American League is making a mockery of the League Divisions: All 5 teams in the East are over .500 and no team in the Central is.
ReplyDeleteIf the season ended today, Minnesota would get into the playoffs ahead of 3 teams with better records and a 4th with an equal .500 record, even though the Twins had an easier schedule, playing the bad teams in their division many more times than the East and West had to play against their own better teams.
8 teams have better records and a ninth has an equal .500 - there is no legitimacy in this system.
The National League is slightly better balanced although a team with a better record in the East (today, but it could be West tomorrow) would be left out of the playoffs as a lessor Central Team gets in.
A solution: With a 157-game season (leaving time to play off ties or shorten the season or both), teams could play the teams in their league 8 games head-to-head (eliminating the imbalance of an odd number that doesn't divide home-and-away) and 3 games with the 15 teams of the other league (unfortunately still forcing year-to-year alternating home games but it is balanced in number of games per team).
Playing every team is probably good for the sport although some of us remember 2 8-team leagues when the best from each league played in the World Series. Good teams did get left out, so perhaps some playoff provision is right, and a balanced playoff can be exciting.
Sorry, I will give you this one soapbox but this is not an issue I can get at all excited about. Inferior teams have been winning championships in pretty much every sport, including MLB pretty much forever. Central divisions have more small market teams. I think it's great they are in divisions that give them a chance.
DeleteIf it's that big of a deal to you and if you are so convinced that the regular season record is the best indicator of true team talent, why not just give a trophy to the team with the best regular season record and forget the postseason completely?
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