The narrative of this post was going to be the Giants ongoing difficulties against pitchers they have never seen before who aren't very good. A couple of late rallies changed that to a come-from-behind win in Coors Field(but they do seem to have no end of trouble against those kinds of pitchers). Key Lines:
Austin Slater PH/CF- 2 for 2. BA= .378. Say what you will about Kap's much-maligned penchant for pinch-hitting with a platoon partner as soon as the opposing team's pitching changes hands, but that is pretty much what won this game. With runners at first and second and no outs in the 7'th inning the Rockies took out starter Connor Seabold RHP who had shut the Giants down up to that point and brought in Brent Suter LHP. Kap immediately countered with Slater for YtY. Slater promptly grounded a single into LF to drive in the Giants first run and set up 2 more. He later drove in the tying run in the 8'th inning with another single. Funny how much better managerial decisions look when the players, you know, execute the strategy.
Patrick Bailey C- 0 for 0, Sac. BA= .309. Speaking of pinch-hitting....Kap pinch hit Wilmer Flores for Blake Sabol C in the critical 7'th inning who kept the line moving with a single. That brought in Bailey to play C. He then executed a perfect squeeze bunt in the 8'th to drive in the winning run. So there you have it. The former first round draft pick does everything well except hit RH.
Logan Webb RHP- 5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 6/2. ERA= 3.09. This was Webb's first non-QS after 8 in a row. Maybe Coors Field straightening out his breaking balls and sinkers? Maybe Sabol's catching? He did give up a few hard line drives and the only HR of the game, a solo shot by Nolan Jones.
Bullpen- 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. Tristan Beck RHP, the Rogers Bros and Camilo Doval(Save(15)) locked it down giving the Giants a chance to take the lead then shut it down.
All in all a very nice come-from-behind win with timely hitting, great relief pitching(especially in Coors Field) and some very savvy patient managing by Gabe Kapler.
The Win improved the Giants record to 31-30. They remain 5.5 games behind the D'Backs in the NL West, but they gain another game on the second place Dodgers and now trail them by 3.5 games. They also gain a game in the Wild Card race and are just 1 game off that pace.
Alex Cobb RHP goes for the sweeepppp tomorrow afternoon against Chase Anderson RHP(yes, Chase Anderson is still pitching in MLB).
Roger Craig would have loved that safely squeeze bunt by Bailey. Bullpen is coming together. Ryan Walker and Luke Jackson have been nice additions to the bullpen
ReplyDeleteYep, had a brief flashback to Roger Craig when the squeeze play went down.
DeleteThis is beating an old drum, but it's difficult to assume that the Giants know what they're doing with Estrada following Wade: yesterday 0-5 with 6 on base, but homers today with no one on.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much information on Baseball-Reference about batting with every possibility of runners, outs, leverage, etc, and this year Estrada is an All Star with no one on base (.363/.400/.593/.993) and not even a major leaguer "Late & Close" (.129/.182/.194/.375).
Historically he has been more consistent but in the past he's a .260ish hitter but this year he's well over .300 except with runners.
When you break it down into situations like that we are still talking about less than 100 PA's for this season and his career splits are a lot closer. I expect it will even out as sample sizes increase.
DeleteFor his career his second best lineup slot is #2 and when they break it down into high, moderate and low leverage situations he is best in high leverage.
DeleteSabol is the opposite (SSS):
ReplyDeleteSplit AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
RISP 28 12 9 1 0 3 12 .321/.345/.679/1.023
--- 84 2 18 2 0 2 2 .214/.275/.310/.584
but he's only 3/21 against LHP which helped Kapler decide to PH in the pivotal 7th when 3 LHB were removed for RHB.