Newcomer Paul DeJong made an immediate impact leading the Giants offense in a torturous, nail-bitting extra-innings win. Key Lines:
Thairo Estrada 2B- 2 for 5, SF, SB(19). BA= .280. Estrada continues to be possibly the Giants best all-around player. Probably no accident the offense has been better since his return from the IL.
Wilmer Flores 1B- 2 for 4, HR(18), BB. BA= .304. Wilmer may have something to say about who is the Giants best all-around player. He's been an absolute monster at the plate this season.
Austin Slater PH/CF- 2 for 2, 2B. BA= .250. Slater has been in a brutal slump but Kap stubbornly PH him for Conforto against the LHP and just like that, Slater broke out of his slump to drive in the insurance run that allowed the Giants to survive Doval's 9'th inning meltdown and ultimately win the game.
Wade Meckler CF/LF- 2 for 3, BB, HBP. BA= .214. Meckler has also been struggling but reached base 3 times and scored 3 runs in this one.
Paul DeJong SS- 3 for 5, HR(14). BA= .216. Wow! There was talk of trading for DeJong at the deadline but instead he went to the Blue Jays where he hit less than .100 in 13 games and was released as soon as Bichette came back. FZ picks him up for free and he makes and basically wins the game for the Giants with 4 RBI's. Take that, FZ haters!
Alex Cobb RHP- 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 6/1. ERA= 3.74. Cobb has had his own struggles. Giants used a total of 10 pitchers in this game so Cobb's start was long forgotten by the end of the game but was a huge contributor to the win. The Giants need Cobb to be good to have any hope of competing down the stretch.
Tristan Beck RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.34. Beck continues to be a stud in a variety of roles.
Camilo Doval RHP- 0 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K, BS(7). ERA= 3.09. This is starting to get worrisome. Another guy who needs to right the ship for the Giants to compete for the postseason.
The Win brought the Giants into a tie with the D'Backs and Reds for the 3'rd and final Wild Card playoff spot. The Giants ended up going 2-4 on midsummer east coast road trip against two very good teams and came very close to winning two more games which would have swung it to 4-2. That's about as good as we could expect but now they have to do better at home.
The Giants get a day to travel back home and rest up before starting a 3-game weekend series against the Braves with TBD facing Spencer Strider RHP on Friday evening.
Churn Watch:
Johan Camargo IF was the 40-man roster casualty from the addition of DeJong. He was DFA'd. I am not so sure that is a great trade-off in the long run but I can't deny the immediate impact DeJong made. If the Giants end up getting into the postseason, we may look back at DeJong's performance today as what saved the season. Wish Camargo the best. He was a good Giant for a very short time.
i'm concerned that doval is pitching hurt. i think doval could heading for an IL stint soon.
ReplyDeleteOn KNBR yesterday, Krukow said that Philadelphia is well known o mess with the slope of the bullpen mounds and that played into Doval's problems on Tuesday, and by extension, Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly wasn't putting the ball where he wanted it.
I thought both Meckler and DeJong have interesting write ups on Wikipedia.
ReplyDeletePer The Athletic Windup: Shohei Ohtani has a UCL tear.
ReplyDeleteOhtani was set to sign the biggest free-agent contract in history this offseason. There’s simply not another player with his two-way skill set, and when he is healthy, he is the most entertaining player in the sport. Now? Who knows what free agency will look like? Even if this tear doesn’t require surgery, it’s still going to raise a lot of questions for any medical staff tasked with green-lighting a half-billion-dollar contract.
Well, if the Giants didn't sign Correa over concern about his lower right leg as part of the physical and missed out on Judge who has not played 50+ games this year, having potentially dodged two bullets, is there any chance they'll go Gazillions on a 10-15 year contract for a real Super Star who is leaking serious oil and has already had TJ surgery?
It's one thing to waste $50 million on a contract but $500 million?
FZ is criticized for not signing better FA's this year when there weren't better FA's available by the time he had danced with the wolves on Judge & Correa – negotiating for Ohtani would probably be worse whether he signed or not.
OTOH, there aren't as many game changers this year after Ohtani so getting shutout wouldn't be as painful. Expect FZ to play the short prove-yourself pitcher contracts.
As per Sean Estes: He suggests that Doval is pitching tired (maybe dead arm?). Yes, he is still throwing high 90s, but if his arm is tired, he may have to put more effort into throwing at the velocity that he does. Hence his control is off.
ReplyDeleteEven with a potentially bad arm, I would think just the designated hitter side of Ohtani is worth a 400 million dollar contract.
ReplyDeleteLots of roster moves and the one I found most interesting was sending Hellot Ramos down and keeping Wade Meckler up. Ramos showed some power while he was up, former #1 pick in 2017, but not sure if he was given a fair shot this season. Meckler has struggled but had a good game on Wednesday, and risen thru 3 levels of pro ball in 1 year. Not someone they had to callup. I guess it comes down to the Giants being higher on Meckler then Ramos. Ramos might be better off in another organization in 2024. I'll be rooting for Meckler to do well, Great story of an underdog making it to the big leagues.
ReplyDelete