The Giants lineup laid down and died in front of Kris Bubic LHP wasting a valiant start by Robbie Ray. Key Lines:
Robbie Ray LHP- 7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.67. The Giants weren't touching Bubic but Ray matched goose eggs with him for 7 innings. Tyler Rogers RHP gave up a rare 2-run HR in the 8'th and Jordan Hicks gave up a run in his first relief appearance of the season in the 9'th.
Kris Bubic LHP- 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 1.47. Up until the 7'th inning, the only hit off Bubic was a grounder to the right side by Wilmer Flores that looked like it was booted by the second baseman, initially ruled an error but then changed to a hit by the scorekeeper. To me the ball was very playable, Wilmer is a slow runner and has no chance if it's not misplayed.
The Giants best chance to score off Bubic came in the 7'th when Willy Adames SS drew a 1-out walk followed by a double down the line by Casey Schmitt 1B. Tyler Fitzgerald then hit a line drive to the SS who doubled Adames off 3B and just like that, the inning and rally were over.
The Giants managed to score one run in the 8'th inning on a pair of singles by Sam Huff C and Heliot Ramos LF then a 2-out double by Jung Hoo Lee CF but Matt Chapman 3B ended that rally with a pop-out to the catcher in foul territory.
The bottom half of the Giants lineup against LHP's is admittedly weak, but when the top 5 batters include Ramos, Flores, Chapman and Adames, they should be doing much better than they are, Kris Bubic's brilliance notwithstanding.
The Giants try to regroup tomorrow night with Hayden Birdsong RHP making his first start of the season against Michael Lorenzen RHP.
Encarnacion should be part of the solution and this is where we can trade away some of our pitching for is an impact bat against left handed pitching.
ReplyDeleteIDK, although Encarnacion has intriguing power potential, he's far from a lock to jump-start the Giants lineup especially if he's not playing any more often than Matos or Schmitt.
DeleteHe won't be the magic bullet but, he should be a bit of a boost. The other part of the solution will need to likely be addressed on the trade route.
DeleteAdames's and Chapman's continued offensive ineptitude are killing the Giants offensively..all year...The supposed leaders of the team need to start earning the Big Money that Posey gave them..Chapman has reverted to his recent norm prior to the 2nd half of last year. Get with it boys!..Way gtoo much pressure on the Pitching staff almost every night.
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
Chapman is not a typical cleanup hitter, he doesn't do well there relative to other cleanup hitters, he's not the "most clutch" hitter, BUT he is the BEST the Giants have.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing about baseball is that most of the time there is a game tomorrow.
Trading pitching for hitting hasn't always worked well for the Giants. A few examples:
ReplyDeleteJoe Nathan and Francisco Liriano for A.J. Pierzynski
Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran
Dave Burba and Mark Portugal for Deion Sanders (this didn't do much in either direction and it was fun to have Deion for a year!)
Acquring Andrew McCutchen didn't involve trading an established pitcher but it did lose an OFer the Giants surely wish they had Bryan Reynolds back! Kyle Crick who had a couple of fair years with the Pirates was part of that trade.
Hunter Pence worked out OK. Reminder that Carlos Beltran hit .323/.369/.551 for the Giants in 2011 and Wheeler missed all of 2015 and 2016 with injury then was ineffective in 2017 before settling into sustained near-ace status.
DeleteDidn't Kenny Lofton come in a trade once upon a time?
DeleteNot for a pitcher but Marco Scutaro for Charlie Culberson worked out pretty well.
DeleteNot sure who the Giants gave up for Freddy Sanchez but he was great when he was healthy. Sometimes the best deals are the under-the-radar ones like Scutaro and Sanchez.
DeleteGiven the Giants need for a LH 1B until Eldridege comes up for good (next year)............JT SNOW for Allen Watson worked out pretty good for a few years..
DeleteSteveVA
The point wasn't you shouldn't trade pitching for hitting, it was just, it sometimes doesn't work out, not necessarily in the year it was made, but long term.
DeleteThe examples, Pierzynski, Beltran, and Sanders were one-and-gone.
The worst was Castillo for McGehee.
Deleteseems like most of my Giants blog commenting has become pointing out Adames having indisputable, career-long reverse splits -- should not expect him to excel v LHPs in particular, which is theoretically good given the side on which most of us humans are 'handed', including all shortstops at least for throwing purposes, so prefer to have one of those who prefers hitting against majority of pitchers, presuming they field competently (and having a defensive stud at catcher, where again everyone throws righty, who also prefers facing RHPs, also theoretically good (would be nice if that vRHPs OPS could creep above .500 (, .600 & .700)))
ReplyDeleteRight now I'd be happy if Adames hit any type of pitcher well. It looks to me like he has the post-contract/trying too hard syndrome. It looks like he's trying to hit every pitch for a home run.
DeleteAdames will work out, AND the Giants, with Adames this year and the next 6 will work out. He's not one-and-done.
Delete48 games into the season in 2021, the Giants were 29-19, 3rd place in the West, 1½ games out of 1st, and Gausman was 5-0. Belt was hitting .228 and Crawford .261.
ReplyDeleteHistory does not repeat itself, but, o͟n͟ t͟h͟a͟t͟ d͟a͟t͟e͟, the Giants were only Buster Posey better than they are now.