On a warm day with the wind blowing out to CF, the Giants out-homered the Royals 3-1 but it was the 15 other Royals hits and some poor fielding by the Giants that doomed this game early. Mike Krukow broke out a new riff though, so all was not lost. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 5, HR(9), R, 2 RBI. BA= .296. Heliot continues his drive for a second consecutive All-Star Game appearance. Unfortunately his 2-run HR in the 9'th was too little, too late in this game.
Matt Chapman 3B- 1 for 4, HR(9), BB, R, RBI. BA= .217. Chapman comes off a rest day with a HR.
Jung Hoo Lee CF- 1 for 3, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .276. Despite reaching base 3 times, Lee did not figure into the scoring.
Patrick Bailey C- 1 for 3, HR(1), BB. BA= .183. Bailey hit .100 over 4 games in March, .189 in April and is up to .222 for May so far. Baby steps!
Logan Webb RHP- 4 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.67. 4 of the 10 hits were on groundballs that found holes and 3 of the runs counted as unearned after LaMonte Wade Jr 1B made an error on the leadoff batter in the 4'th inning but Webb was not fooling anyone with his pitches and gave up 5 line-drive hits and a Salvador Perez' HR. One of those games.
Mike Krukow TV Announcer- Kruk broke out a line I never heard before and the way Kuip reacted I don't think he had either. I think it was Wilmer Flores who hit a soft liner over shortstop for a single. Kruk: "That's a Bettina Bunge Backhand!" Kruk! You're showing your age there my man! I recognized the name but Bettina Bunge was a women's tennis pro from way back(I just looked it up. Not quite as far back as I recalled but active from 1978-1989). Kruk said he got it from at teammate or coach but I missed who that was. Maybe one of our readers caught it? Also, apparently it's not new because Kruk got a write up in the NY Times in 2023 that mentioned it.
The Giants get a travel day tomorrow before starting a 9-game, 3-city road trip against the Nationals, Tigers and Marlins. The Nationals and Marlins are lower division teams but that's a brutal travel schedule. Landen Roupp starts against the Nationals Friday evening facing TBD. BTW, the Nationals placed Dylan Crews OF on the IL and called up Robert Hassell III OF from the minors.
Speaking of the IL, not unexpectedly the Giants placed Justin Verlander RHP on the IL with a pectoral nerve issue whatever that is. He is expected to miss two starts. No word on who will get the starts or who might be called up from the minors.
Addendum: Pure speculation and a little bit of 2+2=5 but "nerve irritation in the pectoral region" sure sounds like it could be Herpes Zoster AKA shingles. Could also be a never impingement in the thoracic spine or a local impingement from muscle. But kind of odd descriptions coming out of the Giants clubhouse.
Kruk attributed it to Brenly when he said it.
ReplyDeleteThank. Kruk seems to practically worship Bob Brenly.
Delete...er, Thanks....
DeleteWith Verlander, might this not be an opportune time to see how Harrison does? It could just be on a temporary basis. Till Verlander returns. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteThat seems like the logical progression.
DeleteWe'll see which one of Hjelle or Beck comes up
ReplyDelete"pectoral" is a vague description and can describe anything from shoulder to the hand. One clue was that Verlander was not shut down right away and that he was allowed to pitch.
ReplyDeleteFrom Maria Guardado, mlb.com beat writer for SF (written regarding Villar's DFA):
ReplyDelete"... the Giants now have 38 players on their 40-man roster. One spot will eventually go to Jerar Encarnacion, who will be eligible to come off the 60-day injured list on May 26, but the Giants could use their other opening to promote a fast-rising prospect like Whisenhunt, who was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week on Monday after recording a 1.29 ERA over his first four May starts for Triple-A Sacramento."
Ah, yes, they could but don't the Giants have a more pressing problem, like scoring runs?
The Giants pitching, at least Webb's and Bivens' 1st inning, wasn't sharp, but the Giants got 6 walks and 8 hits including 3 HRs but managed just 4 runs as Flores and Adames collectively left 9 runners on base (https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gametracker/boxscore/MLB_20250521_KC@SF/).
ReplyDeleteThrow in a couple errors that led to 3 unearned runs: that was, or was close to be, the Giants worst performance of the year in front of 29,064 fans.
Forever Giant (?) Darin Ruf is suing the Reds over the career-ending injury he suffered crashing into an uncovered tarp roller at Great American Ballpark two years ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/former-brewers-player-darin-ruf-sues-reds-over-injury-in-cincinnati-that-ended-his-career/ar-AA1Fjmp2
How can Darin Ruf not be a Forever Giant when he was the subject of one of Duane Kuiper's greatest calls of all time: "Ruf is on the move!...."?
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