Another game in which the Giants lineup failed to even stress the opposing pitcher overshadowed strong pitching performances from Kyle Harrison and Tristan Beck. Key Lines:
Kyle Harrison LHP- 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 4 K's, 5/1 GO/AO. ERA= 3.86. Harrison was dinged for a 2-run HR in the first inning by James Wood, a lefthanded batter. He recovered nicely to pitch scoreless ball over the next 3 innings. He threw 57 pitches and was probably on a 60-pitch limit due to pitching out of the bullpen the last couple of weeks.
Tristan Beck RHP- 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, 4/0 GO/AO. ERA= 3.86. Beck also looked sharp in his first MLB level appearance of the season. He got touched up for a run in his last inning of work, the 7'th, on some soft contact.
Jake Irvin RHP- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.42. Irvin is a big, tall righty who had ERA's in the 4's his first two seasons but came in with an ERA of 3.88 and 5 Quality Starts out of his last 7. Take out a game against the Phillies in which he gave up 6 runs in 6 IP and his season ERA coming in would have been 3.31, so he is no slouch of a pitcher. Now, I can't say I watched every pitch from the edge of my seat but I don't recall any hard hit balls by the Giants, zero! They managed just 3 hits, 2 by Tyler Fitzgerald 2B and 2 walks. Irvin didn't look like he ever had to breath hard or break a sweat. Just an extremely weak performance by the lineup, all of it.
This is now the 5'th time the Giants have been shut out this season. Each of those five shutouts wasted a good pitching performance by Giants pitchers with three scores of 2-0 and one each of 1-0 and 3-0. I couldn't find a list of Team Shutouts Against but the Giants have to be near the top.
The Giants try to regroup for an early game tomorrow with Robbie Ray LHP facing Mike Soroka RHP.
On the radio after the game, Bill Laskey noted that Washington’s pitcher retired the side on just five pitches in the sixth inning and four pitches in the seventh. He said while Irvin was a good pitcher, the Giants made him more effective by not seeming to have a very disciplined approach going into their at-bats. He gave some really ugly numbers on how many first and second pitches they swung at in counts, which he said was just the opposite way to approach a team with a weak bullpen. It was the second-fastest played game in MLB this season!
ReplyDeleteThis is true but it also looked like Irvin was pounding the zone and if they took the first two pitches they were quickly in an 0-2 hole on called strikes. Kind of damned if you do or don't.
DeleteOne thing that makes me happy is that while the Giants have been shut out 5 times, after this game, the other team has been held to 2 or less runs 22 times!! That same stat for the Giants is 13 times. Something to grow on, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI was curious and found that the Rockies and Pirates are tied with being shutout the most in the league - 8 games. I follow the Bucs some and their lineup needs a lot of help. Joey Bart would have looked good as Giants backup catcher. He's improved a little as a hitter but continues to have defensive issues per baseball savant website and stuff I've heard. Per recent telecast Henry Davis is developing into Paul Skenes personal catcher. Bart has only caught 1 game that Skenes has pitched which shocked me. Giants messed up Bart situation but not sure if he'll ever be more then a MLB backup catcher which isn't bad. One more San Diego Padres have been shutout 4 times in 2025.
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