The lineup woke up long enough to give Robbie Ray an early lead. He and the bullpen held on for the Win. Key Lines:
Mike Yastrzemski RF- 1 for 4, 3B, R. BA= .262. YtY followed a home run by Sam Huff in the third inning with a triple and scored what proved to be the winning run on a ground out.
Sam Huff C- 1 for 3, HR(2), R, RBI. BA= .208. Huff led off the third inning with a homer to L-CF to give the Giants their second run of the game. Huff has done about as well as we can expect with the backup catcher role. And hey! He's outhitting Patrick Bailey.
The Giants first run of the game in the second inning came on a Wilmer Flores DH HBP, a single to RF by Matt Chapman 3B with Flores going to 3B and the scoring on a swinging squeeze bunt by Willy Adames SS.
Robbie Ray LHP- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.56. 6 consecutive Quality Starts for Robbie Ray. He extends his W-L record to 7-0 and yes, there is a lot of luck involved in getting credited with a Win which is why Quality Starts are probably a better measure of SP effectiveness.
Ryan Walker RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(10). ERA= 5.21. Another shaky Save for Ryan Walker. I'm not convinced he is "fixed" just yet. He gave up the run on a pair of oppo-field ground ball doubles and got two of his 3 outs on fly balls to the OF.
Randy Rodriguez RHP and Tyler Rogers RHP pitched scoreless 7'th and 8'th innings respectively.
The Win gives the Giants a series win against a team they should beat. The Nationals are a young team on the rise though.
Walker only had 10 saves last year and he was never a closer in the minors and was good but not dominant. He was good his first year with us but not a closer. Last year he was really dominant and so he got thrust into the role at the end of the season due to issues with Doval. There was literally no pressure for him last year. He’s just not a closer and not closer material. George Kontos and Cory Gearrin had some really great years with us, that didn’t make them closers and certainly didn’t help them have prolonged careers. Just don’t think Walker is closer material and it shows
ReplyDeleteFor some reason Buster and Melvin seem to be more stubborn about moving Walker out of the Closer role than they were with moving Hicks out of his starting role. And it's not like there aren't good alternatives for Closer too. Maybe they are reluctant because there's a domino effect and changing Closers changes multiple roles?
DeleteLet's hope the offensive slump is caused by the ebbs and flows of the season that all teams go thru. Robbie Ray deserves a lot of credit. He's an established veteran pitcher, getting paid well, who still seeked out Tarik Scubal to teach him his change-up. I'm a fan. If Sam Huff can continue to hit occasional homers that's a huge boost. Ryan Walker is getting hard to watch, he's brought torture back to the 9th inning! When Nathan Lowe just missed a double down the left field line, I turned from the game and followed it on my app.Glad they won. Phew!
ReplyDeleteAfter Lowe's double, I turned my hat around backwards. I thought that was the difference, but it was you using your app! All kidding aside, The Giants, win or lose today, are averaging at least 93 wins for the season at the 1/3 mark. Not a bad start!
DeleteFortunately, Skubal pitched today for the Tigers so the Giants will avoid him for the upcoming series. If a move must be made, I would put Randy Rodriguez in as the closer.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd put Rodriguez as closer. He's been lights out coming in in pressure situations in the 6th and 7th. Sometimes that's more important than the 9th.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, the Giants are 8-3 when they score 3 runs.
ReplyDeleteNot so surprising, they're 1-11 when they score fewer.
They are 3-0 since a week ago when they score 3.
They are 4-0 in 1-run games since losing 8-7 May 14th.
They moved to 1 game out of 1st yesterday, as close as they've been since they fell out of 1st late in April.
Giants have the better pitching today against the Tigers which makes the odds fairly even, but more more money is going Detroit's way (53%-47%):
https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/odds/