On a day when a cold wind blew in from the left at Wrigley Field, Robbie Ray and the bullpen was nails and the lineup scratched out three runs for the win. Key Lines:
Willy Adames SS- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .230. Adames had a good game but did not figure in the scoring although his single in the first inning advanced YtY into scoring position which paid off when Wilmer Flores drove him in with a single. His BA is creeping closer to his career average although the power numbers still lag.
Wilmer Flores DH- 3 for 4, R, RBI. BA= .256. Wilmer's RBI single in the first inning drove in the Giants first run. He later singled and scored on Christian Koss's 2-out single for the Giants third run in the 4'th inning. Wilmer is batting .321 over his last 7 games and .333 over his last 15.
Lamonte Wade Jr 1B- 2 for 4, 2B. Some of those scorchers LMWJ seems to hit a lot of are starting to find holes in the right side. His double in the 4'th inning was the key hit that drove in Matt Chapman with the eventual winning run and would have driven in a faster trailing runner but Wilmer stopped at third.
Christian Koss 2B- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .200. Koss actually hit 3 balls hard but his 2-out single in the 4'th inning with runners at 2'nd and 3'rd initially drove in 2 runs but LMWJ was called out at home on a replay.
Robbie Ray LHP- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K's, 8/3 GO/AO. ERA= 2.84. The outfielders for both teams spent much of the afternoon chasing flyballs that blew yards off course in the wind. The only run scored off Ray was such a play where Heliot Ramos had to chase a ball that looked like a routine fly out off the bat but blew all they way to very shallow LF and he missed a diving catch. This was Ray's third straight Quality Start a much-maligned stat I think should be used more as measure of SP effectiveness in the "5 and dive" age.
Ryan Walker RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(7). ERA= 6.08. Walker gave up a leadoff single and appeared to have zero command of his slider. Fortunately the sinker-fastball was pinpoint and he got a GIDP and ground out for the Save. He's going to need that slider though. Hopefully he and the pitching coaches can get it figured out.
Camilo Doval RHP and Tyler Rogers RHP pitched scoreless 7'th and 8'th innings respectively.
The Giants take another road series against a really good team. Their overall record is 24-14.
The Giants now travel to Minneapolis where they get a day off tomorrow before starting a weekend series against the Twins on Friday with Jordan Hicks RHP facing Bailey Ober RHP in an Apple TV+ game.
I didn't think Ray would last, but he worked out of enough jams to go six innings. Clutch performance considering he gave the bullpen some relief after they had to go extra innings the night before. I didn't realize it was his third straight quality start. It sure would be nice to see some semblance of the RR of old the rest of the way.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the Giants are the only NL team to use only 5 SPs so far this year.
ReplyDeleteThe Angels are the only other team to have used only 5 SPs.
The Dodgers have used 11!
Per Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference, and yesterday's winds notwithstanding, Heliot Ramos is an adventure in the outfield.
ReplyDeleteB-R scores it oWAR +.7 (4th highest on SF), dWAR -.6 (worst on SF), 0.3 WAR overall.
Fangraphs: Offense 2.9, Defense -2.7, WAR 0.6
Yastrzemski and Matos don't fare well in outfield ratings either, but YtY passes this fan's eyetest. McCray and Meckler in limited samples also get poor grades on the internet.
There are a few prospects noted for their defense including Lisbel Diaz and Jose Ortiz.
Bo Davidson?
Jung Hoo gets good grades everywhere.
A meaningful win. Giants fans should be thankful that while this team isn't perfect, it appears that the sum is greater than it's parts right now. The championship runs of the 2010's had teams like this, so I take it as a good start so far. I don't think there's a big need to mortgage the future for a big bat just yet, but that may change as the season progresses.
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DeleteThe good part is if it does become necessary, the Giants appear to have the pitching resources to pull of a significant midseason or deadline acquisition without completely mortgaging the future.
How about the Giant's pitching paradigm be let starters Verlander, Hicks and even Ray go 5IP, then plan on putting Birdsong, Harrison and mix of relievers to pitch til the 8th if they are pitching well.
ReplyDeleteI think bringing Harrison up was a clear signal that Melvin and Posey want more options for multi-inning relief than just Birdsong and Bivens.
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