This game was much like a mirror image of Friday's debacle as the Giants took advantage of early wildness by Luis Severino RHP and added on from there in support of Logan Webb's Quality Start. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 1 for 4, HR(14), HBP. BA= .274. Ramos was not happy when a heat seeker caught him on the back of the hand in the first inning. Fortunately it glanced off a backhand pad which enabled Ramos to give payback the right way in the 5'th with a solo HR to straightaway CF. This is Heliot Ramos' 11'th HBP on the season which places him #7 in MLB. There has been a lot of talk about how many times Giants batters have been hit. They are collectively at 37 which places the team at #12 in MLB.
Willy Adames SS- 3 for 5, 4 RBI. BA= .225. Adames came through with a 2-out, 2-run single in the first inning to keep the Giants from squandering the runners Severino gave them. The sequence went walk, HBP, Force at 2B, HBP, Force at home, single by Adames. And just like that the Giants had a 2-0 lead and never looked back.
Brett Wisely 2B- 2 for 4, 2 RBI. BA- .229. Wisely got the start at 2B with Chapman back from the IL at 3B. Wisely did a nice job of standing in the gap during an outbreak of IF injuries and looks like he'll be rewarded with some playing time at 2B.
Logan Webb RHP- 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 6 K's, 8/1 GO/AO. ERA= 2.62. Typical Quality Start by Webb, his 8'th in a row, 15'th on the season. This time he got run support.
Hayden Birdsong RHP tries to get his season back on track and a series win for the Giants tonight facing former Giants farmhand Jacob Lopez LHP who comes in with an ERA of 3.88.
I normally don't advocate this but, for as many times as Heliot has been hit this year, I want to see him start confronting the pitchers. I don't want it to get physical but, I want him to start chirping when he gets hit.
ReplyDeleteHe's already chirping. He's been hit a lot but is only #11 in MLB.
DeleteThe next time it happens, the benches need to empty but, don't go any further than that
Delete..and what good, exactly, is benches emptying going to do?
DeleteI liked Kruk's comment > Giants starting pitchers need to bean someone in the 1st inning.
ReplyDeleteNothing better than a bench clearing brawl to stop these drillings the Giants are taking
MHO for what its worth
Richard in Winnipeg
I think Kruk was saying that he wanted the Giants to start drawing first blood, because it's always the retaliator that gets tossed, suspended etc. Strategy-wise, he feels our opponents are taking away our pitchers' ability to throw inside right at the outset of games.
DeleteI love Mike Krukow and he certainly knows the art of pitching as well as anyone but IMO, he's FOS on this one. Giants pitchers aren't afraid to work inside and have done so very well since at least the Cainer/Timmy/Bum era.
DeleteStayed away from getting two negative on here the lst little while and it's Good to see the Giants nip their latest faceplant in the bud with a solid all around game yesterday...Signs are there that they are getting back to their normal with the return to Chapman and hopefully Schmidt soon, a big game from Adams. But, if they don't follow it up tonight, it means squat...To me, this should be Birdsongs last chance at the rotation spot--though there are no real other options...which leads to..
ReplyDeleteThere's no way to make this team perfect..that would mean improvements at C, maybe 2B (I'm fine going forward with Schmidt/Wisley),,another bat at DH/1/OF, another SP, and a LHRP. I think it's the latter two that are the most important and it's mandatory that they are addressed.
The MILLER injury was to be expected and, at lest in part, lays at the feet of the GM/Buster..A LHRP had been needed all year, now they need two,. WIll be an interesting few weeks to see how Buster moves.
SteveVA
#11 of:
ReplyDelete26 players per team 30 teams = 780 on MLB active rosters
1½ of all players, ~3% of non-pitchers
Could he get further away? He's not really one who "crowds" the plate, is he?
For a fairly good "contact" guy, he is a "sucker" for high fastballs, but he has reduced his SO# each year since his rookie season (2023).
Close to the plate, likes to swing and pitches up and in. The reason he got hit last night is he started to swing. There are commenters out there who would say it shouldn't have even been a HBP because he not only didn't try to get out of the way, he started to swing at the pitch. To my eye, he did start to swing but then tried to pull back and couldn't get his hands out of the way quickly enough.
DeleteI love Heliot but the reason he's getting hit is not because pitchers are intentionally trying to hit him. They know he's a sucker for high, tight fastballs. They go after him there. It would be pitching malpractice for them not to.
Delete12th in the league in HBP does not seem to warrant this talk by the Giants that they're getting targeted/hit on purpose unless I'm missing something. Maybe it's just been a lot in a short time span? But if the players are getting overly sensitive about it that is not a good sign to me about the team chemistry/leadership/focus. Hopefully I'm not making too much out of this.
ReplyDeleteI think most of it is gamesmanship with some egging on by Kruk.
Delete