The Giants brought their hitting shoes and it was a good thing as the game degenerated into a Coors Field special with the Giants hanging on for the win. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 5, 2 R, RBI. BA= .268. Ramos is batting .333 over his last 7 games. He's been the Giants most consistent hitter this season although his power numbers tailed off in the second half. As long has he's leading off and getting on base, that's probably OK.
Matt Chapman 3B- 3 for 4, 2B, 2 HR(20), BB, 2 R, 4 RBI. BA= .234. If getting kicked out of a game concentrates Chapman's mind and leads to games like this, might not be a bad thing every now and then. He crushed the ball 3 times.
Drew Gilbert CF- 1 for 4, HR(3), BB, R, RBI. BA= .260. I'm still trying to figure out of Gilbert is for real. He is a former first round draft pick. His numbers were decent, not great, before the trade. Maybe the Giants noticed something? Maybe he finally figured something out? Maybe his just in a rookie sweet spot and it will fall apart once pitchers have a book on him?
Patrick Bailey C- 2 for 4, 2 R, RBI. BA= .213. Bailey is 4 for 8 over his last two games. Dave Fleming and Javy Lopez commented that he refused to come out of the lineup for tonight's game because he feels like he found a groove.
Robbie Ray LHP- 4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.31. Ray has pitched a lot of innings this season and appeared to run out of gas in the 5'th inning when his pitch count ballooned to 99. Up to that point he looked good with an unhittable 4-seam fastball up in the zone.
Joel Peguero RHP- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. Peguero gets credited with his first MLB Win.
J. T. Brubaker RHP- 2.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.42. Brubaker looked good through 2 innings throwing mostly sliders. It looked like he started hanging the sliders in the 9'th and probably got left in longer than he would have with a smaller lead. Ryan Walker RHP allowed 2 inherited runners to score before closing it out for his 14'th Save.
The Win completes a sweep of the series and is the Giants 10'th in 11 games. It also cuts their deficit in the Wild Card race to 4 games.
The Giants have a travel day to St Louis for a weekend series against their old postseason rivals. Carson Seymour RHP gets the start Friday evening against Mike McGreevy RHP who has a W-L record of 6-2 but and ERA of 4.12.
Ray was frustrated and losing steam with 2 outs in the 5th. He was angry, he felt he'd been squeezed out of strike 3 for the 3rd out of the inning. (Honestly, actually looked like bad framing from Bailey, for once) There was the pause for the replay review of the play at the plate. Ray's at 99 pitches, sweating and puffing. I'm baffled as to why Melvin doesn't pull him. Yes, he's trying to get Ray the win. But even casual fans understand that W's don't mean very much these days. It's 2nd and 3rd, Giants up by a run. Ray has put the last 3 batters on...it was SO clearly the time to give him the hook. This isn't hindsight. This is foresight. Off day tomorrow. Time to use the pen.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that Melvin got his butt tossed AFTER the 3rd out, belatedly arguing the ball call. I'm admittedly not a fan Melvin's, but this just feels like very, very poor bullpen management, followed by a very oddly timed moment to draw his line in the sand with ump.
Melvin is not Bruce Bochy when it comes to managing pitchers but few, if any, managers are.
Deletewith the giants on a bit of a roll, it is times like this when i wish the Giants had a healthy Roupp or Birdsong before his fastball became an unguided missile. -es
ReplyDeleteBaseball-Reference's preseason projections for 2025, the San Francisco Giants had an 11.1% chance of making the postseason.
ReplyDeleteToday, B-R odds are UP to 11.7!
Whodda thunk?
This is a HUGE weekend. Mets are playing the Reds in Cincinnati. Cincy leads season series: 3-2, while Giants are playing the still alive, however barely, Cardinals.
Those four teams plus AZ (same record as StL) are the potential 6th NL playoff team.
Things could look very different Sunday afternoon.