Full season leagues were idle.
ACL: Dodgers beat the Giants 9-4.
"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.
Full season leagues were idle.
ACL: Dodgers beat the Giants 9-4.
What was that team that beat the Dodgers last night? Never heard of them....wait, what? The Giants kept the pressure on the Dodgers behind another scintillating pitching performance by Trevor McDonald and pulled away in the later innings for an easy win. Key Lines:
Luis Arraez 2B- 2 for 6, R. BA= .311. This was Arraez' 14'th multi-hit game of the season. He's been held hitless in 9 games. He's been remarkably steady batting .323 in April and .333 so far in May.
Casey Schmitt 1B- 2 for 3, BB, HBP, SB(3), 3 R. BA= .294. Schmitt has also been remarkably steady batting .269 over his last 7 games, .309 over his last 15 and .307 over his last 30.
Rafael Devers DH- 2 for 3, HR(5), 2 BB, 3 R, 2 RBI. BA= .240. Devers got the Giants their first run with a solo HR in the second inning. He is batting .364 in May after batting just .196 in April.
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 4, 2B, BB, R, 2 RBI. BA= .278. Speaking of steady, Ramos is batting .310 over his last 7 games, .295 over his last 15 and .304 over his last 30.
Willy Adames SS- 2 for 5, 3 RBI. BA= .215. Adames came up with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the 7'th inning. I thought to myself, this would be a great time for him to step up and hit a grand slam home run. Adames did something smarter. He stayed within himself, went the other way and lined a 2-run single to RF. He came up with the bases loaded again in the 9'th and singled to left driving in another run.
Trevor McDonald RHP- 5.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, 9/0 GO/AO. ERA= 2.92. This line falls short of a Quality Start but McDonald got out of a no-out, bases-loaded, a run in jam in the 4'th with a GIDP and K. Tony Vitello let him go out for the 6'th despite a soaring pitch count. He allowed a lead off HR to the much-hated Max Muncy, got a ground out but gave up a single to Teoscar Hernandez. With the pitch count at 101, Vitello brought in Matt Gage who got out of the inning and pitched another scoreless frame in the 7'th.
AAA: Sacramento River Cats outscored the Reno Aces 9-7.
It as a struggle but the Giants kept pace with the Pirates into extra-innings and finally pulled out a win behind the clutch-pitching of none other than Ryan Borucki. Key Lines:
Jung Hoo Lee RF- 2 for 6, R. BA= .280. Lee is batting just .200 over his last 7 games and .189 on the month but went 5 for 15 in this series.
Luis Arraez 2B- 1 for 4, 2 BB, R, RBI. BA= .310. Arraez was charge with an error on a ball that hopped over his glove. He made some other good defensive plays. The 2 walks is notable because Arraez does not walk often.
Rafael Devers DH- 2 for 4, 2 2B, BB, R. BA= .232. Devers snapped an 8 game hit streak yesterday but started a new one today.
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 6, 2B, HR(4), 3 R, 2 RBI. BA= .272. Ramos went 6 for 13 for the series. He has been one of the more consistent Giants hitters so far: .276 over his last 7 games, .283 over his last 15 and .295 over his last 30.
Willy Adames SS- 3 for 6, 2B, 2 RBI. BA= .209. Adames went hitless yesterday but had 2 hits Friday for 5 for 16 on the series.
Matt Chapman 3B- 2 for 5, 2 2B, RBI. BA= .235. Chapman broke a 7-game hitless streak yesterday and added the two doubles today.
Tyler Mahle RHP- 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 5.18. Not quite a Quality Start but Mahle kept his team in the game.
Joel Peguero RHP- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 3/0 GO/AO. ERA= 2.70. Peguero looks to me like he's added some muscle mass from last season. He pitched a scoreless 9'th inning to send it to extra-innings but gave up a walk and a double in the 10'th to put the Giants behind by 2-runs. He had only one effective pitch but that was a fastball that topped out at 102 MPH and enabled him to challenge hitters with pitches in the middle of the strike zone. That approach is fine in regulation innings but results in too much contact to keep those designated runners from scoring. I like Closers who throw hundos, though. Thinking back to how Bruce Bochy brought order out of chaos in the bullpen, he went with his highest velocity pitcher, Brian Wilson, and stuck with him. So I ask, WWBD, What Would Boch Do with the current bullpen mess?
Ryan Borucki LHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 2/0 GO/AO. ERA= 5.14. I guess Tony Vitello just ran out of pitchers and had no choice but to put Borucki out there in extra innings, desigated runners and all. A funny thing happened. There were a couple of lucky line outs but Borucki hung tough and held the line until the Giants could score a walk-off run. He made some darn good pitches in the process.
The Win gives the Giants a much-needed series win. They head out to start a 4-game series in Los Angeles with Trevor McDonald RHP facing Roki Sasaki RHP in Game 1 tomorrow evening.
AAA: Reno Aces beat the Sacramento River Cats 4-2.
A bullpen collapse and a continued failure to hit turned a game that was scoreless after 4 innings into an embarrassing route to spoil Bryce Eldridge's first MLB home run. Key Lines:
Bryce Eldridge CH/1B- 1 for 4, HR(1), R, RBI. BA= .154. Eldridge's first MLB home run came on an inside fastball which is often Kryptonite for tall hitters. He pulled his arms in close, spun on it and sent it over the RF wall. I don't think it was technically a splash hit because it looked like it bounced into the water but it was an impressive shot and an encouraging sign for his future.
Landen Roupp RHP- 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.09. Roupp pitched scoreless ball for 4 innings but ran up his pitch count in the process. Joey Bart led off the 5'th with an infield hit after winning a pitch challenge and that was it for Roupp after 94 pitches. What ensued was nothing short of a humiliation for the entire organization. With a couple of lefthanded batters coming up, Tony Vitello went with Ryan Borucki LHP who gave up a ground ball single to Oneil Cruz and a sac fly to Brandon Lowe. Switch-hitter, Bryan Reynolds then singled through the left side to drive in Cruz.
Ryan Walker RHP got out of the inning on a CS by Eric Haase C, but Walker came back out for the 6'th inning. After getting the leadoff batter on a K, he went Walk, Wild Pitch, RBI single, Single(Joey Bart again). Walker was lifted for Matt Gage LHP who gave up a single to.....Oneil Cruz, but then got out of the inning on a K and GO. JT Brubaker came in to start the 7'th inning which ended with the Pirates holding a 10-1 lead.
Look, I get Tony Vitello has to work with the roster he is given and he can't run his top 3 relievers out there in the 5'th inning so this is on Buster. Why is Borucki still on the team? And Ryan Walker needs to have the same questions asked about him.
Christian Koss RHP- 1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 13.50. Poor Christian Koss was called upon to throw slow-pitch softballs up there in the 9'th amid all but catcalls from Kruk and Kuip. He was helped out by a GIDP to keep the score from ballooning to something in the high teens. To top all that off, Koss replaced Rafael Devers in the line up with Eldridge moving from DH to 1B(I didn't know that was allowed), so Koss batted in the bottom of the 9'th and got beaned on the helmet flap. Was that a purpose pitch? Kruk and Kuip seemed to think it might have been. Kuip's immediate reaction was "well, that makes tomorrow's game interesting."
Tyler Mahle RHP tries to salvage a series win this afternoon facing Bubba Chandler RHP, a top prospect who has struggled in his early MLB career and we know what that means for the Giants. His FB averages 98.7 MPH per Fangraphs.
AAA: Reno Aces edged out the Sacramento River Cats 2-1.