The Giants unleashed a ferocious offensive attack on Jeff Francis the Rockies' pitching staff, while Barry Zito's renaissance continued to gain momentum. The result was a dominant win to sweep the 3 game series. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .361. Pagan continues his hot start.
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 3, 2B, SF. BA= .235. Scooter is 6 for his last 11 and has raised his BA from .111 to .235 over the last 3 games.
Buster Posey- 3 for 5, 2B, 3B. BA= .276. I would say Buster has busted out of his slump too.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .148. After Belt took an 0 for 5 last night, I suspected he might sit against the LHP, but Bochy stuck with him and he had a good day at the plate. Gotta be a confidence booster there.
Andres Torres- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .286. Last night and today, Torres looked like the Torres of 2010 when for the middle 4 months of the season, he might have been the best player in baseball.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .258. Crawford has become a force out of the 8 hole.
Barry Zito- 2 for 3, Sac. BA= .750. Zito has turned himself into a tough out. Whether it is fouling off pitches and running up pitch counts or a well executed sacrifice bunt or slapping the ball to LF, he has really figured something out at the plate and his helping himself win.
All in all, the last 4 batters in the lineup went a combined 9 for 18 with 3 doubles, 5 Runs and 4 RBI's. I'm tellin' ya, the bottom of the lineup has become a major weapon for the Giants.
Barry Zito- 7 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 0.00. Ironically, when Barry Zito signed his contract, I think most of us thought it would be OK on the front end but terrible by the end. It's turning out to be exactly opposite of that. Gotta think having a missus to go home every day has had a major positive effect on Zito's concentration and focus.
The Win improves the Giants record to 6-3 tied with the D'Backs for first place in the NL West. The D'Backs pounded the Pirates 10-2. The Dodgers are leading the Padres 4-1. A win would leave them 0.5 games behind in 3'rd place. A loss would drop them 1.5 games behind, 0.5 games behind the Rockies in 4'th place.
The Giants now fly to Chicago for an afternoon game tomorrow. Ryan Vogelsong faces Scott Feldman.
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Good to see Belt have a good day, although he did strike out twice (but they were both ABs where he saw a lot of pitches--progress!). It'd be nice if he could start to get in a groove.
ReplyDeleteIt was also good to see Buster do well. And, to think, we got 9 runs with Buster sitting yesterday and 10 runs with Pablo sitting today.
Let's hope the offensive explosion continues in the Windy City.
I couldn't wait for Zito's contract to end 2 years ago. After his performance last year in the regular season and playoffs, maybe they should consider working something out if he continues to pitch well. He saved the bullpen going 7 innings after Cain, Madbum, and Timmy all struggled to go 6 innings.
ReplyDeleteLG
Zito! First 2 in the books, 30 more starts to go. I'm pretty sure DrB was the first one to suggest there was a chance of picking up that option. Half of Zito's starts he went 6 or more, less than 2 runs last year. Yes there were some stinkers, but half QS from your 5th starter? Take it to the bank! Kudos on that.
ReplyDeleteJust for laughs: the gory details from Cots:
$18M club option ($7M buyout)
option vests with 200 IP
if 2014 option vests, Zito may opt out & receive $3.5M buyout
Everybody always talks about the Giants limiting his innings so he doesn't vest. Well, the way its going, what about them limiting his innings... so he doesn't vest! That $3.5 buyout, a complete complete impossibility before...
Feels good to cool off the Rockies, Zito brings the goods, and those bats are nice and hot. This is a good team.
I don't know, but I read it as
Delete'Well, the way its going, what about (not) limiting his innings... so he doesn't (does) vest! (And if 2014 option vests and Zito opts out and receives $3.5M buyout), that $3.5 buyout, a complete complete impossibility before (may become a...)'
Am I missing something?
My theory on Zito's Contract - Without the contract, I think Zito would have a good chance of watching games from home. What the huge deal did was forced the Giants to keep him on the roster. In the meantime, Zito was handed innings anyone else with his performance would have never been given. Those innings (some of the worst I've ever seen) actually allowed Zito to learn how to pitch with an 82-84mph fastball, develop the cutter and mix more than in the past.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it's still a bad contract, but the Giants won 2 WS with him and luckily a lot of their core talent were on rookie contracts so we didn't have to make many tough decisions on guys walking.
-Andy
p.s. how about that Jonathan Sanchez fellow? Whatever Dave Righetti did with him is now looking like taming a wild lion comparatively.
Re. Sanchez. Gotta give kudos to Sabes for knowing when it was time to ship him out. I seem to recall a lot of analysts not liking that trade too much from the Giants perspective.
DeleteI have no idea, but another possibility is Sanchez could have been better than what he has shown to date pitching elsewhere had he had Rags as his pitching coach. They might still have traded him because they needed a bat and he was getting expensive.
DeleteMy sense was that his relationship with the coaching staff was irrevocably broken. Therefore, I doubt anything Rags could have done would have improved his performance over the last couple years...
Delete