Ryan Vogelsong got bit by the longball and the Giants offense was again not quite able to overcome the deficit. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, BB, SB(3). BA= .280. Getting on base twice in 5 PA's is what the leadoff hitter is supposed to do.
Marco Scutaro- 0 for 4, BB. BA= .215. Scutaro had a scheduled day off. At the last minute, he said he wanted to play and Bochy let him. Nick Noonan was deprived of a chance to start in front of his hometown crowd. Not sure what to think of this, but I think we all agreed as of yesterday that Scooter needed a day off. I'm not sure the player is necessarily the best judge of that.
Pablo Sandoval- 4 for 5. BA= .316. Pablo had a 4-hit game, but where is the power stroke?
Buster Posey- 1 for 4, HR(3), BB. BA= .286.
Ryan Vogelsong- 5 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. ERA= 6.23. There have been a couple of games this season that I thought Vogie pitched much better than the score would indicate due to umpire issues or BABIP issues. This was not one of those games. Vogie was missing on location and he was missing up in the strike zone. Combine that with a ballpark that has always been relatively hitter friendly in day games and now has the fenced about 10 feet closer, well, it's a combustible combination and Vogie paid the price.
With the Loss, the Giants remained 2 games behind in the NL West in 3'rd place. The D'Backs beat the Rockies 4-2 to climb into a first place tie with said Rockies. The Dodgers gained a game with a 2-0 win over the BrewCrew to 2.5 games behind the leaders while the Pesky Padres gained a game to 5.5 back in last place.
The Giants now travel to Arizona where Matt Cain takes the mound facing Ian Kennedy.
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didnt get to hear or see the game, so i really cant comment
ReplyDeletethis isnt the vogey of st or the wbc and i cant believe that his mechanics couldve gotten out of whack so quickly
im not sure what is going on in bochy's head re scoots. woe onto us if boch is going back to his old ways of dealing with vets to the detriment of the team....scoots needed the day off and at 37, if the team aint in the stretch run, he should be rested on day after night games...especially when those night games run over 4 hours
bochy has made a significant amount of mental errors in the early going and im not one to question him...but dang...5 losses in a row...time to get it together
bacci
I'm not sure what mental errors on Bochy's part you are referring to there, Bacci. I'm not thrilled with the apparent allowance of Scutaro to dictate when he takes a day off, but I don't know all the dynamics of it. Aside from that, the only things I have noticed about the losing streak is players not executing when you would expect them to, some bad breaks and some questionable umpiring.
DeleteRewarding ageing players with big contracts after they have contributed to a WS victory is very risky. You taught Sabean would have learned from the Huff and Burrell contracts but it seems like he didnt (3yrs for a 37yr old average player is outrageous). Scutaro looks out of sink and clearly not contributing in any way to the Giants..
ReplyDelete3 years is a long contract for a 37 year old, for sure. Not sure what the alternatives were. I'm just waiting for someone to pop up and say they knew Noonan was ready all along.
DeleteThat mega deal that PTMFB got was horrible. I am surprised Sabes did not lose his job over that one.
Delete1 year, $1M is one of those deals an org just doesn't recover from...
PTMFB done good as an advance scout, we killed Detroit. Then he tried to fight John Heyman in a bar! PTMFB! That was $1MM well spent baby!
DeleteAlso, my 2 year old at the time would chant "Pat the Bat" when he came to the plate. Man the summer of 2010 ROCKED!
DeleteReally and he wanted to retain Uribe as well. Look what he has done in LA the past two years. He is washed up just like every other player that leaves the Giants organization eg. Torres and Ramirez with the Mets but nobody tells Sabean anything because he has won because of mainly a great pitching staff if not the best in the Majors and two stars like Posey and Sandoval. The others players were just a compliment who all had their big lucky years with the Giants. I will say this again Scutaro is washed up he is a 38 year old guys in the twilight of his career. Even in his best years he was barely a 270 hitter with no pop or speed.
DeleteSabean is just like Epstein he has done so many bad deals but he covers them up because the team wins mainly because of his homegrown stars.
You did a lot of contradicting yourself Poet but I do see your point. If the homegrown stars are the ones responsible for winning 2 WS then who is responsible for getting us those homegrown stars? That would be Sabean. Also, no matter how many bad moves he makes he just won 2 WS in 3 years which means you can't question anything he does. He works in odd ways but the results speak for themselves. I always admired the way Florida was able to win 2 WS by waiting for the right moment when their homegrown talent was peaking and then compliment them with aging stars and then just blow the whole entire mother up. At least Sabes hasn't blown it up or made a much bigger mistake like Pujols or Hamilton!
DeleteIs it just me, or is it getting mighty difficult to tell who is writing in satire and who is serious here?
DeleteAnyway, I don't think the winning makes Sabean immune from criticism, but it sure does put the burden of proof on his critics. It also makes anything he may have done wrong up to this point pale in comparison to the success.
Weird 5 game loss streak. 3 extra innings games, 8 run differential. Sometimes those are the most frustrating losses, the close ones. And little details took care of that differential.
ReplyDeleteHope Cain can get on track.
I see a whiny comment up above from an anon poster. Scutaro was almost signed by the Cards, they actually made a better offer in $/year. A month in and a reasonable explanation of some back trouble is no big deal. He'll get on track.
It would have been nice to win half these games in the past week and shoot into May on a roll. they'll get going. This is a good baseball team.
How bout that Jean Machi eh? The beats are predicting Sanchez down and Machi stays when Affeldt comes back. Jedi Mind stuff was a nice tweet, and he throws hard.
Frankly this little losing streak is the Baseball God's payback. You don't get to win it all and not pay the price.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants need to find themselves as this year's team not last year's. Could see this one coming. They have to fall down, find themselves and then pick it up. Pitchers will be more fatigued, errors will creep in and one run games turn into losing streaks. Got to find the mojo, even Bochy.
Yet, we still get the surprises along the way - Crawford becomes a god at SS, MadBum raises to a new level, Zito is still Zito, but good Zito, more often, Pagan becomes more consistent. Machi rides in from out'a no where. Overall the Giants feel like a very competitive team this year.
Love the 162 game marathon, aahhhh baseball is back in all it's frustrating glory. But really, did they have to lose to the Friars?!
I think the whiny comment from anon is actually right on except for the part about Pat the Bat hurting us. I made the same comment a few weeks ago so I will echo it but also admit that it doesn't really matter either way since we did win a WS with the guy and based on that alone I am fine with him stealing 20 million ala Huffernuts. The alternative would have been to bring back the Riot in a starting role but when I made that comment someone astutely pointed out that there is no way the Giants fans would have been happy with that move after winning a WS.
ReplyDeleteSo the season is still young but I have some observations. At the beginning of the year I made a few predictions which I think are holding true. The one I felt most confident about was that Craw Daddy was going to have a better year than Belt and not just because I thought Belt would suck! Craw is really impressing me this year with his approaches at the plate and his confidence. He looks like he belongs and is steadily improving each week. Last year I was not thrilled with Craw as he took the whole entire year to mature offensively but this year he is showing that it was the right move. Belt on the other hand is a nightmare! Proponents will point to the game winning hit or game tying homerun the next day while I will point to all the other games he has played in and sucked in this year as well as the fact that he by far has the ugliest swing I have ever seen from a lefty. Seriously, Hideki Irabu hacking left handed could put a prettier swing on a ball than Belt! I know sometimes it gets the job done but god that hack is hidious!
The starting pitching is so deep that even with Cain and Voggie and Timmy struggling (don't get too carried away about 2 ok outings against the Padres!), they should be fine. The offense is solid too with the exception of Scutaro and Belt who will either get hot or will find themselves in platoon roles. I really like the way Noonan looks at the plate and can't wait to see more of him and Arias when Scutaro sits. The biggest issue which I am confident will be addressed midseason is left field/1B. Although I am not a Belt fan I don't see him going anywhere so he will be at 1B or LF if they are able to pick up a 1B before the trade deadline. This lineup is really good but one more bat would make it great.
The Giants have been just fine with the Sabes special contract ($6MM for the lingo impaired) non-performing. Please see Sanchez, Freddie, DeRosa, Mark and Tejada, Miguel. The RDF crew is perfectly willing to spend to go get some substitute as needed. Sabean can go grab somebody at the deadline if that's what he needs to do. In addition, Joe Panik might threaten early, Noonan might get a chance, and there are other scrappier and riskier options such as Bond, Tanaka and Abreu. But this isn't a Miggy Tejada situation. Scutaro is at 235 BABIP, and has a back tweak. If Scutaro is still scrapping when he's at 300 ABs, he will get replaced. This is not a break the bank type deal in any way.
ReplyDeleteBut as far as revisionist shouldn't have signed Scutaro, there just were not any alternatives on the FA or trade markets, unlike the signing of Tejada where several shortstops were being shopped. I wish Bochy didn't give vets these perks as well, it reminds me of him batting Cabrera leadoff because he asked! It would have been nice for Shawshank to rest and give Noonan a game in his hometown. Oh well, toughen up, there will be other chances later in the season.
We don't need a great offense. We need the defense to execute their plays, scrap out the runs and tighten up the pitching. That's the game plan. Stick to the plan. Everybody wants to go to the party, nobody wants to stay and clean up. (You name the move I just quoted I give mad props)
Maybe the same movie where he says, "l never walk into a place l don't know how to walk out of". Ronin, if memory serves...
DeleteDing Ding Mad Props to the Shark! You ever notice DeNiro likes to repeat his lines? He does it in half his movies. Great car chase scenes in Ronin.
DeleteI was at this game and I can already see the future where Marco becomes a bench role player. He looked horrible. Not only is he lost at the plate but he couldn't turn this routine double play that allowed a run. It will be Noonan's job in the near future. I am excited to see what this kid can do full time. Panda looked great at the plate but you can tell he needs to shed a little more weight. Posey's homer appeared to hit off of the RF's glove. Torres line drive in the 8th could have tied the game up but was about inches away from the ground when the RF caught it. Damn! Pence got caught up at 3rd on a single to the outfield when he could have easily scored. I am blaming the base coaches on that one. Double plays killed us. Pence hit into a double play with full bases and Blanco hit into one with one aboard. All in all it was a fun game but Vogey just looks lost up there. Especially giving up 3 homers. I am wondering if something mentally is going on.
ReplyDelete