Matt Cain once again staked the Giants to a 2 run deficit before they sent their first batter to the plate. Not only that, but he threw 65 pitches in the first 2 innings! He somehow managed to labor through 5 innings and ended up with the Win as the Giants scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 5'th inning to take a 5-2 lead. After that, the outcome was not in serious doubt. Key Lines:
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 5. BA= .324. Scutaro has always been a good little player, but prior to last year had never hit .300 for a season. Since coming to the Giants, he looks so comfortable up there it's as easy as taking batting practice. Looking back at his career numbers, he shows a steady upward trend in his BA as his career has progressed, so maybe he's maintained enough athleticism to take advantage of the years of experience and it's all come together in a harmonic convergence. Whatever the reasons, it sure is fun and amazing to watch.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(7). BA= .317. Posey seems to be getting dialed in.
Hunter Pence- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .278. Pence is hitting just .231 over his last 10 games but has looked better in the last 2.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .257. Belt is hitting .300 over his last 10 games with 6 BB's and 6 K's. Very nice hitter to have in the 6 hole.
Andres Torres- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .275. Vida Blue thinks Torres should ask Bochy for more playing time, but who would Bochy take it away from? Nice problem to have!
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 5.00. Cain was not as wild as the numbers would seem to indicate. He seemed to have excellent stuff as evidenced by 3 K's of CarGo, and 6 K's in 5 IP. He seemed to have no problem getting to two strikes, but then just couldn't seem to put them away. I suppose you can give some credit to the Rockies' hitters for hanging in there and fouling off pitches until it almost seemed like Cain threw ball 4 in exasperation trying to move on to the next batter! 65 pitches in 2 innings. Wow! He threw 42 over his next 3 innings to hang in there long enough for the W.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. Bochy used 6 relievers over the last 4 innings with Affeldt making the 9'th look easy. Chad Gaudin's appearance tipped off the he was not going to be the guy who replaces Vogie in the rotation.
With the Win, the Giants remained tied for first place in the NL West with the D'Backs who edged the Padres 6-5 while the Rockies slipped a game back into 3'rd place. The Padres fell to 5.5 games behind while the Dodgers lost to the Cards 5-3 to fall 7 games off the pace.
Madison Bumgarner faces Dan Straily in an afternoon Memorial Day game in Oakland tomorrow.
After today's game, Bruce Bochy announced that Mike Kickham will be called up to make his first career MLB start on Tuesday night to take Ryan Vogelsong's place in the starting rotation.
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The Giants to Kickham: 'Whatever you read in Andrew Baggarly's article, we said it for public consumption...to lure the other team into complacency. You are our secret weapon...even as we publicly focused on Heston in spring training as our Plan A for the 6th starter. You can do it, kid. We mean it, but only in private.'
ReplyDeletewhy would kickham bother reading baggs article...no one else does
Deleteso kickham opens basically at home, as giants fans, who cant afford to go to att, will fill up the park that al destroyed
i love vida, and that guy has forgotten more about the game then ill ever know, but i think he is wrong about andres....with torres, its all about comfort level. the platoon and lack of pressure to be the man and perform on a daily basis, has significantly lowered andres' stress level, which has improved his focus when he does play
if it aint broke...why fix it
bacci
He may or may not read it.
DeleteBut I think this is about the Giants holding their cards close and/or the mysteries of life.
50 games in the books, one more win than last year. Definitely a roller coaster. I think the Giants starters need to tighten their game, get some Kool Aid refresher, make sure the Pixie Dust is scattered in that there park. Stop giving up early leads, and stop giving up so many long balls.
ReplyDeleteNo complaints about the hitting. The defense needs to tighten up, and just like last year I think it will. The pen may need to get supplemented. I think they need a hard thrower 93-95 MPH type with Casilla on the shelf. Don't know if its good times for Hembree to ease in. Not very impressed with Rosario, but Machi and Mijares are solid, and big boys to boot that will give Donnie Baseball pause before he starts ordering beanballs. If he lasts long enough for the next series...
Dunning looks pretty good.
DeleteHembree's last appearace wasn' too impressive, granted, it was in Colorado.
I doubt it will be Dunnington, who resurfaced the other night, any time soon. I guess he's recovering from an injury. Hope he gets back to where he was before.
Kickham gets called up before Zack Wheeler...
ReplyDeleteMets fans, hopeful in their 18-29 team, turn bitter and call for Sandy Alderson's head
Funny, who has better PCL numbers, Kickham
I think Bobby Evans is right and it is a little early for Kickham
I think this is Bochy's call, as Gaudin is too valuable as a safety net with Casilla out and Timmy/Zito/Cain all having short starts recently.