Juan Perez threw out a runner at home plate from the outfield in the 7'th inning and delivered the game winning RBI single in the 8'th to help the Giants break a 3 game losing streak and interrupt the Padres relentless rise in the NL West standings. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, 2B, BB, SB(8). BA= .283.
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 4. BA= .335. A splint on Scooter's pinky finger could not stop his hit parade.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4. BA= .319. Another day at the office.
Brandon Belt- 3 for 4, 2B. BA= .264. Belt doubled in the tying run and later scored the winning run. His double hit high off the brick wall in right-center, the deepest part of the park. Can't hit it much harder than that! I thought it was gone off the bat. The swing still looks funky, but it's hits like that and nights like this that make me hesitate to use the word "never" when discussing Belt's future.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 1. BA= .288. Crawford jammed the fingers of his right hand while getting thrown out trying to steal 2B early in the game. Not sure how long he will be out, but he may be the guy after Buster the Giants can least afford to lose for an extended period, although I have some confidence in Arias at SS.
Juan Perez- 1 for 3, Sac, Assist(4, home). BA= .421. Perez has played in 7 games and already has 4, that's right, 4 assists from the OF. Whattheheck? There are a lot of OF's who don't get 4 assists in a full season! And, how satisfying is watching this for those of us who have been rooting for him and his underdog career through several years in the minors? There might be a fan riot if he gets sent back down!
Matt Cain- 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 4.55. Cainer had a chance for a win when the Giants took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 7'th, but Affeldt promptly gave it back on a 2 run dinger to Jesus Guzman in the 8'th.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(17). ERA= 2.63. Romo was a lot sharper in this one than his last outing. The outcome was never really in doubt, even with the 2 out single.
The Win allowed the Giants to keep pace with the NL West leading D'Backs who topped the Marlins 3-2. The Rockies lost to the Blue Jays 8-3 to fall into a 2'nd place tie with the Giants, 1.5 games behind the leaders. The Padres slipped back to 4'th place, 2 games off the pace. The last place Dodgers were rained out of Yankee Stadium and sit 7.5 games behind the D'Backs.
Madison Bumgarner tries for a series win this afternoon facing lefty Eric Stults.
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Good game all around! I hope Crawford is okay and doesn't miss too much time. On the post-game wrap they said he'd probably be back by Thursday, which is good.
ReplyDeleteGreat start from Cain, except for the homers and that last inning was a little shaky. Overall, though, it looks like he's returning to form.
Good game for Perez, too. I don't think his bat will hold up long-term, but he is providing good energy.
Another multi-hit game from Belt! I think he has three multi-hit games in a row now. Let's hope this is the beginning of a turn around. I agree that his swing is funky. But, it's been funky since he started to change things last year. I still think his 2011 swing looks more natural, but I ain't a hitting expert.
Belt has been turned around since April 14th, reaching his low point which hasn't been broken on the 13th. Since then he has hit .289/.363/.472/.835 with 25.7 AB/HR, which is very good in today's lowered offensive era (average NL firstbaseman hitting .263/.332/.422/.755 with 30.6 AB/HR).
DeleteHe has been having his ups and downs since then, but clearly on an upward slant, as he broke through with this game above the average batting line for firstbasemen (again, he's been going over and under this month), which is now at .264/.331/.427/.758 with 31.4 AB/HR.
I understand people's point that it was more natural in 2011, but the problem is that as natural as it was, he was striking out too much and not making great contact most of the time. As unnatural as it may seem now, he is getting results out of it, just like he was getting results out of it in the latter half of 2012, he struggled with his hitting for a long time before his contact rate rose to good levels mid-2012, and hit so well eventually that his overall seasonal rate was actually good for a firstbaseman (again, lower offensive era).
I ain't a hitting expert either, but I don't really care as long as he's getting results out of it, and he has been.
I like the low-profile moves the BrainTrust comes up with. Juan Perez is a perfect example. There was a collective "huh?" when he was protected on the 40-man. (Jake Dunning, Nick Noonan and Chris Heston are other examples of this). Everybody wants the big hit home run on the prospects, no doubt, but getting useful pieces to plug in is just as important.
ReplyDeleteGiants pitching really needs to figure out the home runs now. Do you think we can bait Dave Cameron into one of his nonsensical "pixie dust" articles? That would most likely be a great reverse jinx!
I liked Hank Schulman's tweets about Guzman's HR trot. Posey was watching. You know he was watching. Bumgarner might have something to say about this one if Guzman gets a start today.
Shank called it.
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