It was finally the Giants turn to put up a 3 spot in the first inning. They were able to add on a couple more and make it stand up to salvage the second, "road" game, of the DH. Key Lines:
Tony Abreu- 2 for 5. BA= .286. I've been impressed with Abreu when he's played.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .266. Sandoval's double came in the first inning with Abreu on 2B and Posey on 1B. The ball was to almost the exact location of where Buster got thrown out at home on Sunday. Well, Flannery sent him again tonight. I let out an audible "oh, no!" at the TV, but Buster scored this time and it wasn't even that close!
Hunter Pence- 2 for 4. BA= .268. Pence added on by driving in Sandoval after his double in the first.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .271. Crawford is hitting .303 with 4 BB's and 3 K's in his last 10 games although 6 of his 10 hits came in SD before the All-Star Break.
Barry Zito- 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.92. Not a great line, but hey, he managed to not get blown out early which gave the bullpen a fighting chance. Here's where Yumeiro Petit's 5.1 IP, in game one really saved the day.
Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.59. The Giants missed this guy a lot while he was out.
Sergio Romo- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's, Save(24). ERA= 2.84. 4 out Save for Romo. I missed it because I went to bed, but it must have been exciting to see him K 4 of the 5 batters he faced.
With the split of the DH, the 4'th place Giants lost 0.5 games to the NL West leading Dodgers who came from behind to top the Blue Jays 10-9. The Giants are now 6.5 games behind the leaders. The second place D'Backs remained 0.5 games behind with a 10-4 win over the Cubs. The Colorado Rockies lost to the Marlins 4-2 to fall 5 games off the pace in 3'rd place. The Last Place Padres won their second in a row over the Ryan Braun-less BrewCrew 6-2 and are 8 games back.
Chad Gaudin tries to salvage a split of the 3+1 series facing Mike Leake tonight.
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Pretty rough stretch coming up after this homestand. 30 straight games outside the division. 9 vs the beasts of the AL East, At Phi and Wash, 4 vs Pit (not all in that order)... for a team with poor records on the road and outside the division, things could get a little dicey. Let's hope a little leadership shows up in the clubhouse, and soon.
ReplyDeleteYes, tis true, though I would note LA gets 34 straight (plus already 5 so far, though they are 5-0 in those games and on the road; though it was not that long ago that they were 16-22 on the road, but have gone 9-2 since).
DeleteAZ only got 26, plus 3 against pitiful Padres, so they appear to have a relatively easier schedule over the next month, but get a tough road trip in mid-August, PIT, CIN, PHI. But they end the season with 3 against the Nats, but at home.
I see little reason to be optimistic about the Giants going forward, but won't completely write them off until they are 10 games out.
DeleteI think the Giants have a good chance of winning today, even without Posey in the lineup.
ReplyDeleteLeake, while he's been good overall for the season, a lot of that is BABIP luck, his career has gone to extremes in BABIP, but his overall BABIP is roughly .300 it is suppose to be for most starter. He has had dominating games but for the most part, he does not strike out that many batters, he wins by not walking that many plus keeping the hits lower. His good ERA appears to be due to great BABIP and low HR/9, he has given up 3 less homers than usual, and more porose defense, with 5 UER. His RA is 3.15 and including 3 homers (4 runs), that's 3.45, and we are inching closer to his 3.86 ERA in 2011, when he also had a great BABIP season. On top of that, his last three starts have been mediocre, he's been battling some problems, giving up more walks and homers than usual (6 homers in last three starts), hopefully he's regressing to the mean.
Hate to term any games must win, but this is a must win, as they either split the series or lose it 1-3. Hopefully Gaudin will continue his great stretch of pitching for us. Go Giants!
Gaudin has been good, but Leake is the type of pitcher who tends to give the Giants fits.
DeleteOGC, although I truly don't anticipate a very happy 2nd half for the Gigantes, I love your optimism. It is refreshing. I am too young to remember the dark ages of Giants' baseball, but I know how lucky we are to have 2 recent titles. Will never forget that feeling, which can be so elusive. I will support the Giants through thick and thin... however, this seems like a 2nd half that might call for a little more attention on the farm than the big league club for me, much like the mid 2000's. I will always tune in at 8:15 (MT Time), but sloppy defense, weak hitting and bad pitching are tough to watch sometimes.
DeleteWell, I was right about the BABIP getting worse, the Giants had a lot of opportunities to score on him, but he got them out at key points, particularly Pablo with the bases juiced. Sometimes you have to tip your hat...
DeleteI don't anticipate a very happy second half for the Giants, but I don't think that they are totally out of it either, as some have suggested. What I anticipate is that the other teams are not as hot as they appear to be and will fall back to the pack, and that the Giants can win enough to be there as they fall. But yeah, I know it don't look good right now.
I believe it is more likely that the Dodgers were grossly underperforming early in the season and what we are seeing now is the real Dodgers. Most likely scenario is they run away with the division barring an injury to Kershaw or something like that.
DeleteIt ain't over til it's over, but it's very close to being over.
DrB, I looked through the Dodgers hitting recently and really, two huge cogs, Hanley and Kemp. Everyone else has been OK, but not great, some bad even. And their great run has been supported by their whole bullpen not giving up many if any runs, their overall ERA was probably under 1, it was that good (except for League). That won't continue indefinitely either. Also, great starting pitching has been happening, and the periperhals do not support it. So I expect them to fall back some, and if Hanley either is DLed or fall back to recent performances, they will revert to lower performance, and it is not like we need them to lose to get back in the race, we only need them to revert to .500, and I think that is very possible, given the points I made on my blog regarding LA and AZ.
DeleteBut yeah, I agree that it's very close to being over, I thought the Giants would be able to have an OK homestand to start, but the starting pitching really has not delivered, and the offense has been sputtering again, though individual pieces, as I've been noting, have started to heat up, but is it too late now?
Still, I think the offense is perking up, and the team will do better going forward. Maybe LA rides their high, but they have a lot of ifs to keep on doing well, I think the smart bet is on them falling back to the pack, and play .500 the rest of the season. And AZ is only in the race because they are 17-2 in Corbin starts, they even worse than us in all their other starts.
Only 2 effective starters and pop gun offense will have giants eliminated by September 1st.
ReplyDeleteThey only had 2 effective starters to start the season and the same pop gun offense yet were 23-15 in mid-May. They now have three effective starters (Bum, Cain, Gaudin) plus a fourth potentially on his way in Vogie, and you call it pop gun, but we have four hitters capable of 20+ HR seasons in Sandoval, Posey, Pence, and Belt.
DeleteAnd there is no way the Giants will be eliminated by September 1st, do you even realize that what means?
I don't consider Cain an effective starter, his era is 5. As for the four capable hitters. If they were capable they would have 20 dingers by now. Yes, I too thought Giants had a potential murderers row but, my friend, potential is just that, potential. That, and two bits will get you a phone call.
ReplyDelete