Coming of the two worst starts of his career, Matt Cain gave the Giants a decent start and Bruce Bochy worked his bullpen wizardry the rest of the way to hold the D'Backs at bay. Hey! That rhymes! Key Lines:
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(14). BA= .326. Some Giants fans are envious of the D'Backs for having Paul Goldschmidt at 1B. Well, the entire universe of non-Giants fans is envious of them for having the best darn player in all of baseball!
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .269. Giants need Pablo to be healthy and playing well in the second half in order to make a run.
Jeff Francoeur- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .215. Stop the presses! Frenchy drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in a run. Man, when you seen Frenchy at the plate and on the basepaths, you can sure see what prospect watchers were dreaming on back in the day. What an athlete! Maybe Bam Bam can fix him?
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 5.00. Not exactly vintage Matt Cain, but a whole lot better than his last 2 starts. Still, 102 pitches is a lot in 5 IP.
Jeremy Affeldt- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.51. Affeldt's troubled season took a turn for the worse when he threw a pitch and came off the mound clutching his groin.....in front of 42,000 fans and a TV audience. Ouch! What's your over-under for how long he'll be out? I say 6 weeks. Most likely Machi is the replacement. The Giants have 2 other lefties in the pen and Mijares has shown he can face both LH and RH batters.
With the Win, the Giants remain in 4'th place in the NL West but gain a game on the leading D'Backs to 4.5 games out. The second place Dodgers narrowed their gap to 0.5 games with an extra-inning win over the Nationals 3-1. The Rockies pounded the Cubs 9-3 to remain in 3'rd place, 3.5 games out and the Padres topped the Cardinals 5-3 to gain a game to 7.5 games back in last place.
Madison Bumgarner goes for the sweep tomorrow afternoon against Randall Delgado.
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Care to give a review of Pablo's mad dash home? I was bbq'ing, monitoring on the phone. Bases loaded, nobody out, and the most roundly beat up guy in the saber-loving world draws a walk. I say "Gints are in bidness" and go back to my steaks. 25 minutes later I'm befuddled. Was this a bad break or a bad decision? They could have and should have broken the game open. (I know, what's new...)
ReplyDeleteAffeldt rebounds well from injuries! That's your bright side interpretation. I'm sick of defending the guy. He's really good when it counts though.
If Bochy is going to bring the pen like this every night, we're gonna need reinforcements. Steve "Gas Can" Edlefsen?
Looks like we're getting Surkamp versus the Reds!
Nice statement on Posey DrB. Giants fans need to remember what is good in life.
And things are getting interesting...
Didn't see Pablo's mad dash home. I kind of tuned in off and on too. Should have mentioned that the strike zone for both teams was small though, which could be part of why Cainer's pitch count was so high. The K zone was small, but fair as the final score attests.
DeleteMan, Pablo actually looking almost svelte out there! Watching the replay he looked to have gotten a good jump and was moving way better than I would have imagined down the 3B line.
DeleteAll in all, man, if folks want to write about his shape before, write about it now too! That guys just did a lot of work and looks like he's back in top playing form. The swing is rounding out. Watch out when that power stroke comes back!
Rainball - that's totally fair. I've been a big critic of Pablo, I think this weight issue is completely unprofessional on his part, and it stands as a big reason to sink a defend the ring season. But he is trying out there, all out all the time. But that is the rub with Panda - if he is going to be a big bat hitting doubles and home runs, then he is valuable. If he's going to be a Fat Ichiro and wack singles and clog up the bases, he is much less valuable. I've just seen a lot of 2010 when we had to lean on Juan Uribe down the stretch, but I'm hoping for some clutch back to form of course.
DeleteGiants have a tough, tough decision to make. I'm quite sure they weren't thrilled that Pablo said he'd be in shape in 2 years for free agency. Do you stick with him hoping for that contract year push? Or do you shop him? I'd shop him personally, but you do have to have something to replace him, and that's the bind the Greybeards are in.
Giants will rise and fall on sticking with their corners. Slumpy Shoulders Belt has good stats, he needs to catch fire. Sandoval is no stranger to catching fire, when he does he is truly amazing. Both these guys go big, the Giants will light the rocket again.
LOL! Bochy re. Affeldt's groin strain: "That's a dangerous area." Now, that's funny!
ReplyDelete