Madison Bumgarner got touched for 5 RBI's by a guy I had mentally penciled in as an automatic out, and a Giants rally that could have won the game came up empty at the warning track. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan= 1 for 3, BB. BA= .333. Pagan showing no signs of cooling off.
Hunter Pence- 1 for 4, 3B. BA= .253. The triple was another one that sliced away from the CF splitting the gap in Triples Alley.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .250. The double looked like it was a game-tying HR off the bat, but was hit just a bit too square and never got quite enough height to carry out. It banged of the wall in left-center millimeters over the glove of Chris Denorfia. BTW, in his last AB, I noticed that Buster was choked up on the bat by about 3/4". I think that is something new. Maybe he's been talking to Pence?
Michael Morse- 3 for 4. BA= .300. Morse continues to show that he is a complete hitter with 3 hard singles. The first one drove in 2 runs.
Brandon Hicks- 1 for 4, HR(4). Hicks just missed a grand slam in the 6'th on a towering drive to the base of the LF wall. He had a similar drive in Sunday's game so he is a total of about 4 feet short of 4 HR's in 2 days.
Madison Bumgarner- 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.74. As you can see from the line, Bummy was just a bit off again. He might have won is spite of it had he not been torched by light hitting reserve catcher Rene Rivera for a double, HR and 5 RBI's. As Vin Scully would say, "go figure!"
6'th Inning- Can't let this one go without describing the 6'th inning which was one of the more frustrating to watch in recent memory. With one out, Posey hit his double which looked for all the world like a game-tying HR off the bat. Morse then hit a hard single to deep RF, but the ball got to Venable too quickly and Posey is not a fast runner forcing Posey to hold up at 3B. The Padres then brought in a LH reliever to turn Sandoval around and he struck out from the right side. Give the pitcher credit, he threw some nasty pitches. Crawford drew a walk and the Padres brought in a RHP to face Hicks. With the bases loaded, Hicks hit the skyscraper shot that did not quite carry over the wall for what would have almost certainly have been the game winner. That was really the Giants last chance of the night right there.
The Loss cut the Giants lead in the NL West to 0.5 games over the Rockies who defeated the D'Backs 8-5. The idle Dodgers gained a half game and are 1 game out in 3'rd place. The Padres gained a game and are 2.5 games out in 4'th place while the lowly D'Backs remained 8.5 games behind in the cellar.
Matt Cain takes the mound in Game 2 of the series facing soft tossing LHP Eric Stults tonight.
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The baseball gods were not for the Giants last night. There was also that wild pitch that bounced right back to the catcher that prevented Posey from scoring. That was an odd 6th inning.
ReplyDeleteLG
With Hicks drawing lots of walks and showing power, is there any logic in moving him up to the 2 spot in the line-up.
ReplyDeleteHere is the Giants' line-up and their Runs Created per game:
Pagan 5.9
Pence 5.1
Belt 4.9
Posey 5.3
Morse 6.9
Sandoval 2.4
Crawford 5.3
Hicks 6.3
With the shift of putting guys with more power in the number 2 hole, maybe Hicks would work there. He would see better pitches hitting in front of Belt or Posey. He crushes that high fastball. I do see lots of swings and misses on down and away sliders though.
I you look up Hicks' historical stats, he has always had extremely high strikeout rates. He probably would not be a good fit in the 2-hole.
DeleteThere is no logic in moving Hicks. He is getting walks because he is in front of the pitcher. He strikes out way too much to be in the top half of the line up (what Belt is still doing in the 3 spots is beyond me).
ReplyDeleteI knew that game was over when Crawford didn't hit the second strike he saw and took the walk. Oh well, there is always today.
I hope Baum gets things back in order.
I agree with not moving Hicks in the order, but the game was not over when Crawford took the walk. Hicks darn near hit himself a grand slam in the next AB.
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