The Giants struck for 3 runs in the first inning off Marlins starter Jacob Turner and Ryan Vogelsong and the Giants bullpen never relinquished the lead to salvage a 4 game series split. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 0 for 2, BB, HBP, SB(8). BA= .140. Blanco has reached base in 7 of his last 14 PA's over his last 5 appearances. His BA has risen from .100 to .140 in that time. He got the start today in CF due to Pagan's sore shoulder from his tumbling catch attempt last night. The Giants are hopeful Pagan will be ready to go by their next game Tuesday against the Rockies.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .220. Pablo is hitting .359 over his last 10 games.
Ryan Vogelsong- 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K's, GO/AO= 10/1. ERA= 3.62. Since his disastrous 1.1 IP start against the Rockies on 4/21, Vogie has pitched 5 consecutive QS's. In that stretch, he is 2-1, 33.1 IP, 10 BB, 28 K. He actually pitched a QS in the start before 4/21, so he has 6 QS's out if his last 7 starts.
Santiago Casilla- 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.48. Casilla only faced 3 batters, but it was a gutsy performance as Affeldt had allowed a run in and left a runner on 2B with 1 out. When Hecheverria reached base on an IF single putting runners at 1'st and 3'rd, it wasn't looking good. Casilla finally won a long battle with Garret Jones, striking him out. That brought up Giancarlo as a PH. Casilla calmly got him on a flyball to Pence in RF.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(15). ERA= 2.21. Romo's salary drive continues!
The Win keeps the NL West leading Giants 3 games up on the Rockies who outlasted the Padres 8-6 in 10 innings in Coors Field. The Dodgers lost again to the D'Backs 5-3 to fall 5 games back in 3'rd place. The Padres are in 4'th place 7 back and the D'Backs remain 10.5 games out in last place.
The Giants get a much needed day off tomorrow(the only one of the month of May other than May 1). They then play a 3 game series in Colorado with Madison Bumgarner facing fellow LHP Franklin Morales in Game 1.
Speaking of the D'Backs, they have hired Tony LaRussa as Head of Baseball Operations with GM Kevin Towers reporting to him. Interesting situation to keep an eye on in Arizona.
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Good to see Vogey coming back like he has. If he and Timmy can be consistant we have a pretty good rotation. Affeldt didn't look to happy when Bochy came to get him and I don't blame him. Normally I like the way Bochy manages the pen but I would have rode with Affeldt a bit longer, maybe the entire inning if he didn't give up another run. Day of will be appreciated I am sure.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be kidding about Affeldt. He was stinking it up out there! He faced, what, 3 batters? 2 LH batters and 1 RH batter. He got just one out! Not only was Bochy right to come get him, but he should seriously consider Lopez for that job the next time the situation arises!
DeleteAffeldt has been having some pretty serious bad luck recently. He's getting the ground balls he's pitching for, but they're perfectly place between the infielders and get through for hits. I hope he's taking Zito's oft-repeated advice to just concentrate on the process, and not worry about what he can't control.
DeleteHecheverria's single up the middle was stroked pretty good and there was nothing lucky about Dietrich's double to RF. What Affeldt CAN control is not yelling at his manager and giving him the stankeye when it's time to come out of the game.
DeleteI thought I read recently that the Giants were pretty good at positioning their fielders, reducing 'bad luck.'
DeleteI was surprised that Lopez wasn't used over Affeldt at that point, given that there were two LHB, was there the possibility that the first LHB could be PH for? Don't remember who that was. Or is Lopez in the doghouse or something, he hasn't been used very much over the past couple of weeks, if I remember right, there was talk in the media wondering why he wasn't used, whether doghouse or injury, and the Giants pooh-poohed that thought, though obviously they don't have to tell the truth about that either.
DeleteBut when a player isn't used that much over such a long period, there has to be something happening, there are LHB's coming up all the time, just throw him in for one batter to give him some MLB play to keep him sharp.
But yeah, Affeldt was getting hit pretty hard, and for the second appearance in a row. I would have took him out too. I think he just took his frustrations out on Bochy, as he seems to be a pretty understanding person most of the time I hear him talk.
The Giants have been reported to be positioning their fielders well in order to reduce bad luck, but it does not mean that is a perfect process, sometimes the hitter will hit them where they ain't, go outside his tendencies, and that's just baseball, BLSL, and they are going to look bad at those times. As players, they need to trust the process, it might cost them hits here and there, but the ideal is to kill more hits by being closer to where the hitter normally hits the ball, particularly if the pitcher is focusing on a certain zone to get him to hit the ball into certain area of the field.
We still had a 3 run lead and Garret Jones, a lefty was coming up. If he is going to hang with Panda, Timmy and Vogey when they are off their game a bit, he needed to give Affeldt the same vote of confidence, he's earned it. Like I said, if he gives up another run, then that's another story but the tying run wasn't even coming to the plate. I was surprised as Affeldt was when he got the hook.
ReplyDeleteThere was a RH coming up. If Affeldt stayed in the game, Stanton would have hit for Garrett Jones. You don't mess around with votes of confidence when you are trying to salvage the split of a 4 game home series against a team that has beaten you like a drum for the last 4 years. Bochy absolutely made the right move and Affeldt was out of line to be whining about it out on the mound.
DeleteHey Doc, will just have to agree to disagree. IMO part of showing confidence is to leave them in in a situation like this. There was some stress but the game was not on the line at that time and if it got to that, the Giants have some good pieces in the bullpen to prevent it from esculating. Like I said, I usually appreciate Bochy and the way he handles the pen, I just thought under the circumstances he had a hook that was too quick. From Affeldt's reaction he was very surprised as well.
DeleteBochy has shown a lot of confidence in Affeldt in the past, so one time should not be crumpling his self esteem in such a way.
DeleteAnd Affeldt is in a very different situation than the players Anon mentioned. The Giants have no great replacements in line to replace Sandoval, Timmy, Vogelsong, whereas they have a lot of good relievers who could come in and replace Affeldt at that moment. It might not have been the tying run coming to the plate, but Affeldt was getting hit hard, and it could easily be 4-3 if he gives up the big hit. He had three chances to shut them down, he didn't, so he shouldn't have complained, he should have sucked it up and accept that he wasn't doing well.
I think DrB hit the nail on the head, if the Giants were 2-1 instead of 1-2 in the series, particularly against a team that they were 1-9 at home in the last three seasons, then maybe Bochy does things differently. Most of the time, Bochy is in "survive the season" mode and will give votes of confidence out, but when he is in win mode, he'll sit anyone he doesn't think is contributing to winning. Sandoval would have been sitting in the playoffs if he's hitting like that leading up to the playoffs.
Fortunately, we are winning anyway and it's early season, so Bochy could "show confidence in him" by leaving him in there. If we were losing a lot of games, I'm sure that he would have benched Sandoval already, to try to get the offense going. And Timmy and Vogey, both might have had their downs this season, but really, for 4th and 5th starters, they were doing about as well as any other teams, so there was no real reason to take them out, it was only fans who didn't realize that they were actually performing relatively well early on, with nothing to really worry about. Now both are in a good groove and we are getting our rotation back into the overall goodness that we had in 2011, when both Cain and Lincecum were still performing great and we had a great rotation, with Vogey surprising in replacing Zito while the latter was injured.
I would like Affeldt to do well, and he certainly has the track record for continued respect in the Giants pen. And I do wonder if something is slightly off with J. Lopez, since he is the other senior lefty. Do we have "a lot of good relievers"? I think that is subject to debate. Casilla and Machi have been used quite a bit, and you can't run them out there every time.
DeleteUltimately, Affeldt probably didn't have his best stuff going and I agree with Bochy in taking him out. I think Affeldt is allowed to "complain" or put up the front since he is a competitor. We should give him some margin for being in the heat of the moment. Many of us probably have faced similar positions where we wanted to dig ourselves out of difficult situations that we felt partially responsible for.
Posey has three doubles. What an overpay of a contract!!
ReplyDeleteI hope THAT is a joke too!
Delete