The Giants came away with a nice Win in Coors Field, but paid a high price as Matt Cain and Santiago Casilla both exited the game with strained hammys. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence- 1 for 3, HR(4), BB. BA= .286. Pence seems to have really hit his stride at the plate.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .222. Sandoval seems to have hit his stride too, and none too soon.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(6). BA= .248. What a game for Craword! In addition to the obvious terrific night at the plate, he made a sensational play in the 8'th inning to start a DP. The hitter was Cuddyer and the bases were loaded with no outs. Cuddyer hit is solidly up the middle. Crawford snagged it on a dead run, shoveled the ball to Hicks from his glove. Hicks took the shovel barehanded and relayed it to first in one motion beating Cuddyer by several steps. A run scored but the threat of a huge inning was erased just like that. I wonder how many fWAR points THAT is worth?!
Matt Cain- 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.66. Cainer looked terrific through the 3 innings with his FB sitting 92-93 MPH with good location. Unfortunately in the 3'rd inning, he tried to field a comebacker and his right foot slipped down the mound straining his right hammy. He finished the inning while continuing to show the strong velocity, but on the final pitch of the inning, he grabbed at his right hammy, grimaced and strode off the mound with a pained expression on his face. He marched directly to trainer Dave Groeschner and escorted him down to the clubhouse. Cain did not come out for the 4'th inning and word came that he had a hammy strain. The encouraging part is he was walking around with a normal gait, so hopefully it's mild.
Yusmeiro Petit- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.76. Coors Field would seem to be Petit's worst nightmare as his achilles heel has always been giving up dingers. He was terrific in this appearance getting the game to the 7'th inning with no runs allowed. He would be the man to take Cainer's spot in the rotation if a DL stint is needed.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.25. Casilla got the Giants out of a bases-loaded jam with a lot of help from Crawford and Hicks on the aforementioned DP ball, but some silliness at the plate and on the basepaths came back to bite and HARD! With the 5-1 lead and a non-Save situation coming up in the 9'th, Bochy let Casilla hit for himself, which is entertaining to say the least. Casilla went through all his usual body contortions and comical swings with his teammates guffawing in the dugout. He worked the count to 3-2, then hit a chopper up the middle. Casilla tried to pull a Jean Machi(he even wore Machi's batting helmet) down the first base line, but pulled up 2 steps short of the bag then went sprawling face first into the dirt beyond the bag in obvious pain. Unlike Cain, who strode off the field under his own steam, Casilla had to be helped off the field while bearing no weight on his right let. It looked BAD! Wouldn't shock me if we read tomorrow morning the muscle or tendon is torn which would be a 3 month DL stint at least. Remember Armando Benitez?
Jeremy Affeldt- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.64. Here is Bochy's vote of confidence in Affeldt, giving him something to build on.
With the Win, the Giants move back to a 3 game lead on the Rockies in the NL West. The Dodgers edged the Mets to remain 4 games behind in 3'rd place. The Padres and D'Backs both lost to fall 8 and 11.5 games off the pace respectively.
Tim Hudson tries for his first career win in Coors Field and for a series win for the Giants tomorrow afternoon facing Jorge De La Rosa who always seems to be tough on the Giants.
The one thing the Giants did not want to do is get swept in this series, which they avoided with the win tonight.
There will almost certainly be a pitcher callup tomorrow, with Casilla hitting the DL. Most likely George Kontos, but possibly Jake Dunning. It will really get interesting if Cainer has to go on the DL too.
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I was screaming "WTF? Stop!" when Casilla was running down the line. If there was ever a time to NOT hustle out a ground ball, that was it. That was just plain dumb.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's one thing to have some fun and it's another to risk serious injury in a game where you don't have to.
DeleteThe difference between Machi's run to 1B and Casilla's is that the game was on the line in Machi's case. It was not in Casilla's.
Deleteso why didnt bochy or wotus signal to casilla to stop swinging and just take an out?
Deletethis injury rests firmly on the coach's inaction
bacci
New report said that Bochy told Casilla to take all the pitches, but Casilla didn't listen and made things worse by charging down the line.
DeleteJ
and bochy now admits that once casilla swung the bat, he shouldve called time and told him to stop, but he wants his guys to have fun and rp's wait for the day they can swing a bat.
Deleteoh well...it couldve been worse
looks like with rehab, he will be out 4-6 weeks
bacci
Yeah, let's take a shot at Bochy here when it was the player who blatantly disobeyed orders. Now, Bochy could have gone all Kirk Gibson or Matt Williams or Larry Bowa on him and shown him up in front of his teammates and the fans watching on TV, but that ain't Bochy's style. I'll let you guess which one of the 4 managers mentioned here I'll take to manage my team!
DeleteIs there some type of pathology that involves a compulsion to cast blame or a secret delight in fixing on a fit scapegoat? Running hard when one needn't is reckless, I gather; but some team-bonding camaraderie turns on players getting hits when those players are unlikely candidates to get hits. Casilla's running hard therefore had pluses and minuses, although this particular time it worked out badly. Why in the world start snorting at Bochy or, for that matter, at Casilla (other than that he did not do what he was told to do by his boss)? Do people who huff and puff at baseball decisions do the same in the rest of their lives? If so, I pity their families, friends (if any), and business associates.
DeleteI put my request in for Jason Berken to be called up.
ReplyDeleteHe can definitely start.
Richard in Winnipeg
Yikes, I forgot he's not on the 40 man, so Kontos, Dunning longshot Kickham or De Paula
ReplyDeleteRichard in Winnipeg
I think Huff is the 7'th starter, so they can bring up one of the relievers who is already on the 40 man roster. Obviously too early for Escobar.
DeleteI know Kontos is pitching well in Fresno, but I have to say: if this isn't the time to bring up Hembree, then you might as well trade him. Casilla gets mocked by tons of fans, but he is a hard-thrower and a shutdown late-inning arm. This, to me, is the perfect opening for Hembree. They've been prepping him for late-inning roles for how many years? If Casilla's injury is long-term, this bullpen will need a shot in the arm. I don't see Kontos providing it. If the time isn't right for Hembree now, then when the heck is it?
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. This is a natural assignment for Hembree. Casilla throws heat and he sometimes closes. Kontos is just not that guy. Plus, better to give Hembree a test now before the end of the year so we understand exactly how much we need to pay Romo. Don't get it.
DeleteAs for Cain on the DL, personally I'd rather call up De Paula than go with either Huff or Petit. De Paula had a great spring and has done well in AAA. He's young so this is a guy we need to "interview" to see how he fits in, especially with Escobar not pitching well. We will need a 5th starter (at a minimum) next year to replace Vogey. He's on the 40, he's a lefty so it balances out the rotation and Petit seems to do better when he doesn't know he's going to start.
PiLamBear
Sounds like their plan is to move Affeldt and Machi to pitch the 8th inning to get the game to the 9 inning for Romo to close. Not sure if they will be as reliable as Casilla. We may see Gutierrez and Kontos pitch rhe 7th inning . I agree why not bring up Hembree here to get his feet wet. Makes me wonder how highly the Giants think of him.
DeleteLG
I have a hunch they view him in almost the same light as Gary Brown at this point. Wouldn't be surprised to see both of them traded this summer. But it's getting a little frustrating not getting to see what Hembree has to offer, at the very least.
DeleteNo question you go with Petit as the first fill-in starter option and Huff as #2. DePaula has some promise, but Petit and Huff are the guys who have pitched successfully in the majors.
DeleteWhy does not bringing up a player equate to "the Giants have given up on him?" There are a number of good reasons not to bring up Hembree, starting most of all with he's not pitching particularly well in AAA right now, and the Giants like to bring up guys when they are going good. And I think he's in the category of "when we bring him up, it's for good" not the "Ride the Fresno yo-yo when we need someone".
DeleteOn top of that, Kontos IS pitching well, very well in fact, just look at his stats. Plus, this should be Kontos' last option year, if they want to keep him in 2015, he'll have to be on the 25 man. They need to figure out if he's a keeper this year. In addition, with the aging of the core of our bullpen, why place service time on Hembree's timecard now, and reduce by one season the years we control him? It is one thing if he was ready, but he's not, so why give him time here to find himself?
Affeldt has been one of our best and reliable set-up men during his career with us, so I have no problem with him shouldering more of that load. He's a bit flakey, but he's a lefty. Just like I had no problem with Casilla shouldering more when Affeldt was out (there were those who don't think much of Casilla's abilities).
DeleteI think the Giants will try to retain Romo, but not at crazy numbers or years. They have two valid replacements in Affeldt and Casilla to take over in 2015. And people seem to be forgetting how good Kontos was in 2012, remember, he screwed up last season and came in out of shape, he was better prepared this season but the Giants had too many pitchers with no options, so he got pushed down. Plus Hembree and Law could win a spot in the bullpen in 2015 and then move into the closer position when Bochy thinks he's ready.
I don't know why people have a problem with Petit. Look at what he has done for us over the 2012-2014 timeframe as a starter. De Paula before this season had never pitched above AA, and you trust that over someone who has been giving us great starts now over those three seasons?
DeleteHembree didn't embarrass himself last September. I wonder what they think he should still be working on...control? off-speed stuff? mental toughness?
ReplyDeleteHembree has a 1.67 WHIP in Fresno, 19 hits allowed over 15 innings, 16 K's. Actually, the K/BB is pretty good at 2.67. However, over his last 10 games, he's sporting a 5.63 ERA with 14 hits against 8 innings.
DeleteIt's likely they'd like him to come up while he's pitching well, rather than struggling to find the zone. 3 walks in those 8 innings, not too good either.
I think relief pitching has been a strength in our farm system this year - the guy at Richmond, Hembree, Hall, Dunning, Kontos, etc.
ReplyDeleteRunzler and Derek Law...
Delete