The Giants got a strong start out of Madison Bumgarner and Brandon Crawford provided the offensive difference with a pair of HR's that drove in 3 runs as the Giants swept the 3 game weekend series from the Braves in Atlanta. This is the first series sweep for the Giants in Atlanta since 1988! Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 5, SB(5). BA= .327. Pagan went hitless yesterday, but got back on his horse today. He did not figure in the scoring in this one, but continues to fill up his stat line on the season.
Hunter Pence- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .258. Pence scored from 3'rd on a groundout by Buster Posey. Posey could have been safe on a Catcher's Interference call, but Bochy was given the option of taking the play and preferred to have a run in the dugout than the extra runner on base with Pence going back to 3B.
Buster Posey- 2 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .275. Buster is hitting .375 over his last 10 games.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, 2 HR(3). BA= .264. Great game by Crawford who went deep twice. His 3 RBI's were the difference in the game. He improved his OPS to .833 most of that hitting out of the 7 and 8 holes. That is a tremendous weapon to have sitting down there. This might be the deepest Giants lineup I can remember and I go back a LONG ways!
Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.18. Bumgarner's own throwing error on a sac bunt created the unearned run, the only run of the game for the Braves who scored just 3 times in the series.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(1). ERA= 1.02. Juan Gutierrez pitched a scoreless 7'th inning, then Javier Lopez and Jean Machi divided up the 8'th inning. Romo had closed out the first two of the series so Bochy used Casilla in the Save situation. He got the job done.
The win gave the Giants 9 wins in their last 10 games and an overall record of 20-11. The NL West leaders sit 1.5 games ahead of the Rockies who are trailing the Mets 5-0 in their game. The 3'rd place Dodgers lost to the Marlins to fall 2.5 games back. The 4'th place Padres and last place D'Backs are tied 3-3 in the 9'th inning of their game.
The Giants are playing with a lot of confidence right now as they head to Pittsburgh to face a Pirates team off to a slow start at 12-19. Matt Cain's finger has been deemed to be sufficiently healed to start on Monday facing TBD.
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Good management call by Bochy, always take the run.
ReplyDeleteYou just know that when Pablo finally starts heating up, someone else will go cold....but wouldn't it be something else to see this whole team firing on 8 cylinders? What a group we've got this year.
And the first GREAT game from Bumgarner this year. Hitting 94, sitting at 93 all game with pin point location. That was absolutely a joy to watch.
sweep was very important, because even if the bucs are having some early season issues, the giants have a lot of probs playing at pnc and they will face cole in game 3
ReplyDeletenice sweep, but the team has to do better at hitting with men on
nice to see that maddy was able to make some adjustments after his last outing....as long as the starters can go deep, the pen can stay well rested and bochy will be able to stick to his current pen management
craw is straight out a very smart ball player
very happy that the schedule makers sent the team to the atl early in the season and not at height of summer....much easier to play in the atl sans the oppressive humidity
puig injured himself again....kid has lots of raw talent, but a 2 cent head
onto pittsburgh, where hopefully they can win another series, making the matchup against the bums less urgent
bacci
Yup. Great to get Hotlanta and Pittsburgh out of the way early in the season when the weather is still cool. Giants have a great chance in the first two in Pittsburgh. Not so sure about Timmy vs Cole in Game 3. Then again, who would have thunk that Vogey would out pitch Teheran? There's a reason why they play the games.
DeleteThe Giants are playing a soft-tossing lefty callup in game 1 and Charlie Morton in game 2. These will be tough, tough matchups. No joke - go look up Morton's #s versus the Giants comped to his career. He brings it. Or they play down to his level.
Deletebad news....seems the cut hasnt fully healed and cain put on 15 day dl
ReplyDeleteat least petit gets full day to prepare, instead of a few hours
bacci
Hey, Petit has shown he can get the job done! I feel confident when he is pitching.
Deletedunning up for long man
Deleteand not saying that its set in stone that giants cant beat cole....but early game and 6th day sans rest....odds stacked against them
bacci
All aboard the Giants train...
ReplyDeleteAfter watching my Sharkies and Warriors go down in 7, this sweep is healing balm.
Glad to have a little "ownage" over the Braves the last few years - after decades of suck. Yeah, they STILL owe us for the last year the Braves were in the West and the Giants won 103 and finished second. F the Rockies too for that one.
Craw decided to show what a MLB SS can do, take that Simmons.
If the Giants beat Cole in Pitt, I will not complain about anything until the next series.
Hottest team in baseball... Los Gigantes.
DeleteAnd chicks dig the long ball!
DeleteAmen to all that! Can't believe the the Good Guys last swept in ATL with Atlee, Kelly Downs & Don Robinson!
ReplyDeleteMan, BC is delivering big time!
Agree with the sentiment - injustice indeed back in '93. Billy Swift, Bowlin Burkett, Barry Lamar, Robbie Thompson & Will the Thrill! Stacked team done in by the Hated Ones...on the same day as "Blackhawk Down". Bad karma indeed.
Beat the Bucs!
NWGiantsFan
DtF!!!
DrB Giants will win the World Series. Book it. No one can stop this team 2010, 2012, 2014. People were saying lets see them against the Braves well they swept them. Will sweep the Pirates too then they will say lets see them against the Nationals or Dodgers. Well the Giants are much better than all those teams. 2012 all over again. Belt still sucks though
ReplyDeleteOne game at a time and it's a long time. It was very impressive how well they played against Atlanta.
DeleteCain on the DL and Dunning up - he can probably go 2 or 3 innings at a time, maybe that's why it's him, instead of Hembree.
I was thinking this team is playing the best ball I've seen a Giants team play since the stretch run in 2010, but yeah, there is a long way to go. Gotta take it 1 game and 1 series at a time.
DeleteYou don't call up Hembree here, because it will be a short stay for whoever comes up and you don't want to use up an option on Hembree.
ReplyDeleteOption is not a factor here. Hembree was optioned to Fresno at the end of spring training. That's the only one that counts against service time. He can be called up and sent back down as many times as they want and it does not count further against the option limit.
DeleteGood to know. I guess Dunning gives you the option of multiple innings, which is more of a replacement for the role that Petit was filling in the bullpen.
Delete