Every baseball team, no matter how good, is going to have losses. Before this game, the Giants losses had been mostly ones that were not too surprising. Let-down games, games against superior pitchers, early blow-outs, if you are a longtime baseball fan, you learn to accept those kinds of losses as long as your team bounces back and avoids long losing streaks. This was not one of those losses. This was a game the Giants had won, a 2 run lead at home going to the 9'th inning. It wasn't so much that good teams never blow games in the 9'th inning. They do. It's the way this one was lost that makes it my candidate for Most Disappointing Loss of the Season so far. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .294. When Pence scampered home from 3B on a WP, my daughter, who was watching with me, said, "he's really fast!" Yes he is!
Michael Morse- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .292. Morse was working his 2-out hitting magic again tonight. I really think the Giants success with 2-out hitting is a direct result of having a longer lineup, but Morse has personally been a huge part of it.
Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K's, ERA= 4.81. If you are looking for a silver lining in this loss, look no further than Timmy's performance. The fastball was back! Timmy dialed it up to 93-94 all night. One pitch that officially registered as 94+ was the highest velocity he's hit in 2 years, or something like that. It remains to be seen if this is a corner turned, but if Timmy can sustain that kind of velocity, we're in for a very nice ride the rest of the season.
Sergio Romo- 0.1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 4.61. OK, here we go. Personally, I don't think this is the worse Romo has pitched this year. He made some bad pitches, for sure, but lot of things went into this game unravelling on him. Let's just go through it batter-by-batter: Tulo was the leadoff batter. He reached a long way for a slider down and away, but managed to poke it over Hicks' head for a single. BTW, Tulo pulled up at 1B with a great toe injury and came out of the game. The Rockies already have CarGo, Cuddyer and Arenado on the DL for several weeks.
Justin Morneau also reached for a pretty good pitch at the knees on the outside part of the plate for another single putting runners at 1'st and 2'nd. Wilin Rosario then hit a flyball to medium CF. Charlie Culberson, the pinch runner for Tulo, tagged and headed for 3B. Pagan forgot that his primary responsibility at that point was to keep the tying run from advancing from 1B. His throw to 3B was late and skipped away from Pablo putting Morneau at 2B. Right at that point, you knew this one was not going to end well!
The next batter was Corey Dickerson who hits LH with a BA of over .340. Bochy elected to put him on to set up a potential force play at the plate and/or DP to end the game. LH batter Ryan Wheeler then pinch-hit for Josh Rutledge. Romo got the grounder he wanted, but it was hit hard and right back up the middle for a single to tie the ballgame and put runners on 1'st and 2'nd. OK, the Giants have been here before. The game is still tied and the the lead run is 180 feet away with RH batter DJ LeMahieu at the plate. Get out of the inning and win it in on a walk-off! Romo then threw a Wild Pitch that Sanchez did not block properly to advance the runners to 2'nd and 3'rd. You really knew it was over now! LeMahieu hit a line-drive single, the first non-BABIP hit of the inning to drive in the go-ahead run plus an insurance run. Adrianza botching a run-down play allowing yet another run to score was bad, but the game was over by then.
In summary, Romo got BABIP'd and the team made some mental mistakes behind him. It was not his best pitching of the season, but also not his worst, by far. Just have to put it behind and move on. There were some good things happening in this game and Timmy's performance bodes well for the remainder of the season. The mental mistakes have to stop here, though!
The Loss dropped the Giants lead in the NL West over the Dodgers to 7.5 games as the D'Backs rally fell short in a 4-3 Dodgers win. The Rockies gained a game to 10.5 games back in 3'rd place. The Padres lost again to remain 14.5 games back while the D'Backs stay in last place, 15 games off he pace.
Ryan Vogelsong tries to even the series against rookie Christian Bergman this afternoon.
Around the League:
The Padres ownership has gone public with their frustration at the team's performance. Expect some major changes in San Diego in the near future.
Gregory Polanco had 5 hits including a game-winning HR in the 13'th inning last night against the Marlins. Me? I'll just continue dreaming of the day the Giants bring up a 5-tool OF like that. I will admit it's a bit easier to watch it happen for another team when the Giants RF is Hunter Pence.
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disappointing loss because the rox are such a bad road team this season
ReplyDeletetheir home/road splits are so extreme that i am buying into the pitch stealing theory
first in almost every offensive category at home.....and then at the bottom of the pack on the road?
sanchez d has been improving...strange to see him have such a bad game behind the plate...
the friars ownership is ticked? the team has sustained some significant injuries and as far as i can see, the new ownership hasnt put all that much money (outside of the purchase price) on the field
how do the marlins continue producing great players? loria is a crook...his gm is pretty much a non entity....and yet they have a system of scouts and coaches that seem to do everything right
but the positive was timmy....looks like he had all his mechanics back last night....lets hope he can continue to repeat that performance
bacci
It does seem like the Padres ownership needs to look in the mirror before they point fingers at anybody else. What I find interesting is that year after year it seems like the "experts" say the Padres killed the draft and their farm system has been rated highly for a long time, yet this is what they have to show for it at the MLB level?
DeleteDoc, I think you are being too kind to Romo on this. He is the closer, it's his job to lock down these innings,even if they get away from him a bit. As you say, he has pitched worse and that is the point. He is not the lock down type of guy he has been in the past. He leaves his slider over the plate too much and he his outs are even hit hard. Hopefully Casilla can come back and pick up some of the slack in the 9th otherwise I can see the Giants bolstering their pen and looking for a second baseman come trade deadline.
ReplyDeleteThey first two hits of the inning were off good pitches. I'm not going to hang this one on Romo although he was part of the overall team meltdown in the 9'th. I'm about 90% sure we'll see the Giants trade for a 2B. Not so sure about a bullpen arm.
DeletePitch to Tulo was a good pitch, and a nice piece of hitting.
DeleteThe pitch to Morneau was on the outside of the plate, but very hittable. And I'm pretty sure the count was 0-2 at the time.
Anon is right. Romo leaves his slider hanging a whole lot these days.
This is not the same Romo we've seen in the past. His lost a bit, and the league is figuring out decent approaches to beat him.
The Giants make worse moves that bolstering the pen.
The Giants "could" make worse...
DeleteAnyone wondering when the plug will fall out??? Giants lose 3 games AT HOME to probably their chief foe for the NL Championship, but yet the Giants come back to save face by winning the last game of the series... Then the little kid on the block comes to town and as the fat lady started singing for the Giants, the kids on block said "enough!" as the sunset went from orange to a blue...
ReplyDeleteThe this last 5 days scare the heck out of me...how big a slump is due? Todays game is probably their biggest mental game of the year...imo I hope I am in the midst of a knee jerk...
Timmy is getting better, even if it is short steps.....Pagan, Pence and Peace...
TBox