The Giants ran into the one team that may be hotter than they are and the results were kind of ugly. This one came down to two pitchers working with a tight strike zone and one just had a bit better stuff than the other. In this league, that can be the difference between an easy win and a blowout loss. Key Lines:
Ryan Vogelsong- 6 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 6 Ks'. ERA= 3.84. Vogey wasn't getting the calls on the corners he wanted from the home plate ump and he hung some breaking balls and the Nationals were teeing off on those. Vogey did an admirable job of limiting the damage in the first 3 innings, but when you are up against one of the elite pitchers in the game, opportunities for comebacks are few and far between. He settled down in the middle innings but when George Kontos brought his gas can out after the first two batters in the 7'th inning reached base, the final line ended up looking a lot worse than how Vogelsong actually pitched.
Stephen Strasburg(Nationals)- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.99. Strasburg had the same tight strike zone to work with as Vogelsong, but he had clearly superior stuff within the zone. The Giants managed to hit him hard a few times, but always with 2 outs. It's hard to sustain a rally after 2 outs, even though the Giants have been remarkably successful at it this year. They just couldn't keep them going in this one.
The Loss narrowed the Giants lead in the NL West to 8.5 games as the Dodgers beat the Reds 6-2. The Rockies and D'Backs both lost to remain 12.5 and 15 games behind respectively. The 4'th place Padres were idle so they are 13.5 games back after gaining 0.5 games.
Madison Bumgarner tries to even the series tonight facing Doug Fister who has pitched well since coming off an extended stay on the DL to open the season.
Around the League: CarGo is having "exploratory" surgery on his index finger. Yikes! THAT does not sound good! Gregory Polanco is finally getting the call from the Pirates.
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This could be a very good loss to suffer. Remind the boys, that no one is going to roll over during this long season. Nice that we have Bum, Cain and Huddy for the last 3. Going in, I thought a split would be decent.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Pagan back in. Suggest give Hicks a night off and put Arias at 2nd.
Richard in Winnipeg
Hicks hit the ball hard once with a runner on and 2 outs, but it was right at the LF. I'm OK with giving Arias a start here and there.
DeleteI love Hicks defense and man he does hit the ball hard. Think the occassional watching from the dugout talking to BamBam can't hurt. Hicks is definitely not a liability at all with his glove.
DeleteCan hardly wait to have Belt back, we just get deeper then. I gotta think something happens at All Star break in terms of acquiring another starter. Hopefully by then we can also have a Panik attack.
Richard in Winnipeg
Casilla and Belt...looking forward to getting both back.
DeleteCan't wait to get Casilla healthy and Kontos and his little red can back to Fresno. I was really hoping that that Rags and Gardner could straighten him out, but it doesn't look like it. A split is going to be better than decent. Washington is probably better when both teams are healthy, so there is little room for mistakes even with homefield advantage. I really hate losing to east coast media darlings. We really don't want the situation to change such that Panik is up, that would not be fun. The best we can hope for is that he makes the team out of spring training next year.
ReplyDeleteA good spanking was in order. Don't want the team feeling too invincible, in June. But, don't got to like it either.
ReplyDeleteWe also haven't met a team that has our number yet. Every year at least one team has ownage, no matter how good you are. You just hope it's an AL team like Toronto last year. The Nats have had some ownage on the Giants the last few years, as they match up well and now they have Williams' mojo too. Let's see what MadBum can throw at them tonight.