The Giants seems to recapture some of the enthusiasm and determination that helped them build up a lead in the NL West in April and May. They also brought back the longball hitting 3 dingers including the game winner by Brandon Belt, in case you were thinking the Giants did not miss his HR power while he was on the DL. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .296. Pence reaches base 3 times from the leadoff slot. The double was a pure hustle job that flat out beat a throw-in to 2B on what appeared to be a routine groundball single up the middle.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 4, HR(10), BB. BA= .255. The dinger was the game winner in the top of the 10'th and would have been out even in the old configuration of the park. You could see it was gone off the bat. Great to have his power bat back in the lineup.
Michael Morse- 1 for 4, HR(14). BA= .271. Morse's bat woke up in the 9'th inning with a game-tying solo HR off Padres closer Huston Street for Street's first Blown Save of the season.
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 4, HR(1), BB. BA= .235. I'm never sure whether to be happy when Blanco hits one out, because he sometimes starts thinking he is a power hitter and his swing gets long.
Joe Panik- 1 for 2, BB, SF. BA= .226. Nice game for Panik. Will they trade for an established 2B like Daniel Murphy?
Tim Hudson- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.53. Huddy pitched a Huddy game.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 4.86. Romo got away with a lot of hanging sliders, but made a good one to put away Carlos Quentin to get out of the 9'th inning with the tie intact.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(2). ERA= 1.11. Casilla's first Save attempt as the official closer was successful.
The Win coupled with the Dodgers' loss to the Rockies enabled the Giants to close the gap in the NL West to 0.5 games.
Tim Lincecum tries to keep his scoreless streak alive as well as win the series tomorrow facing Jesse Hahn who dominated the Giants the last time they faced him.
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That was a good win coming from behind against a tough closer.. I enjoy watching the enthusiasm that Morse shows when he comes up with a big hit.. It would be a big time development for the Giants offense if his bat wakes up.. It was nice to see Pence and Posey have hustle doubles in the 10th inning. Maybe Daniel Murphy is the offensive piece they need to add a spark from the top of their order.. I've read that the Mets will use the next 10 days or so to determine if they will sell or not. The biggest concern I have after watching this game is they might need a lot of help in the bullpen in the 2nd half.. Romo continues offer up hanging sliders and now Machi is starting to hang more of his split finger changeups that Goebert rapped for the triple today..
ReplyDeleteLG
I thought I posted a comment earlier. Might have forgotten to complete the process.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, if the Mets are waiting, so is Sabean, I think, to see whether to buy or not (though not sure if he's selling)...
Nice to see the Giants bounce back but they still have some holes and I am starting to worry if they have enough pieces to trade to get it all done. They need a second baseman (they will trade for one), they need two more bull pen arms as Machi and even Lopez are starting to falter (as is Romo but he is staying put) and they have to do something about their anemic bench. It is painful to see Arias, Hicks and Perez as pinch hitting options with the game on the line. Hicks has to go, nice story early on but he is totally lost now. Unfortuntately the Giants have no minor leaguers that fit the bill for what they neeed now. Going to be interesting to see how Sabean sorts all this out. They are more than just a piece or two away though.
ReplyDeleteA Daniel Murphy at 2B and a Steve Cishek at Closer would go a long way toward fixing things. I think those 2 pieces are doable.
DeleteAnother nice game for Panik in the 5-3 Lincecum win. There's lots of room to hope that if Scutaro can return with some effectiveness, the Giants may not have to think about being profligate to get Murphy. Scutaro and Panik might do pretty decently, so that we can save our trade ammunition.
DeleteWhat do you envision as the trade package for Cishek, and which member of our current pen would vanish? I feel ready to send Romo to a dull desert isle somewhere, but maybe there's some explanation for his awful outings that will suggest, equally, that he's redeemable.
Romo is repeatedly hanging his slider. Until he figures out why that is happening and corrects it, he's pretty much useless.
DeleteCishek? I'm not absolutely sure the Marlins are sellers yet, but assuming they are, I would think maybe Blackburn and Adrianza for Cishek gets it done.