Game Wrap 7/12/2019: Giants 10 Brewers 7

The Giants offense did not let the All-Star Break cool them down and exploded for 5 home runs to outscore the BrewCrew in Milwaukee.  Key Lines:

Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 5, SB(3).  BA= .239.  Belt has been the high OBP leadoff hitter the Giants have needed, well, pretty much forever!  He added a SB here to look the part.

Buster Posey C- 2 for 5, HR(4).  BA= .257.  Talk about waking up the echoes!  Buster had his career breakout in this ballpark in 2010 and if you closed your eyes for a second, Buster was that rookie catcher again blasting one off the scoreboard in CF.  The big blow was a grand slam in the top of the 10'th to give the Giants an insurmountable lead(which also brought back memories of a certain postseason game in 2012).  Oh, and he threw a strike to 2B to nail a base stealer to boot!

Evan Longoria 3B- 1 for 5, HR(13).  BA= .237.  Who says no Giants will hit 20 HR's this season?  Longo's Longball was his 6'th in 7 games and drove in 2 runs to give the Giants a temporary 4-2 lead in the 6'th inning.

Brandon Crawford SS- 1 for 4, HR(6).  BA= .224.  Crawford had struggled at the plate and was facing one of the toughest LHP's in the game in Josh Hader.  Crawford spit on a couple of nasty pitches to get to 3-0, fouled one off, then sat dead red, middle in as expertly pointed out by Duane Kuiper who was picking up Shawn Estes who was trying to do color commentary in place of the incomparable Mike Krukow.  And man!  Was Kuip ever proud of himself after Crawford played out the narrative to perfection!  Oh, and Crawford's Crush gave the Giants high priced "core" of Belt, Longoria, Posey and Crawford 6 for 19 with 3 HR's on the night.

Austin Slater RF- 1 for 4, HR(3).  BA= .389.  Another Slater Tater to RF.  At least Slater is getting the ball in the air and driving it instead of defensively slapping it into the ground, but he's eventually going to have to prove he can turn on one middle-in and drive that too.

Tyler Austin PH- 1 for 1, HR(8).  BA= .195.  Looking through Austin's Game Log, it looks like 3 of his 8 HR's have been pinch hits, a RH power bat off the bench.

Shaun Anderson RHP- 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 4.48.  The performance was much better than the line looks.  Anderson came into the 6'th with a line of 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 8 K's, but allowed a walk/double to lead off the 6'th.  Reyes Moronta allowed one inherited runner to score with a WP and the other on a single by Eric Thames.  Especially notable within those 8 K's is 3 on Christian Yelich who is not only the best hitter in the game right now, but hits lefty to boot.

Shawn Estes- Estes is a dynamic analyst on the Postgame Live shows but seems to get tongue-tied when he's in the booth.  I know Krukow has huge shoes to fill and Kruk and Kuip have a special, longstanding relationship which might be difficult to break in to, but I think it also shows just how hard it is to work in the booth without notes and (presumably) a teleprompter.  Last night, Kuip was essentially doing both the PBP and analysis while about all Estes chime in with "yeah" and then repeat what Kuip just said.  Come on, Shawn!  You don't have to be Kruk in the booth.  We know you must have your own insights.  Let's hear them.

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The Win was the Giants 7'th in 8 games, a run that started on June 30.  It also left them just 4.5 games off the pace in the Wild Card race.

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Madison Bumgarner and this Giants lineup will be back out this evening trying to convince Farhan Zaidi he should be buying at the trade deadline. They will be facing steady veteran RHP Zach Davies.

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One last response on the Marisnick/Lucroy collision:  With all due respect to Mojo, who made a convincing enough argument that I went back and watched the video not once but several times with freeze framing.  Again, just my opinion, but I call BS on Marisnick's claim he was looking for a lane on the inside of the baseline and plate.  1.  While Lucroy's toe was touching the line, his body was more than 1 full foot inside the line.  2.  By the time contact was made, there was not one part of Lucroy's anatomy within 2 feet of the line or the plate.  3.  Marisnick appears to target Marisnick from a full 10 feet aways without so much as a glance at home plate or to change direction once it was clear the "lane" was not opening up.  4.  Marisnick never once tried to reach for the plate with his hand, instead lowering his shoulder into Lucroy with a clear intent of jarring the ball loose the old fashioned way.  I therefore stand by my opinion that the collision was intentional and egregious on Marisnick's part and he should have been suspended for at least the rest of this season.

While I respect everybody's opinion, it's my blog and I get the last word, so I will not publish any further comments on this incident unless someone comes up with a game changing observation we haven't heard yet.  Again, thanks for the comments, everybody.