Game Wrap 7/28/2019: Giants 7 Padres 6

The Giants played a wild and woolly game to win their final series of 2019 in Petco Park.  Madison Bumgarner had a 7-inning non-quality start and got sustained support from the offense.   Key Lines:

Donovan Solano 2B- 2 for 3, 2 BB.  BA= .336.   I guess nobody believe he can sustain anything close to this, but is there any reason to not give him that chance and let him be the primary 2B?

Alex Dickerson PH/LF- 2 for 3, 2B.  BA= .349.  Dickerson might be able to sustain this, if he can stay healthy.

Buster Posey C- 3 for 5, 2B.  BA= .264.  Boch seems to have found the right playing time mix to keep Buster fresh and keep Vogt from rusting on the bench.

Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .234.  Craw been slumpin' again.  .214 over his last 7 games.  His single in the 9'th inning drove in the difference-making run.

Mike Yastrzemski LF/RF- 4 for 5, 2 2B.  BA= .275.  YtY seems to be settling in.  .375 over his last 7 games, .356 over his last 15.

Madison Bumgarner LHP- 7 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 6 K's.  ERA= 3.74.  Bummy really made just one big mistake on the day which was serving up a pitch for Hunter Renfroe to hit.  He knows what to do with those. The 3-run blast kept this from being a QS.  Bummy settled down and pitched 4 scoreless frames after the dinger.

Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(26).   ERA= 2.72.  One of Smith's few ugly Saves on the season.  Good thing the Giants scored 2 runs in the top of the 9'th!

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The Win left the Giants 2.5 games behind 3 teams in the Wild Card race.  One of those teams is the Nationals who are on second place in the NL East.  2 are the Cubs and Cardinals who are tied for the NL Central lead.  Other Wild Card contending teams include the Phillies and Brewers who are 1.5 games ahead of the Giants and the D'Backs who are 1 game behind.

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The Giants get a day off to travel east to Philadelphia where they will take on the Phillies in the 2 games before the July 31 deadline plus one on August 1.  Tyler Beede takes on LHP Drew Smyly in Game 1 on Tuesday.

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So buy, sell hold?  The trades of Marcus Stroman and Sergio Romo would be sobering for those who are dreaming of a prospect haul for Bumgarner and Smith.  It's definitely a buyers market out there.  On top of that, I just don't think you can pull the rug out from under a team that is just 2.5 games out of a playoff berth no matter how improbable you think their chances ultimately are.
That's not good for ownership, the fans who attend games or the overall health of the game.  Just for one example:  the Giants were a lot farther back later in the season in 2010.  So I don't see selling as a viable option unless someone out there goes crazy and offers their top prospect and more which is extremely unlikely to happen.

At the same time, I don't want to see the Giants give up one of their top 4 prospects for a rental in a postseason race that is going to be dicey at best.  So no to an all-out buy(I might make an exception for Thor or Whit Merrifield who have controlled contracts beyond this season).  On the other hand, if they can buy a Marcus Stroman level talent for 2'nd or 3'rd tier prospects, then in the immortal words of Tim Lincecum, "F*** Yeah!".

And yeah, it's only been in the last month that I though it was possible I would come to this conclusion because I've been squarely in the sell camp for well over 1 year.