Austin Slater and Wilmer Flores provided the long balls and Johnny Cueto headed a strong pitching effort to push the Giants to a win in the first game of the Oracle Park half of a home-and-home 4 game series against that team which won the 2002 World Series. Key Lines:
Austin Slater DH- 2 for 3, HR(4), BB. BA= .341. Slater missed 3 games with an elbow sprain and returned to the top of the Giants lineup in a DH role. He continued his hot hitting with 2-run blast in the 4'th inning and scored an additional run.
Wilmer Flores 1B- 2 for 4, HR(5). BA= .301. Flores cranked a 3-run blast in the 3'rd inning and added an RBI single later in the game to tack on an insurance run, which we all know you can never have too many of.
Johnny Cueto RHP- 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 4.35. Nice peripheral numbers but Cueto also threw a whopping 112 pitches in his 5.2 IP.
Caleb Baragar LHP- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= = 7.94. The FB is special when he commands it and he did tonight.
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The Win improves the Giants record to 10-16. Still a long way to go to get back into playoff contention.
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Kevin Gausman RHP tries to make it 3 of 4 in the 4-game/2 city set facing Jose Suarez LHP tomorrow evening.
Time to consider "tough" decisions if the Giants are given the opportunity to make moves at the deadline. Holy cow, only 11 days away.
ReplyDeleteGiven the chance to unload Cueto, should he Giants do it? My guess is there would be no meaningful compensation coming back. I submit, however, moving Cueto's contract would be a huge step forward. It would further open the window for the Giants to look at major free agent acquisitions as early as the upcoming off season.
Now, what about Yaz? If the Giants are able to move Cueto, Yaz fits better into their plans going forward. Move Cueto and allocate the money saved to the free agent market and the Giants have Yaz as a key player helping to push the Giants back to respectability. If however, Cueto is not moved, Yaz becomes a guys who might bring back a high level prospect or two. I would trade Yaz under those circumstances.
There are other Giants who may have some value at the deadline, including Gausman and Solano. If anyone on the Giants roster other than one of their young prospects can bring back anything of value, I say make the trade.
If FZ could unload a large portion of Johnny Cueto's contract, I have no doubt he would jump at the opportunity.
DeleteCasey Mize, Welcome to the Big Leagues
ReplyDeleteIP 4.1, H 7, 3 ER, 1 HR, 0W, 7K
Whee! We've got a winning streak!
ReplyDelete