Giants hitters and the bullpen picked up a shaky Logan Webb for their 11'th come-from-behind win out of 43 games played this season. Key Lines:
Alex Dickerson LF- 1 for 3, HR(8)). BA= .266. One day after fouling one off his knee and leaving a game, Dick sent one over the RF wall that looked like it was headed for a splash hit, but bounced off the metal railing separating the walkway from McCovey Cove. No ball for you, kayakers! Dick is 14 for 32(.438) with 4 2B and 5 HR starting 8/29/2020. His overall OPS is .892.
Darin Ruf PH- 1 for 1, HR(3). BA= .304. Ruf has hit well all season but without the expected power. Now he has 2 HR and 2 2B in his last 6 AB's. He is hitting .545 over his last 7 games(6 for 11) and .345 over his last 15. Kapler sent him up to PH for Dickerson against the LHP in the 7'th inning and his HR broke the 5-5 tie.
Luis Alexander Basabe LF- 0 for 0. BA= .000. Basabe was called up prior to the game as a defensive OF. After Ruf's HR gave the Giants the lead, Kap did just that and put Basabe in LF. So what did he do out there? He chased down a ball in the gap that neither Dickerson nor Ruf would have come close to.
Donovan Solano 2B- 3 for 4, 2B, 3B. BA= .353. .400 is out of reach, but Donnie Barrels is back and en fuego with 3/4 of a cycle in this game. He's hitting .462 over his last 7 games.
Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 4. BA= .337. Belt's season was delayed by an injury and he got off to a painfully slow start. His BA hit a nadir of .121 on 8/11 and dipped again to .128 on 8/15. Since then he has gone 29 for 62(.452). I attribute much that success to a changed batting stance where he moved off the plate by about 3 inches which helps prevent him from getting jammed on the inner half of the plate and kudos to the coaching staff for getting him to do that!
Mauricio Dubon CF- 1 for 4, HR(2). BA= .282. One AB after Kruk talked about Doobie's ability to bring his long arms in and get around on pitches on the inner half, he did just that with a near-pop fly over the cars in the LF wall. His launch angle was 47 degrees making it the 3'rd highest launch angle to go over the fence in MLB this season(I read that somewhere).
Logan Webb RHP- 5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 5.23. Webb battled command issues(he seemed to be pulling his pitches to the glove side), although the 5'th run was not his fault as YtY whiffed on a drive into Triples Alley that went for.....a triple and and eventual run scored. Take that run away and Webb would have finished with 3 scoreless frames in innings 3,4 and 5.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. It was Tony Watson's turn in the Closer Rotation and he converted it for his second Save of the season. Rotating Closer's gives several pitchers that distinction, helps make the 9'th inning feel like any other, keeps opposing managers guessing on the order of pitchers they will face in the late innings and gives Kap matchup flexibility.
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The Win put the Giants above .500 for the first time this season at 22-21. They are in 8'th place in the NL West with the top 8 teams making the playoffs.
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Tyler Anderson LHP gets the call to keep the winning ways going tonight facing Nick Margevicius LHP.
The opinion on whether Kapler is a good decision-making manager might still be out for debate, but he's been pressing the right buttons lately. Regardless of that, I think what we're seeing with how well this lineup is hitting is when the front office and coaching staff are in synch with each other in what they envision on how the team is built. Whether you're using old school philosophy or modern statistics to built a team, consistency between the front office and coaches are key. Reminds me of the Niners and the partnership between John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you squint hard enough, you might be able to make out our versions of Justin Turner, Max Muncy, Chris Taylor within our lineup! Now what to do with the starting rotation, that is the question..
Playoff games tend to bring management decisions to the forefront. We should get a pretty good glimpse of Kapler's managerial skills if the team keeps playing the way they are now.
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