The Giants bounced back from their weekend shellacking from the Dodgers to a dominant win of their own against the division rival D'Backs. Game Notes:
Brandon Crawford SS cleared the bases with a 3-run double in the first inning to get the Giants off to a great start in this one. The 3 RBI's gave him 32 on the season which leads the team by 11 over Brandon Belt 1B and Evan Longoria 3B, and places him in a tie for #14 in MLB.
Remember how Manager Gabe Kapler played the long game and rested Evan Longoria on Sunday against the Dodgers? The Giants weren't going to win that game anyway and Longo came out smoking after a two day rest: 3 for 4, 2B, HR(6), BB. His 3-run jack in the 3'rd inning pretty much put this game in the fridge. a
YtY RF, Alex Dickerson LF and Steven Duggar CF added 2 hits each.
Kevin Gausman RHP threw 97 pitches in 5 IP but held the D'Backs scoreless to run his record to 5-0.
Jarlin Garcia LHP threw 2 scoreless frames with 4 K's and 0 BB's. He has a 3.60 ERA over his last 7 appearances with 14 K's and 4 BB's in 10 IP.
Jose Alvarez LHP and Sam Selman LHP added scoreless frames in mop-up time.
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The Win enabled the Giants to keep pace with the Padres and Dodgers and remain 2 games out of first place in the NL West. BTW, the NL West 3'rd place Giants have the 3'rd best record in MLB.
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Johnny Cueto RHP tries for the 2-game sweep this evening against Merrill Kelly RHP.
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Down on the Farm:
AAA:
Tyler Beede RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 52 P. ERA= 2.61.
AA:
Frankie Tostado 1B- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .270.
Matt Frisbee RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 1.64.
Norwith Gudino RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.54.
Patrick Ruotolo RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.00.
High A:
Will Wilson SS- 1 for 4, HR(4). BA= .297.
Jacob Gonzalez 3B, Tyler Fitzgerald 2B, Ismael Munguia LF- 2 hits each. Munguia SB(4).
Seth Corry LHP- 4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 2.93.
Low A:
Brett Auerbach 2B- 4 for 5, 2B. BA= .333.
Ricardo Genoves C- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .357.
Posey batted second in this game, with a hit and a walk in 5 PA; he scored two runs. Someone commented a couple of days ago, on this blog, that having him bat second had no redeeming merits; I’d suggest, using yesterday’s game, a different point of view. Why have him bat second? To give him more plate appearances, as he has an impressive OBP and a discerning eye. Why not pay more attention to the multiple reasons offered not to have him so high in the lineup? Because only in his first PA did he bat second in an inning. The other times he led off an inning (twice) and batted fourth (twice). His batting in the two hole of the lineup produced only one instance, in the actual game, of his batting second.
ReplyDeleteI think we need a more sophisticated notion of batting order from the traditional one, paying attention, for example, to the likelihood that hitters in the seven and eight holes will be on base for men in the one and two holes will drive in. (The Giants had “Donnie Barrels” and Duggar—now up to a .286 BA—hitting seventh and eighth.) Two pinch hitters in the nine hole added last night to the chance that Posey would come up with men on.
Sabermetrics has already done much with batting order and the conclusion is that overall the effects are negligible but whatever advantages is mostly the increased plate appearances so the general consensus is you put your best hitter 2nd.
DeleteBeede's line is interesting. It looks like he ran into trouble in the second inning (or left with no outs in the third).
ReplyDeleteEither way I will take 52 pitches in in a few innings as a good sign that he is building his stamina.