The Giants played this one just like FZ and Kap drew it up as Carlos Rodon LHP shut down the hottest hitting team in MLB while the lineup popped three HR's in a game that was not as close as the score.
Joey Bart C- 2 for 4, HR(2). BA= .333. Bart is still striking out a lot, 10 K's in 22 PA, but when he makes contact, he's barreling up the ball. His 2-run blast in the 8'th inning reportedly went out at 109 MPH. It hit off railing above the LF wall, the replay upheld the call. The pitch looked like a hanging breaking ball, but hey! If he can just barrel up mistake pitches like that, he'll probably have a better than decent season.
Carlos Rodon LHP- 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K's. ERA- 1.50. Rodon came in facing the #1 offense in MLB and by a pretty fair margin. The Guardians stood #1 in BA, OBP and SLG%. Rodon shut them down and required just 90 pitches to do it over 7 IP. Rodon now leads MLB in K's with 21. Casual reminder he was one of my Bold Predictions to win the NL Cy Young Award.
Tyler Rogers RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, GO/AO= 2/0. Rogers returns from paternity leave and gets the job done in the 8'th inning, made easier by Bart's add-on 2-run blast in the top of the inning.
Camilo Doval RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(2). ERA= 5.06. Good for Doval to get a Save Opp with a 3 run lead. That should help calm his nerves a bit although from Gameday it looked like he was still throwing mostly cutters and sliders.
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The Win puts the Giants record at 5-2 tied for first place in the NL West with the Dodgers and Rockies. Anthony DeSclafani RHP makes his second start of the season tomorrow evening facing Cal Quantrill RHP.
For the record, another of your Bold Predictions was "1. Joey Bart C wins NL ROY"!
ReplyDeleteYep and just gotta say, isn't the game better with Joey batting 9'th than any pitcher you can think of...except maybe Shohei Ohtani?
DeleteYour Bold Prediction of the better starter ERA than LA is Bold not so much on the merits but on the health of such brittle SPs. The 5 of them combined have only 4 years with 30 or more starts, total. Other than Webb there's a lot of mileage on those frames — 670 games for them, and each has had at least one throw-it-away year.
DeleteOf course, the Dodgers have the same problem. Urias has only one year with 30+ starts, Buehler has but 1 over 30. Kershaw has 6 but none since 2015.
None the less, it's a great prediction!
Note: It's a bit strange of you to choose ERA as a measure — you usually eschew that stat! LOL
Over a full season for SP's I think ERA is an excellent stat. Not so much for relievers or for small sample sizes. BTW, I should also mention that with his HR last night, Joey Bart is on a pace to hit 46!
DeleteAlex Dickerson signed with Atlanta in March and has played in 5 of their 9 games, all against RHP without good results: 1-13 with 2 Ws and 4 Ks.
ReplyDeletePederson has been a clear upgrade.
It would be nice to see more output from the rest of the outfield - RH and LH - as they were 2-15 in the 2 losses, scoring just 3 runs. Duggar did get 1 of the 2 RBIs in the 2 games.