Joey Bart C led off the bottom of the 9'th inning by turning on a Josh Hader LHP fastball and lining if over the left field wall to cut the BrewCrew's lead to 5-3. Six batters later, Mike Yastrzemski RF hit a walk-off grand slam HR for a dramatic and crucial win.
This game looked like it was headed the same way as so many frustrating losses this season. The Giants used bad fielding on top of terrible BAPIP luck to hand a 5-spot to the Brewers in the 5'th inning to squander an early 2-0 lead. I'll spare you the painful details but it was BAD!
In the end, though, there were a couple of very good things that happened in this game aside from the obvious come-from-behind heroics in the 9'th inning.
Joey Bart had a single and scored in front of Lamonte Wade Jr. 1B's triple in the second inning. Don't look now but Bart is slashing .333/429/.722 with 2 HR's over his last 7 games, .318/.400/.682 in 9 games since he was recalled on July 6. It's hard to know where to start with all of the good stuff here. If the Giants are going to make a run for a postseason berth and go deep in the postseason, they must have better production from the catcher position. If Bart can prove between now and the trading deadline he is the guy who can supply it, that frees up resources to concentrate on other trade deadline needs like a Closer. On top of that, no matter what happens to the rest of this season, the Giants need Joey Bart to be a cornerstone of the rebuild, worthy of a 1-2 draft pick. If he can establish himself as that guy, this season is a success. No pressure, Joey! Now just go out and do it!
The Giants also need YtY to step up if they are going to make a second half run. He also had a hit in addition to the grand slam walk-off and he is hitting .320 over his last 7 games. That the HR went to CF off a LHP is another really good sign.
David Villar 3B had a rough evening on D which is too bad because he has made a lot of really good defensive plays since getting called up including some in this game. He also had another adventurous night at the plate with a line of 0 for 1, 2 BB, HBP. In his last 3 games he's gone 0 for 6, but with 3 BB, HBP and SF for an OBP of .400 with a run and RBI. He'll probably get sent back down when Longo comes off the IL but he's shown enough to get another shot down the road especially since this is likely Longo's last season with the team.
And what about Austin Slater CF? He got the start against a tough RHP and delivered a 4-hit night as he continues somewhat of a breakout season.
Let's not forget Darin Ruf PH who also hit a HR in the 9'th inning to cut the Brewers' lead to 5-4. Again, if the Giants are going to make a run, they need Ruf to be kryptonite for good LHP's like Hader( Hader came into the game with a 2.73 ERA and ended up at 4.50 after giving up 3 HR's and 6 ER in the 9'th).
Alex Wood LHP- 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 4.20. Wood pitched very well in this game and got badly BABIP'd in the 5'th inning with all of the damage coming after he started the inning with 2 K's.
Kudos to Mauricio Llovera RHP, Yunior Marte RHP and Sam Long LHP for allowing 0 runs over the final 4 innings to set up the improbable 9'th inning comeback.
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Alex Cobb RHP tries to turn his BABIP luck around in a late-afternoon game tomorrow facing Eric Lauer LHP.
Really glad for Bart and the gang for turning the tide on this one in impressive fashion. I hope Belt can go back to 1B duties soon-- the defense took a hit and luckily there was a 9th inning rally to erase the oops in the big inning for the Brewers. Hope the next road trip is good for the Giants! The Giants still need a 5th starter though, and a closer.
ReplyDeleteGot the ONE win, at least, so worst case 46-45 into the break!
ReplyDeleteThat was an incredibly satisfying win, especially against Josh Hader, LHP to boot, and YtY goes yard.
Very interesting official scoring in 5th inning. Since the inning was prolonged by the error with 2 outs, the 3 runners put on by Wood were unearned because the inning should have been over before the 1st runner scored. However, Tyler gets no protection in the prolonged inning and is hit with 2 earned runs, runners he put on who score. By the rule, the team is NOT charged earned runs for those 2!
Where does that show up? Team earned runs? Where does that stat appear?
See https://baseballrulesacademy.com/official-rule/mlb/9-16-earned-runs-runs-allowed/ at the very end, Rule 9.16(i) comment:
(1) With two out and Peter pitching, Abel reaches first base on a base on balls. Baker reaches first base on an error. Roger relieves Peter. Charlie hits a home run, scoring three runs. The Official Scorer shall charge two unearned runs to Peter, one earned run to Roger and three unearned runs to the team (because the inning should have ended with the third out when Baker batted and an error was committed).
The awesome moments that Last night's game provided capped by Yaz's grand salami are part of the reason why I'm a Giants fan and a sports fan in general. Agree with your points on Bart. If he can establish himself as a future building block of a young core group of players that would be a great development. I remember Bryce Harper mentioned one of the reasons he didn't sign with the Giants was their core group of players getting old. The other was their ballpark being a pitcher friendly park.
ReplyDeleteHope Harper's happy with the Phillies. With luck, they might even make the playoffs this year. Or not.
DeleteOTOH, the Giants may finish ahead of the Phillies. Without him. Again. But definitely with him. His team leading 2022 2.6 bWar would lead the Giants, too.
In his 4 years with the Phillies, they only finished better than the Giants in his first year there. 4 wins better. With his 4.4 bWAR that year, the Giants may well have finished ahead then also. All 4 years.
Last year's 107-win Giants had a reasonably good OF, but how better would they have been with Harper's 5.9 bWAR, MVP year? Maybe even enough to prevail in the Game 5's 2-1 loss?
Who knows?
Even he would have to admit he would have even more honors and hardware if he had gone with the Giants. Not the Phillies.
Are you happy, Bryce?
Do we think Bryce Harper is the victim of the poor chemistry in Philly or the cause? I tend to lean toward the former but a lot of people disagree. In any event, it appears he badly miscalculated FZ's ability to find extremely undervalued talent to build around him with.
DeleteWas Harper was the victim or the cause in his 4 Division Series losses with Washington?
DeleteThe Nationals won the WS the year AFTER Harper left with a team that came together late and smacked the 106-win Dodgers in the NLDS.
Washington had lost 4 of 4 NLDS with Harper (2012, 2014*, 2016, & 2017), including a loss to the eventual WS champion Giants in 2014.
Still lean toward victim. Harper played well in those series the Nats lost to the Giants and I don't see how he caused the other players to not perform.
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