I attended this game with a small group of friends who are Dodger fans. They were happier on the drive home than I.
The Giants managed to run up Clayton Kershaw LHP's pitch count and knocked him out of the game in the 5'th inning, but a familiar combination of poor fielding and relief pitching gave the win to the Dodgers in the late innings.
Thairo Estrada SS's 2-run single in the third inning got the Giants on the scoreboard against Kershaw. Darin Ruf's 2-run HR in the 5'th knocked him out of the game. All that was set up by the second inning when the Giants loaded the bases and ran Kershaw's pitch count to 46. It was frustrating to see the bases left loaded but the extra pitches almost certainly contributed to Kershaw's subsequent ineffectiveness and early exit.
Unfortunately, Alex Cobb RHP also struggled with early runs and high pitch counts and didn't make it out of the 6'th inning. The umps made Cobb towel off his arms after a 2-out double by Jake Lamb DH in the 3'rd inning. Immediately after that, he gave up single, double, single, all on hard hit line drives for a 3 spot and a 4-2 deficit. Twitter seemed to think the umps thought he was mixing sweat with rosin. Is that illegal? Madison Bumgarner LHP is famous for rubbing his forearms to get moisture to rub up the baseball with. Maybe it whatever he was doing wasn't illegal since they didn't eject him from the game? But then why did they make him towel off his arms? Was it because the Dodgers complained? If so that bit of gamesmanship paid off big time!
Dominic Leone RHP got the last out of the 6'th inning and came out for the 7'th. He got Trea Turner to fly out, but stayed in the game with Freddie Freeman 1B and 3 more LH batters coming up. Freeman hit a ball down the LF line that was misplayed by Yermin Mercedes LF who initially lost it in the sky. It fell for a double. That brought in Tyler Rogers RHP who went double, single, GO, double, walk before finally getting out of the inning now trailing 7-4. Note the Giants are down to just 2 LHP's in the bullpen and both are overworked which is why Kap used RHP's to fact that string of lefty hitters in the 7'th inning.
Yermin giveth and Yermin taketh: Yermin Mercedes had a nice game at the plate with 2 doubles down the LF line. He is starting to look like a legitimated RH bat. Kap insists he is athletic and fast enough to handle LF, but he never played LF before coming to the Giants so there's a learning curve.
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The Giants don't have time to lick their wounds from the 4-game sweep in LA as they head to Phoenix to start a 3-gamer against the D'Backs tomorrow evening with Jakob Junis RHP facing Tyler Gilbert LHP.
These are the times that try players' souls and fans' patience. Still, they're only a game or two off of a playoff pace, under the current rules. McGee's crash and burn, combined with the loss of Alvarez, the decline of Rogers, and it all being too much for Dovall to carry by himself in the bullpen is not going to cut it. It's disappointing that no pitchers have stepped up. So if they're going to make the playoffs, they need a closer to anchor the bullpen. Maybe Ramos (+) for Bednar?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd still like to see Bryce Johnson in CF.