The Giants brought their hitting shoes and outscored Paul.....the Cardinals. Key Lines:
Austin Slater CF- 2 for 4, 2B, BB, SB(1). BA= .571. Slater is making his presence felt since coming off the IL.
Thairo Estrada SS/2B- 3 for 5, 2B, SB(7). BA= .326. Estrada showing no signs of slowing down in his red hot start to the season.
Michael Conforto DH- 2 for 5. BA= .215. Conforto has been scuffling. Hopefully 2 hits tonight gets him going.
Lamonte Wade Jr RF- 2 for 4, 3B, HR(3), BB. BA= .237. Who says LMWJ can't hit LHP's? YtY was a late scratch due to tightness in his side and Wade Jr took his place despite a lefty on the mound for the Cardinals. Wade Jr responded with booming HR off Matz to lead off the 4'th inning for the Giants first run of the game.
Wilmer Flores 1B- 1 for 5, HR(4). BA= .278. Wilmer extended the Giants lead to 5-2 with a 2-run HR to LF.
Blake Sabol C- 2 for 3, BB, SB(2). BA= .250. Sabol started behind the plate despite facing a LHP. He responded by reaching base 3 times. He racked up his 5'th catcher interference call but also gunned down a basestealer at 2B. Another step forward in his development at the MLB level. He's hitting .350 with 3 HR's over his last 7 games.
Anthony DeSclafani RHP- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.70. Paul Goldschmidt hit 2 HR's and a double off Tony D whose line was 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1BB, 6 K's against everybody else in the lineup.
Sean Hjelle RHP- 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 7.30. Hjelle came on in the 9'th inning with a 5-run lead and promptly walked the first two batters he faced. He got an out and a comebacker/forceout at 2B but couldn't get the GIDP. The next batter doubled in a run and put runners at 2B and 3B with 1 out. That gave Camilo Doval RHP a Save Opp which he easily converted for his third. Hjelle may be pitching himself into an option here pretty soon.
Logan Webb RHP goes for a 4-game swwweeeeppp tomorrow afternoon facing Miles Mikolas RHP.
Home plate umpire Paul Emmel had a reasonable strike zone until he decided to squeeze Hjelle in the 9th. Hard to believe 3 walks and a double could only produce 1 run!
ReplyDeleteWinning is always good but the Giants were unable to break the Cardinals' back scoring just 3 runs in 6 innings (one on a 2-out WP gift after a dropped can-of-corn fly ball) while leaving runner after runner on base against 2 underperforming pitchers (ERA: 6.23 & 6.97, ERA+: 5.26 & 5.16, WHIPs: 1.731 & 3.232).
Plus a big Thank You to former Giant Chris Statton who gave up single, double, & triple in the 8th to protect against the near melt down in the 9th.
Irony of irony: Paul Goldschmidt, 4 for 4 with 2 HR's, a 2B, 2 RBIs and a single, the only lit candle in the Cardinal line-up last night, comes up with the bases loaded, one out in the 9th, representing the tying run, and hits into a game-ending double play!
And, what's with Nolan Arenado, a career SF destroyer (33 HRs, 112 RBIs)? He's looked so average this year (.662 OPS, 2 HRs) and left a team leading 4 runners on base last night while striking out twice (once on a pitch a yard wide).
Is a sweep really coming? M. Mikolas is St. Nicholas this year!
I have read, but can't prove it, that umpires squeeze young/rookie pitcher while giving older/established pitcher more leeway. Since I can't stay up that (living in the Midwest) I only the early parts of home games, so while I didn't see it, I wouldn't be surprised.
DeleteLast night's ump had a very weird strike zone all night. I thought he actually hurt the Cardinal pitchers a bit more. Hjelle might have lost a couple of borderline calls, but most of his misses were easy takes, as Kruk would call them.
DeleteIt's nice to have a nice winning streak. It's nice to see Slater's start hot and Estrada keeping it up. Hopefully Sabol will continue to adjust to the MLB and I have enjoyed his 1.324 OPS (and his first game-winning HR) over the last week has been really nice... As for LWJ hitting LHP, there's an expression about blind hogs finding the occasional acorn. :) He is now 11/91 (.121) with a .393 OPS and 30K's so I think most teams would like to see him face LHP. I know if I was a manager in the LOOGY days, that's all he'd see in relief.
ReplyDeleteHjelle's story is just weird beyond belief. The BABIP against him last year was .400. This year it's .447! And while his hard-hit and fly ball rates are up, they were very solid last year. In 2022 his lower-than average HH and LD rates (both 3% under MLB average) coupled with his GB rate of 59% should have produced a BABIP well under .300! Yet it was .400! And this year, those internals aren't as good, but that doesn't explain his BABIP which, like I said, is .447!!! .320, maybe even .340, I could understand as his LD & HH rates are up. But not .447!
DeSclafani.... Giving up 2 HRs to Goldschmidt is not uncommon. The guy can hit and he was a hell of thorn in the side of the Giants in his Diamondback days regardless of the pitcher. I feared him more than Arenado in CO.