Keaton Winn turned in another brilliant pitching performance and some key hits got the Giants back on the winning side of the ledger. Key Lines:
Jung Hoo Lee- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .284. Lee has reached base in 13 consecutive games. He has reached base at least twice in his last 5 games. His slash line over his last 7 games is .385/.467/.538.
Jorge Soler DH- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .250. Soler's slash line over his last 7 games is .292/.346/.417 and .275/.373/.431 over his last 15.
Matt Chapman 3B- 1 for 4, 2B, SB(3). BA= .226. The double in the 3'rd inning drove in 2 runs to extend the Giants lead to 4-0
Michael Conforto LF- 2 for 4, HR(5). BA= .271. Conforto extended the lead to 5-1 in the 6'th with a solo HR.
Nick Ahmed SS- 2 for 4. BA= .296. After Tom Murphy took strike 3 looking with the bases loaded and 1 out in the second inning, Ahmed picked him up with a 2-run single and where would this team be without Nick Ahmed?
Keaton Winn RHP- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K's, GO/AO= 7/0. ERA= 3.54. The lone run Winn allowed was a solo HR to Pete Alonso. When Bob Melvin allowed him to start the 7'th inning, he put the first two batters on but Ryan Walker picked him up. Second excellent Start in as many games.
Ryan Walker RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.46. Walker came in with runners at first and 2'nd and no outs. He promptly got Alonso to reach for a sweeper for a shallow pop fly out. He then got lefty hitter Brett Baty to line out to Jung Hoo Lee in CF followed by the ground out to end the threat. Walker has not allowed a run in his last 3 appearances since giving up 3 in 0.2 IP on 4/16 in Miami.
Tyler Rogers RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.61. Rogers has not allowed a run in his last 5 appearances.
Camilo Doval RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.86. It was a non-Save situation and as usual Doval sunk to the occasion with 2 walks, an error and wild pitch. The TV camera panned over to the Giants dugout and Bob Melvin looked none too comfortable. I texted my buddy and said maybe someone should make sure there was a defibrillator close by. Doval said "No worries, Papi. I got this!" and got D. J. Stewart to ground out to end the game.
The Win got the Giants 0.5 games closer to the idle Dodgers at 2 games back. The D'backs lost so they are tied with the Giants for 3'rd place in the NL West. The Padres won so remain in second place 0.5 games behind the Dodgers.
Logan Webb RHP tries to secure a series win tomorrow facing Luis Severino RHP
Churn Watch: Luke Jackson RHP was activated from the IL and Nick Avila RHP was optioned to AAA Sacramento.
Good SP, good relief (great to see Walker back on track) and enough offense. Giants will be in most games that way..but need all 3 (obviously)....To me, WINN has been the most exciting thing all season...Has pitched well almost every outing with a little bad luck in the beginning.....Mind was wandering a little to later in the season when Cobb and/or Ray comes back. A bridge you don't cross until that happens, but who leaves the rotation if ALL healthy? .Right now, keeping WINN and maybe moving Harrison into a LHRP doesn't seem crazy....But soo much can happen and you can never have enough SP though...Giants will have as much depth as anybody
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
harrison has options if they still want him to start.
Deletei think walker could be a future setup man. he's does good in late innings.
ReplyDeletei am wondering how Hicks will hold up as a starter.
ReplyDeleteThis might jinx Ahmed, but against a LH SP leading off with him (Ahmed) instead of Slater could help the Team AND probably would help Slater, who is so messed up at this point, anyone would be better. Take some pressure off him, bat him 8 or 9.
ReplyDeleteAhmed has been clutch and seems to do well with runners on (and in scoring position), which he would see less of batting first, so maybe 6 or 7 is better for him. 7 is where he has his most games and would be more likely to see runners there, but, historically, he has not hit so well @ 7.
Slater is in a rut and needs to play to get out of it. Just how long that will take is unknown, and there are a couple of RH OFers in Sacramento, one of whom is knocking the snot out the ball but probably should NOT be brought up to be the RH half of a platoon unless Slater is gone by injury or DFA, and do we really want to see Ramos (or Conforto) in RF?
The other close-by guy, Matos, is not faring as well, although he did get 2 doubles Saturday, but he, too, should come to play if he comes up and not just be the RH platoon and mostly sitting on the bench.
Meckler seems to be injured, somewhere, but he's the LH side, where YtY might be waking up with 4 hits in his last 3 games before his singular appearance last night.
There is also the possibility of Fitzgerald playing RF (or LF with Conforto back to RF) as he has the 4th highest OPS (.788) on the team, but do the Giants want to have an OFer who doesn't have a HR (in just 24 PAs)? Bad enough that after Conforto with 5 HRs, the entire rest of the OFer have but 3! Wade's 1 HR came as a 1Bman.
Personally, and of no interest to the Reader, Slater has become one of my favorite Giants for silly reasons: I graduated high school in Jacksonville, FL, where Slater was born (much much later) and have friends who knew the family, even one who attended the Bolles School (much much earlier). Then I came to Palo Alto where Slater came later to Stanford, so there is that connection, too. Please, do well, Austin!