Austin Slater led the Giants lineup in support of Quality Start machine, Logan Webb, in securing a series win against a perennial World Series contender. Key Lines:
Austin Slater LF- 3 for 5, SB(2). BA= .212. Slater says he was able to work out some things during his rehab assignment. He is 6 for 13 since his return.
Jorge Soler DH- 2 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .217. No power but at this point we'll take games like this from Soler. Maybe he heard us talking about him? Anyway, his slash line for June is .297/.366/.432 after an abysmal .184/224/262 in May.
Brett Wisely 2B- 2 for 4. 2B. BA= .317. Wisely should stick around after Nick Ahmed returns from the IL which could be as early as Friday.
Logan Webb RHP- 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 8/2. ERA= 3.02. He's a QS machine which in addition to giving his team a chance to win, takes some heat off the middle/multi-inning relievers.
Ryan Walker RHP, Tyler Rogers RHP and Camilo Doval RHP shut down the Astros over the last 3 innings with Doval getting his 12'th Save. This seems to now be Melvin's standard bullpen setup for games the Giants lead in the 7'th inning.
The Dodgers lost so the Giants gain a game on the NL West leaders to 8 games behind. The Giants continue to lead a pack of teams for the the 3'rd Wild Card playoff spot by 0.5 games. The Giants have multiple games scheduled against two of those teams, the Cubs and Cardinals, before the end of this month.
The Giants get a day off at home before taking on the Angels in a weekend series. The scheduled starters Friday are TBD for both teams.
I'm guessing Howard starts Friday with Saturday being a bullpen game with Winn in the bulk innings role.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants are only 3 games behind the Braves for the top WC, the best of the non-division-winners.
ReplyDeleteThat spot is golden because the #4 seed plays at home against the #5 seed in a best-of-three series.
The final wild card team is the #6 seed and plays on the road against the 3rd division winner.
Often the worst of the division winners is not as good a team as the best of the wild cards which is definitely true in the AL this year but not in the NL where Milwaukee is hanging in close to the the Hated Ones from down south, just 1½ games behind.
There is a lot of negativity in Comments on this blog (not the blog itself) as well as on other Giant blogs. Why?
Much has to do with the failure of two of the Giants' top off season acquisitions to live up to billing, to date significantly fail, and perhaps the handling of Davis and Bart. The backup catcher signing hasn't worked out (yet) but bringing in home favorite Casali has helped to mute dissent, and like Snell and Soler, Murphy may work out.
More importantly, the Giants have had the opportunity to test a lot of youth, and the system has produced, keeping the Giants in contention.
In fact, without the 16 games against LAD, NYY, and Philly, clearly superior teams, the Giants are 31-22. Tough road series losses against Boston and Tampa Bay cost SF another 4 losses against 2 wins.
Yes, like everyone else, The Giants do have to face the good teams, but the point is, SF is very good against lesser teams, and WILL GET BETTER.
I wish I had your optimism. The problem isn’t that this team is horrible. The problem is they are horribly average. You will see signs of life followed by losing streaks as they desperately hope that someone can step up offensively each week. The pitching is a mirage beyond Webb at least for this year. Harrison is just like this team, up and down and Hicks is about to run out of bullets. Snell on his best days when he does come back is 5 and dive. The rest are a bad crap shoot and the bullpen will be limping into August. No stars on offense means no leader at the top of the order that can anchor the team. They are good enough to possibly make the playoffs but at this point I would rather see them stock up on bats with some trades and go for a top 10 pick.
DeleteThe Debbie Downers are out in full force. Top 10 picks are not an automatic ticket to an era of winning. The Giants had a #2 overall draft pick in 2018. That did not exactly usher in a new era now, did it? As somone pointed out after a prior post, both WS teams last year were Wild Cards. MLB is now officially like most other sports. It's all about the postseason and getting into it. For that reason, as long as the Giants are on reasonable contention for the posteason by any route, I would much rather have them go for that than try for a top 10 draft pitch that has far less than a 50% chance of having a significant MLB career.
DeleteAnon, as Theseus pointed out, you can't just say "losing streaks" without looking at why and to whom they lost.
DeleteOther than losing 2 of 3 to the lowly Nationals, the Giants' losing streaks have a flavor: mostly away and/or against very good opponents:
4 games early, 3 with LAD, all on the road
4 early May all @ Philly, preceded by losing 2 of 3 IN Boston, ugh!
6 beginning @ end of May starting with 1 again to Philadelphia, 3 to NYY, and then, on the road, 2 to AZ before winning 5 of 7 with 3 wins on the road.
They are "above average" because (1) they LEAD the average teams and (2) they mostly beat the average teams.
The next 12 games are key: they are with the "average" teams: if they go 6-6, then they are, as you say, average, but even 7-5 or better yet, 8-4, then they are "above" average.
Key players are coming back: Wade (arguably their best player), Ahmed (bolster SS), and Snell (cross fingers), and then Ray and Cobb.
Let's add Slater, maybe he's healthy enough to do what he does best: mash lefties (career .820 OPS).
There are still some of us that are "glass half full" fans, seemingly most of you are "glass half empty" types.
Apparently, Spencer Howard will get the start Friday.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he's pitched well in 3 games (1 start) for the Giants, what is new here because there's hardly anything, maybe nothing, in his career to get excited about?
You were prophetic last year when he was signed in November: Giants will give him the low-risk chance to stay healthy and regain his top prospect form of 4 impact pitches.
Question here is simple: can it be true that he did "regain his top prospect form"? Suddenly? He was sort of ok with Sacramento, but has there been an epiphany on the trip to SF from Sac? Should we be excited or just prayerful?
We should be both excited and prayerful re. Howard. What's in his career to get excited about is exactly what I said. He is a former top prospect who fell on hard times after some injuries. Those guys can come back and be impact players. My guess on Howard is he will be a high variance SP with some great games and some terrible ones, not unlike Barry Zito except Zito cost $127 M and Howard cost nothing.
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