Tyler Fitzgerald SS- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .315. Fitz and Chapman had 5 of the Giants 7 hits on the day.
Matt Chapman 3B- 3 for 4, 3B. BA= .249. The triple led off the 8'th inning but he broke for home too soon on a Mark Canha grounder to 3B and was out in a rundown. Canha took 2B during the rundown but then got hung up himself on a grounder by Patrick Bailey so in 2 batters the Giants went from a runner at 3B with no outs to a runner at first with 2 outs.
Hayden Birdsong RHP- 4.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 5.40. Birdsong made some beautiful pitches but also made mistakes. Big league hitters will make you pay for those no matter where their team is in the standings. Reminder that Matt Cain's ERA his first full season in the majors was 4.1, Tim Lincecum's call up season was 4.00 and Logan Webb's call up season was 4.00. There is usually an early learning curve. The talent and stuff is there for Birdsong.
Despite the Loss, the Giants remained 1.5 games behind in the Wild Card Playoff race.
The Giants now start a 4-game series against the team that sits in the final Wild Card spot. Blake Snell LHP starts game 1 tomorrow evening facing Chris Sale LHP.
High on Birdsongs list of things to work on is not to groove FBs down the middle. Every one got hammered. Command is everything.
ReplyDeleteThe League seems to be waiting for Birdsong to make mistakes and he is and he will as he learns. Not the best time for him to be starting when the Giants can't piss away games as well as all th presure on the rotation with the pop gun offense. . Personally, I would skip him the next time through the rotation with an off day coming up (would send him down to SAC and bring up a reliever again) and maybe not start him until/unless the Gianst are out of a PO chase and go with an opener. His time will come soon enough.
ReplyDeleteHopefully SOLER goes back to not being able to hit HRs in SF the next 4 games!! BAILEY is really , really struggling, Maybe a good time to give Joey BART more ABs..Wait....And send Luciano down already.
SteveVA
time to move patrick bailey down to the nine spot until his bat can get warm. it may also be time to move on from casali and let blake sabol backup for the rest of the season. casali has regressed to the point where sabol isn't much of a change defensively. sabol can be a viable late inning pinch hitting option and more capable of giving bailey some rest days. once the offseason comes, sabol needs get a a first base glove.
ReplyDeleteWill we look back on this 4-game Giants vs Braves series as defining the season?
ReplyDeleteProbably only if there is a sweep which cuts both ways: it would be very bad for either team who loses.
If the Giants take 3, they will be (just) ahead of Atlanta, if they lose 3, well, it will also be bad for them. Their momentum will be stalled.
Maybe less bad for Atlanta, because they are are a little better going into the series.
Giants will see Sale, Morton, Holmes, Fried
Braves will see Snell, Harrison, Ray, Webb
Vegas odds show Braves to be slight favorites.
Lets home that Soler isn't the deciding factor: he is 7 for 13 last 3 games with 3 HRs, and slashing .435/.500/1.000/1.500 in his last 6 games. Ouch!
Lets hope he gets Oracled!
Good reminder Doc about Timmy's, Cains, and Webbs callup seasons. I remember the Phils pounding Timmy for a bunch of runs during his MLB debut at Pacbell Park. Birdsong has the stuff to pitch in mlb .
ReplyDelete