The euphoria from Blake Snell's no-hitter did not take long to wear off as Kyle Harrison came down with a bad case of goferitis early. The Giants rallied in the later innings but as it has been so often this season, it was too little, too late. Key Lines:
Jerar Encarnacion RF- 1 for 1, HR(1). BA= .200. When the Giants Come to Town community's favorite Giants prospect entered the game when Heliot Ramos OF exited with a sore thumb which Bob Melvin says has bothered him since the All-Star Break. Encarnacion promptly hit a bomb which he did a lot of in the minor leagues. It sounds like Ramos would be well served to spend some time on the IL to let the thumb heal which may open the door to more playing time for Encarnacion. Does it also open a path for Grant McCray OF to be promoted?
Matt Chapman 3B- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(16). BA= .244. Chapman scored the Giants first run on a double and two Reds errors in in the 7'th inning. He added a solo HR in the 9'th to cap the Giants scoring.
Michael Conforto LF- 2 for 3, HR(11), HBP. BA= .224. Nice game for Conforto but overall a microcosm of the Giants mediocrity and failure to find traction. Gotta think he's outa here after the season and probably not many fans will be sorry to see him go.
Kyle Harrison LHP- 3.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.09. Harrison got through the first inning OK but then gave up solo HR's in innings 2 and 3. OK you can still work with that. The backbreaker was a 3-run bomb by Ty Stephenson in the 4'th inning, his second HR of the game. Stu Fairchild followed with another solo shot and Harrison was out of the game. His velocity was down a couple of ticks. Is that cause for alarm? His previous high IP is 113. He's sitting at 101 now with almost a full two months to go in the season.
Sean Hjelle RHP- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.78.
Jordan Hicks RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 4.03. A couple of bright spots on the pitching side.
The Loss dropped the Giants to 4.5 games behind in the Wild Card playoff race.
Robbie Ray LHP tries to shake of his own rough last start tomorrow AM facing Carson Spiers RHP.
Churn Watch:
Derek Hill OF was picked up off the waiver wire by the Marlins.
The Giants were last above .500 on May 29 @ 29-28, then lost a half dozen games and haven’t pulled even since.
ReplyDeleteThey have gotten to within 1 game of .500 four times: twice in June, once in July, and Friday in August.
Each time they were ready to even their record, they lost, including yesterday. In their attempts they scored only 2, 2, 4, and 4 runs.
Time is not their friend but the schedule is: the next 5 games are winnable. If they’re not going to score runs, the “best rotation in baseball” better hold the opposition to 4 or fewer runs per game or it’s “Bye Bye Baby” for the post season...
Starts like this are gonna happen from Harrison as well as Birdsong and maybe Ray coming back, one reason why FZ's yammering about the "best rotation in baseball" was a bunch trash...DOn't get me wrong, it is pretty good, especially at the top and for the future...but to defend your incompetence and inactivity at the deadline with platitudes is just self serving about your chances for the POs..I hope the pitching proves me wrong!
ReplyDeleteLove the bomb from Encarnacion and hope more follow and this is a FZ "find"
SteveVA
the shutdown watch may be on for harrison, can he tread water until september? maybe carson seymour gets a cup of coffee in september.
ReplyDeleteAmong the many things we'll never know is what did the Giants try to do before the trade deadline?
ReplyDeleteWere they potential sellers staring with Snell if the offer was an MLB Top 100 prospect, or top 50? 25? Did they set the price too high?
What's with dumping Soler who had begun to hit? Was the return too low?
(Aside: Soler is 1-14, no HRs in 17 PAs in Atlanta.)
What's with shedding Cobb, the "insurance" against Harrison or Hicks or anyone in the overused 'pen running out of gas?
Is there saving on the payroll? No, their luxury tax payroll is $253,022,638, with the $237MM threshold far, far away.
What is Canha for? Any saving from Soler was spent here.
What FZ did that was good is what he didn't do: the pitching prospects other than Silva are intact.
And, shedding Soler might be a good thing. Methinks he wasn't a happy camper...
The radio announcers were alarmed that Harrison threw at least half a dozen fastballs in the 80s. Let us hope that it is mere fatigue. It sounds like he too, ought to go on the IL for a rest.
ReplyDeleteDFA Conforto, get Grant McCray up here, ASAP. Hope Luis Matos gets his hitting going for the future.
ReplyDeleteConforto must be reading Doc's blog: 2 hits yesterday, 2 today. So far.
DeleteHaha! Maybe, but, it appears his contract is over soon. May as well get more young talent we have, out there before September. They reduced the number of players on the September rosters significantly a year or two ago.
DeleteIs Bailey out of gas? Last 4 games, 0-12, last HR July 10.
ReplyDelete