A very questionable call by the second base umpire to start the 7'th inning started a disastrous cascade of plays leading to the Royals scoring all 5 of their runs which was enough to spoil and otherwise solid game by the boys in orange and black. Key Lines:
Casey Schmitt 3B- 1 for 4, HR(20), R, RBI. BA= .273. Schmitt's solo HR came in the 9'th inning after the disastrous 7'th and was too little, too late.
Jung Hoo Lee RF- 1 for 4, 3B, R, RBI. BA= .302. Lee's triple in the top of the 7'th inning drove in Rafael Devers who was on base with a walk. Willy Adames then drove in Lee with a ground-rule double to extend the Giants lead to 3-0.
Landen Roupp RHP- 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 7 K's, 7/1 GO/AO. ERA= 3.93. Roupp pitched better than the line as he breezed through 6 innings of shutout ball on just 2 hits. Vinnie Pasquantino 1B doubled into the R-CF gap but appeared to come off the 2B bag. Willy Adames quickly slapped a tag on him. The ump called safe and the play appeared headed to review, but then stopped everything by ruling that Adames pushed Pasquantino off the bag, something it seems nobody else saw. Tony Vitello came out to argue and was ejected. The next batter was Sal Perez DH of course and none of us need to look up th Game Summary to know what happened. With the score now 3-2, Sam Hentges LHP came in, gave up a bunt single and threw the ball down the RF line putting the runner on 2B and the game unravelled from there with Keaton Winn RHP joining the meltdown party.
I don't have time to go through every Game Summary and tally up what percentage of runs scored against the Giants have been on similar meltdown innings but I sure seem to remember a lot of them. It seems the Giants have a specific problem with the transition from SP to RP. If true, is it because Tony Vitello leaves the SP in too long? Is it because the Giants just don't have any relievers capable of shutting down a rally when they enter the game with runners on base(that was not the case in this game). Or is it just a symptom of a generally undertalented pitching staff?
The Giants get tomorrow off at home before starting a weekend series against the Angels with Logan Webb RHP facing Grayson Rodriguez RHP who comes in with an ERA of 8.23 which means he'll probably look like a Cy Young Award candidate against the Giants.
Listened to today’s meltdown on the radio while driving. The sense of foreboding at this point is palpable. When anything goes wrong you can just feel the whirlpool sucking them down. I don’t recall any Giants team like this in the last half century.
ReplyDeleteThe fact the Giants played soft after Vitello's ejection is worrisome. The trade deadline is a referendum on ownership.
ReplyDeleteLarry Baer pretty much said on KNBR today that they don't believe in a total rebuild. That's not surprising so I expect them to trade only the expiring contracts like Arraez, Ray, maybe Mahle if they find a taker.
DeleteDid the hosts ask him what he means by a total rebuild and why he would not want to rebuild this dumpster fire of a team?
DeleteHe did say they are focused on the future at this point and the focus of the trade deadline is to improve the future of the team. He also said he is against the idea of telling fans to expect the team to be bad for several years while they rebuild. I don't think any of that precludes trading any player, even Logan Webb, if the trade brings back an obvious upgrade in overall talent.
DeleteHaving said that I don't expect Logan Webb to traded but I didn't before I heard the interview.
DeleteBaer did not say he would rule out a total rebuild but he did point out that during the championship run, they were rebuilding at the same time. Murph and Marcus seemed to be putting words in Baer's mouth. Murph and Marcus referenced the Sharks as an example of a total rebuild and that probably includes the Cubs and Astros. With the current CBA draft rules, "tank and draft" that the Cubs and Astros used, is probably not a viable strategy because the Giants are a big market team and would be prohibited from obtaining a lottery pick in consecutive years.
DeleteThe Red Sox lost their winning streak yesterday, their first loss since July1.
ReplyDeleteThis 15 games-in-a-row was the cap of a longer winning way as Boston has gone 23-5 since June 19th when they were 15½ games behind following losing 8 of 10.
An unlikely 15-game win streak for the Giants would still leave them underwater plus they would have to jump past 8 teams, 5 of which have winning records, to make the 2026 play offs.
Luis Arraez did play yesterday going hitless while driving in a run with an SF, so holding him out the previous day when the tying run was on base in the 9th inning is more puzzling.
The Giants have struggled on all sides of the ball. But the bullpen is by far the worst of all. The Giants did NOTHING over the off season to address the bullpen, which was an obvious glaring need. The entire bullpen is made up of very young players, player coming off of injuries or just very ordinary and uninspiring journeymen. They have NO high leverage arms...NONE! How many times has the offense given them a lead going into the 8 and 9th innings only for it to be coughed up? If counted up I am sure it would be between 7-9 games. When you take into account that the relievers are going to pitch a lot of innings because pitchers(outside of Webb) only go 5 innings now....although Roupp is starting to look like a legit mid rotation starter. The bullpen needs to be rebuilt from the ground up before next season.
ReplyDeleteThis was a problem that began when Randy Rodriguez went down so it was not a problem that started in the offseason.
DeleteI don't think anyone is saying the lack of high leverage bullpen arms started in the offseason but it could have been addressed in the offseason and wasn't.
DeleteWhat is so strange about the Giants is they actually are a good hitting team with their starting lineup although taking walks is not part of their approach.
ReplyDeleteThe bench is no help.
Maybe clutch, whatever that is, plays a part: scoring runs is not their forte.
They have 3 strong SPs and some not as good journeymen to fill their rotation, but that might work, except protecting leads is a forgotten art, and closing is an adventure.
They will trade or lose some strength: Arraez, Ray, Brubaker, and Mahle are free agents, and at least 3 of them are likely to be traded within 10 days.
The Giants will listen to offers for everyone, except they say Webb, and would part with at least a half dozen with 2027 contracts if the offer was right (didn't cost them too much): Devers, Adames, Chapman, Lee, Houser, and Bader, but they can't expect too much except that there are still 16 teams at .500 or above and another maybe a half dozen (plus Toronto if they get their sh-- together) could be in contention with enough improvements.
That's 23 of 30 teams that could be buyers!
Although SF won't claw themselves into contention, they may be king makers and strengthen the near term as well as the already strong young prospects they have.
Can they "get enough" to make 2027 interesting?
Well, they don't draw walks and they don't hit for power and they don't produce runs, so they aren't a good hitting team.
DeleteThe "good hitting" was meant to refer to batting average.
DeleteGiants have the worst record in MLB post All Star break: 1-5 including 2 walk off losses.
ReplyDeleteSF had the lead at some point in all 6 games.
The offense scored only 15 runs in the 5 losses losing 4 of the games by only 1 run.
Mahle was the only starting pitcher who left with the lead but took the loss.
Is this an indictment of the 'pen?
After the first game, the offense failed to add to a lead although there was one 9th inning come back but it couldn't score in extra inning even with the gift runner on 2nd.
The bullpen is not good but I've posted this several times. The Giants rank far worse in Save Opportunities than in Blown Saves. Yes, they would probably have more Blown Saves if they had more opportunities but the biggest problem is they are not even getting to the point of having a Save Op. That seems like it must be more on the lineup and SP's.
Delete