The Giants almost managed to ruin a sparkling start by Anthony Molina but hung tough and Drew Gilbert's 2-run homer in the 10'th inning was just enough to hold on for the game win and series win. Key Lines:
Jonah Cox CF/2B- 3 for 4, BB, 2 SB(13), R, RBI. BA= .294. Jonah Cox is showing what a classic leadoff hitter can do for a lineup. When was the last time the Giants had one?
Drew Gilbert PH/CF- 1 for 1, HR(10), R, 2 RBI. BA= .233. Bryce Eldridge was the designated runner to start the 10'th inning. Tony Vitello made a double move puting Grant McCray in to pinch-run for Eldridge and Drew Gilbert to pinch-hit for Brett Harris 3B against a RHP. Both moves were the right call but Eldridge could have walked home ahead of Gilbert's bomb to CF. Gilbert gets to double-digit HR's and seems to be fearless in clutch situations.
Andrew Knizner C- 3 for 4, R, RBI. BA= .212. Knizner is batting .238/.333/.429 over his last 7 games.
Anthony Molina RHP- 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 4.18. Nice bounceback from a disaster start. Tony Vitello made an aggressive move to bring in Philip Abner LHP to fact Alec Burleson with 2 outs in the 6'th and no runners on base. Molina was at 82 pitches. Maybe Vitello figured this was Molina's last inning anyway and why risk losing the 1-0 lead on one swing when you can bring in the lefty for a more favorable matchup. It ended up working out.
Carson Seymour RHP- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 5.06. Walking two batters was far from ideal but Seymour was victimized by horrible defense including his own muff of a short toss covering first base. Then Christian Koss yanked a throw that looked like Bryce Eldridge whiffed on the standard TV angle but from a LF camera you could see the throw was at least 3 feet beyond Eldridge's stretch. Trent Harris RHP came on to get the final out of the inning and then pitched a scoreless 8'th.
Dylan Smith RHP- 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.50. This was Smith's 5'th blown save and he looks gassed.
Joel Kuhnel RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K's, Save(8). ERA= 4.54. Torture! Kuhnel had to protect a 2-run lead so could concentrate on getting the batters out rather than worrying about the designated runners. He walked two batters to add to the drama but got out of it on 3 fly ball outs. Not ideal but the plane flight to LA will be happy.
The Giants get a travel day tomorrow then face the Dodgers for a weekend series with Cesar Perdomo LHP pitching Friday evening against TBD. Maybe with the off day the Giants flew home and will then fly to LA tomorrow evening or Friday AM?
To top off the two error inning, the second run scored on a wild pitch.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the first run was scored in an interesting way. First and third, cox on third. A double play ball to first base. But he stepped on the bag. Allowing Cox to score from third while they had to tag Eldridge. And that was the difference in the game.
I think Molina has done enough to lock down a spot in the rotation for the next baseball season.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it’s true that the giants refrained from trading Lee at the deadline for “marketing reasons”. I find it hard to believe. But also similarly shocked the team didn’t trade him at his peak value.
ReplyDelete- Fan
At the time of the trade deadline Lee was doing all the thinks Buster likes in a hitter so it's reasonable think they saw him as part of the future. On the other hand, you can't ignore the marketing factor. So I think it's not a simple yes/no answer.
DeleteI think it’s simple why Lee wasn’t traded and it had nothing to do with marketing. They just didn’t get an offer that blew them away. Posey didn’t want to give Lee up for nothing, Lee was playing better than he ever has before at the time, he legit looked like an all-star for a moment there, so it’s obvious that Giants got offers that were either lowball offers or just not offers that blew Posey away enough to make the move.
DeleteBoth of these theories seem quite plausible to me!
Delete- Fan
Buster and Minasian have stated around the trade deadline that any deals they would make would have to make sense from a baseball standpoint with the end result of improving the team. At the time of the trade deadline, Lee was learning from Arraez and trending upward. We may never know what was offered but I suspect that his salary kept a lot of trade offers on the low end. It was not a simple as keeping him around for marketing purposes.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting story in the Athletic today (free online access using my library card) on Molina. Apparently, he had the bad luck of being passed around to two crappy development orgs, but started with the Rays who let him go because of a numbers game (too many good young prospects). The Giants saw something in him, made a trade with Atlanta (who also liked him but ran into a numbers crunch on their roster and opted to go with Mahle, who has more MLB experience). The Giants' coaches encouraged him to refine his throwing motion. The big thing was accentuating his already extreme overhead delivery, which has seemingly given his fastball extra bite as it reaches the plate. From the article, it seems like he's got the tools and temperament to build from here. The analysis suggests he might turn out to be Buster's best mid-season trade of 2026.
ReplyDeleteI think when the dust settled after the flurry of trades the Mahle for Molina trade was actually regarded as the least promising of all the moves. Wow, if all the other trades ultimately prove to be even more profitable for the Giants then we might someday look back at 2026 as the key point in the franchise’s turnaround.
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