Game Wrap 4/14/2021: Giants 3 Reds 0

Austin Slater CF/LF had the big hit to back shutdown pitching from Johnny Cueto RHP and the bullpen, but Cueto left the game early with lat discomfort.  Game Notes:

Slater broke open a scoreless game in the 5'th inning with a double up Triples Alley to drive in the first run.  Slater took third on a passed ball and scored on a Fielders Choice with Curt Casali C reaching first base.  R-CF has become quite a power alley for Austin Slater!

Cueto was cruising through two outs into the 6'th inning when he suddenly grimaced after a pitch and signaled that he was done.  He's being evaluated for a possible lat strain.  Fingers crossed it's not a prolonged IL stint for a rejuvenated Cueto.  

Logan Webb RHP was used for one inning in relief signaling the Giants are confident Alex Wood LHP will be ready to join the rotation and Webb is the odd man out.  Of course, Cueto's injury may mean Webb goes right back into the rotation.  Got all that?  I'll break down the rotation further later in the post.

Tyler Rogers RHP got his 6'th Hold and Jake McGee earned his 6'th Save.  They both need the Giants travel day off tomorrow.  

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The Giants head east for a spring road trip starting in Miami for a weekend series agains the Marlins.  The travel day allows Logan Webb's rotation turn to be skipped with Anthony DeSclafani RHP starting Game 1 vs TBD.  Aaron Sanchez RHP also moves up to take game 2 on Saturday with Wood dropping in on Sunday.   Kevin Gausman RHP will presumably start Monday against the Phillies.  That postpones the day of reckoning until next Tuesday, April 20 when Johnny Cueto's next turn falls.  That would be where Webb steps back in if Cueto has to skip a start or 3.  

Game Wrap 4/13/2021: Giants 7 Reds 6

Giants starter Kevin Gausman RHP broke their string of consecutive starts with at least 5 IP and 3 or fewer runs allowed when he was rocked for a pair of 2-run HR's in the first inning.  Most Giants fans had to be thinking "game over" at that point, but the Giants struck back with a pair of 2-run bombs of their own off Luis Castillo RHP.  If that seems just bit unusual, it's the first time in Pac Bell/AT&T/Oracle Park history there have been 4 HR's hit in the first inning.   The perfect symmetry just added to the wonder of it all.  Gausman stayed in the game and ended up pitching 6 innings and the Giants won the rest of the game 3-2.  Game Notes:

Giants leadoff batters reached base 5 times.  Tommy La Stella 2B went 3 for 3 with a 2B out of the leadoff spot.  Donovan Solano 2B replaced him later in the game drew a pair of walks.  All that effort resulted in two total runs scored.

Mike "YtY" Yastrzemski RF broke out of a brutal early season slump with  two hits and a walk including the first 2-run HR for the Giants side of the ledger in the first inning.

Brandon Crawford SS has just 6 hits on the season and a .171 BA but those 6 hits include 2 doubles and 3 HR's.  BCraw hit the Giants second 2-run HR in the bottom of the first inning to give Kevin Gausman and the Giants a do-over on the start of the game.

Evan Longoria 3B continued his torrid early season hitting with two hits and another solo HR.  He's hitting .316 so far.  

Good to see Austin Slater PH/CF/LF get untracked at the plate with two hits including smoked triple to.....Triples Alley!  

The Giants offense gave Kevin Gausman a clean slate to work with to start the second inning which was also shaky but he settled down after that and retired the last 13 batters he faced including 5 K's.  

You don't generally think of submaweenie pitchers as strikeout artists but Tyler Rogers RHP struck out the side in one inning of work to give him 7 in 7 innings on the season.  He now sports an ERA of 1.29 and recorded his 5'th hold.  His pitches had such crazy movement and had the Reds swinging so wildly, Kevin Gausman as quoted as saying "He's going to hit a lefty in the face someday and the guy is probably going to swing at it, which is crazy to think about."  Uh....OK!  

Jake McGee LHP recorded his 5'th Save and has yet to even come close to allowing a run.  He's allowed just 2 walks in 6.1 hitless IP on the season.

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Johnny Cueto RHP tries for a series win this afternoon facing Tyler Mahle RHP.  

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Alex Wood LHP went 4 innings and 74 pitches at the alternate site.  From Maria Guardado's reporting on sfgiants.com, the plan is to activate him from the IL if he has a normal recovery.  Kap sounded definite that he will join the rotation and the Giants won't go to 6 SP's.  Logan Webb RHP seems to be the odd man out and headed for a bulk-inning relief role.

BTW, anyone else impressed by the thoroughness and nose for what's important in Maria Guardado's posts for sfgiants.com?

Game Wrap 4/12/2021: Reds 3 Giants 0

Giants pitchers continued to do their job holding a good-hitting Reds team to 3 runs.  On average in MLB, if you hold an opposing team to 3 runs, you should win  at least 2/3 of the time which would be 101 wins.  This one is squarely on the offense which managed just 4 baserunners on the evening.  Game Notes:

Aaron Sanchez RHP had a shot at a QS but was lifted for a PH after 5 innings of work to try to find some offense.  In two 5-inning starts he has an ERA of 2.70.  He only had 3 K's in this one but got 8 groundball outs to just 2 flyball outs.  

Jarlin Garcia LHP is apparently the long reliever now as he logged 2.1 IP while allowing 1 run.

Overall, the bullpen has an ERA of 1.98 in 27.1 IP since their Opening Day meltdown.  

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Kevin Gausman RHP tries to get the Giants back on the win track facing Luis Castillo RHP tonight in a matchup of aces.  

Game Wrap 4/11/2021: Giants 4 Rockies 0

 S. W. E. E. P!  What's that spell?  Sweeeeeep!!!  The Giants offense showed signs of life and the pitching was again sensational as they swept the weekend series from the Rockies, extended their win streak to 4 and upped their record to 6-3 on the season.  Game Notes:

Anthony DeSclafani RHP had a dominant start with 8 K's against just 1 BB in 6 shutout innings.  In the process he got strikeouts with sharp breaking stuff and also reach back velocity on the FB.  He notched his first W of the season.  

Maybe this level of performance from the SP's is not sustainable but if you squint at each one of the Giants SP's, everyone has a narrative which could very reasonably point to an All-Star level season or better.  As always, it's not likely the narrative holds for every pitcher, but it's within the realm of possibility and might be even likely that at least 20 or 3 achieve it.

Giants SP's now have 9 consecutive games with at least 5 IP and 3 runs or less allowed to start the season.  The last times that occurred was 1937 and 2002.  How do you like that?

Alex Dickerson LF got the Giants on the board first with a line drive HR to straightaway CF in the first inning.  He's still hitting just .200 but should heat up soon.  Alex Dickerson can hit!  

Brandon Belt 1B had himself a day with a walk and SB which set up the Giants second run, then homered on a line drive into the arcade that had both Jon Miller and Kruk and Kuip saying it looked like a carbon copy of Brandon Crawford SS's shot on Saturday.

Lamonte Wade Jr  CF/LF was called up before the game after Reyes Moronta RHP was sent to the IL with a forearm strain, which does not sound good.  Wade Jr. may have postponed his return ticket to Sacramento with a single, double and walk, although he did not figure in the scoring.  He also made some plays in CF but might have had a shot at catching one he missed had he judged it a bit quicker off the bat.  He was moved to LF late in the game with Mauricio Dubon CF coming in as the defensive replacement in CF.

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The hot-hitting Reds come to town for a 3-game series starting tomorrow evening with Aaron Sanchez RHP trying to keep the train rolling against Wade Miley LHP.

Game Wrap 4/10/2021: Giants 4 Rockies 3

The Giants got great pitching from their bullpen, great defense from Buster Posey and a clutch HR from Brandon Crawford to take game 2 of the weekend series from the visiting Rockies.  Game Notes:

Logan Webb RHP's stuff might have been too good in this one as his 2-seam FB was diving out of the strike zone.  This led to familiar command problems as he tried to compensate.  He managed to keep it in reach for 5 innings and the bullpen and Crawford picked him up. 

Buster Posey C gunned down two fast baserunners with perfect throwdowns which may well have prevented a run or two or more.

Brandon Crawford SS is hitting just .160 overall, but has made his hits count.  Today he absolutely smoked a HR into the RF arcade of a LHP no less.  There were two runners on base which converted the score from 3-1 Rockies to 4-3 Giants and the bullpen made it stand up.  Ballgame!

Gabe Kapler seems to be settling into some bullpen roles.  The sequence of Caleb Baragar LHP, Reyes Moronta RHP, Tyler Rogers RHP and Jake McGee LHP seemed quite predictable and they came through with 4 shutout innings while allowing just 1 hit, 1 walk and scoring 5 K's.  McGee got his 4'th Save and I am happy to have drafted him for $1 in my auction fantasy baseball draft.

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Anthony DeSclafani RHP goes for a series sweep tomorrow afternoon facing German Marquez RHP

Thoughts on Johnny Cueto and His Home Opening Day Start

Johnny Cueto's pitching performance yesterday is why I continue to watch baseball games after all these years.  When many games are over, I feel like I just wasted 3 hours of my life I will never get back.  This was not one of those games.  This one was inspiring to watch.  I feel like a better person for having witnessed it, even if it was via TV.  It's what keeps me coming back and wanting to watch more games.  I have Johnny Cueto to thank for that.  

Here was someone who is very good at what he does, doing it in the best way possible.  In the process, he showed me things I have not seen before in all my years of watching the sport.  His fastball may have topped out at 94 MPH, very good but not great, but he used it to maximum advantage.  He varied the velocities on it by as much as 5 MPH to keep hitters off balance.  He threw it exactly where he wanted to throw it, at the edges of the strike zone where the hitters could not get the "sweet spot" of the bat barrel on it.  He varied his pitch tempos like only he can with quick pitches, normal tempo, hesitation and the "shimmy."  He even broke out a "triple shimmy" where he dipped his shoulder once, twice and three times before delivering the pitch.  On top of all that, he mixed in other pitches, curveballs, sliders and changeups to further disrupt hitter's timing and swing location.  

If all that was not enough, he projected that he was having fun out there while staying focused and competitive inning after inning.  The early innings clicked by in rapid-fire fashion, three up, three down.  He got ahead in the count on almost every batter and did not get to ball 3 until later in the game.  

It all reminded me of another Giants pitcher from long ago, Juan Marichal, who had a similar mix of pitches and delivered them with a flair and joy that made you feel like you witnessed something special.  Even though it was on radio instead of TV, you could hear and feel that wonder and joy coming through the descriptions by the radio announcers.  

Johnny Cueto's pitching yesterday was inspiring to watch.  I feel like a better person today for having seen it.  Now I can't wait to see the next game!

Game Wrap 4/9/2021: Giants 3 Rockies 1

 Wow!  I am starting to get a feeling about this Giants pitching staff and it's not a bad one!  Johnny Cueto RHP rolled back the years and found a peak career performance to outlast an equally electrifying Austin Gomber LHP who cracked first in the 7'th inning with 2 walks that scored on Brandon Crawford SS's game-winning double to the CF wall.  Game Notes:

Cueto had a strong FB that reached 94 MPH and he pinpointed it to all quadrants of the strike zone while mixing up his velocities and tempo as only he can.  We even saw a triple-shimmy that ended in a swinging strike 3!  Cueto finally faltered a bit in the 9'th inning but by then the Giants had built a fairly safe 3-run lead.  

Jake McGee LHP got his 3'rd Save on 3 pitches, all upper-90's FB's to K Sam Hilliard RF to end the game with a runner on first base.  

Crawford's bases-loaded double was the big blow of the game and all Cueto/McGee needed.  It was a huge flyball to the gap just to the right of straightaway CF and one-hopped against the fence.  Alex Dickerson PH/LF who was the trailing runner starting at 1B held up at 3B.  He and Crawford were left stranded but the Giants added on an insurance run in the 8'th which is probably what enabled Cueto to get a shot at a CG.

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The Giants have the 8'th best Team ERA in the major leagues at 3.05.  Take out those 5 ER's from the bullpen meltdown on Opening Day and that comes all the way down to 2.36 for all other innings.  Gotta think the hitting will catch up sooner or later.

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Logan Webb RHP tries to find his spring training magic tomorrow afternoon facing Chi Chi Gonzalez RHP

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Maria Guardado of sfgiants.com reports Alex Wood LHP pitched 3 innings of a scrimmage against the A's at Alternate Camp.  He is expected to make one more longer start in camp before the Giants have to make a decision on activating him from the IL.  With the Giants current 5 SP's going so well, it makes for some interesting decisions.