Game Summary:
Tim Lincecum coughed blood early and the Giants got swept away by a red hot Royals club, 7-4. A game that felt over after the first inning (and it was), finished off a road trip that started well but may have turned into a death spiral. Pretty dramatic, huh? Well, with the doggers winning we are now the furthest behind this year and the trends look real bad (20-35 over last 55 games). With the ridiculous lineups we are putting out there now, I feel like we should just worry about staying above .500 at this point. Guess I'm not suppose to say that out loud, but it feels true.
Tim Facts:
Start #24 Loss (9-8, 4.51) 3.1 innings 7 hits 6 runs 6 earned runs 3 walks 2 strikeouts 1 hr
Was this his worst start of the year? (How come I think we are going to be using that phrase a lot when discussing Tim.) Hard to say, but 3 of the last four have been total shit. Many people are blaming the relief appearance. Others are pointing to the lack of Hector Sanchez, which totally cracks me up considering their funky history. I don't think there is a certain cause outside of Tim's mental and physical inconsistencies. It will be interesting to see how he finishes up when (oops) if we slip out of the race.
High and/or Lowlights:
Seven stolen bases total, five off of Tim. Sheesh, thats a good month for us! I was surprised that the last time it happened was May 2009. I figured it was way longer ago.
Best performance from a Giant clearly goes to the three RBI's from Susac. He looked horrible "in the squat" but Tim does that to everybody.
9 comments:
Sorry for the tardy post. I got back from Sactown late last night. I must admit that I was not too motivated to write about that shit. Oh well, it is kind of fun to see the stream of minor leaguers go thru our lineup. I never suspected I would get such a long look at Panik, Duvall, and Susac. Hell, I never even heard of Duffy before. Educational for sure but not a formula for wins.
After that miserable road trip, the optimist in me still sees us in the wild card chase and hoping for a good home stand that turns things around. The pessimist in me recalls the Steam song - Na,na,na, na, hey hey, good bye.
I thought Susac looked good behind the plate. Even Buster gets PBs when Tim pitches! He's got a nice, smooth style and looks like he can handle all the tasks. He just needs seasoning. Giants will have to move Posey soon and they'll need Susac to be ready. What do you think of a platoon/split assignment with Hanchez for 2015? Posey moves to 1B.
Posey as a C in 1833 PA has a .292/.361/.462 line which is outstanding, esp. for the position. He has only 393 PA as a 1B but a ridiculous .364/.425/.568 line. I'm worried about the toll on his body. If he moves maybe he can be an elite hitter again. He's not as valuable as a 1B, but the team needs his offense.
Yeah, I'm thinking about next year. Giants are in the race, to be sure, but I'll be damned if they look like a playoff team. One great month and they can erase the whole bad stretch, I just have decreasing confidence that they have such a month in them.
It really is not fair to judge a catcher based on how he handles Tim. Susac actually did OK, very much better than Hanchez did in the beginning. And for him to still be able to hit, well that is impressive. Like I said, it is kind of nice to see these youngsters so much, however they all really need more time "cooking."
I fear the new concussion situation, which of course is not new at all, will lead to all valuable hitting catching prospects getting switched. Defensive specialists will be on all the lineups soon. Utility catchers that can play another spot may also show up, that way you could carry three or four catchers.
I'm tired of the excuse that the Giants ran into a good pitcher at the top of his game. "Some days, you just have to tip your cap....". Don't we hear that just about every other game? I cannot for the life of me figure out why the Giants looked so good and now look so bad. Since we never had Scutaro to begin with, we are down one hitter, and have replaced Cain with Peavy, which, given Cain's season to date, should be about a wash. Were we that much better than our ability early? I mean, this is almost the same team that won a World Series in 2012 - and has a bit more maturity, so how come we are looking so bad.
Zo,
Well, Pagan was out for a long time along with Brandon Belt. That shortened the lineup a lot. On top of that, Morse developed some nagging injuries and his bat went in the tank where his defense was all along. That leaves Pence, Posey and Sandoval as the only above average MLB hitters in the lineup. You can add Pagan now that he's back, but it may take a week or two to get his timing back.
Much like last season, I think you can chalk up the collapse to injuries. Whether Sabes should have anticipated the injuries and had better backup plans available is a whole other discussion.
We can lay to rest the myth that Angel Pagan is the magic ingredient the Giants need to win.
@Brother Bob,
We can? Seems like the Giants fortunes rise and fall with Pagan's presence or non-presence in the lineup.
If you mean he's not of much value when he's hurt for such long periods, then OK.
Also, agreed that the Giants have more problems than just Pagan's injury woes.
Pagan is certainly valuable to the Giants and his injury woes have hurt the club. Then again, Matt Cain's poor performance and, ultimately, season-ending injury played as big a role or bigger in the team's failure to meet expectations. Brandon Belt was indeed a killer blow as well--he was an absolute beast with the bat (140 OPS+ best on the team) last season.
Morse should be the 6th best hitter on the team after Pagan, Pence, Panda, Posey, and Belt. Giants had to rely on him too much in the early going because Pagan and then Belt were out and Panda and Posey hadn't started producing. Ideally Morse is the #6 hitter, or even #7 with a healthy Scutaro, and I'll take .273/.326/.464 out of that spot any day. Morse is tied for the team lead in HR, leads the team in 2B, and is second to Pence in OPS+ with 125. That tells you more about our team than it tells you about Morse.
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