My crew and I had a lovely time in the City by the Bay but unfortunately the Giants could not conjure up an offense this afternoon and the boys lost the Home Opener to the Rockies. Rookie Chris Heston pitched beautifully but got Cained by the pesky Coloradans. Brandon Crawford put on another display of fielding wizardry--he really is something to watch in person--but it was not enough as the purple-clads left the field as 2-0 winners.
Madison Bumgarner got to ride a horse with the 2014 championship flag and that was a lot of fun. The celebration at the Park was relaxed and subdued but the fans certainly enjoyed what fol-de-rol there was. W expected more of the home squad as they had opportunities aplenty in the first few frames but squandered them with some unfortunate impatience and bad luck. It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco but the Giants could not put together a winning sequence.
I realized that I said we'd be in View Box 321; alas, I made a typo, we were in section 327. So if you came by to say "hi" you would have missed me. My bad--put it down to road weariness and intoxication. Otherwise it was fun to reconnect with old friends and share some time at the yard together.
There's always tomorrow.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
7 comments:
I agree, things are OK overall, but yesterday did suck. 3-5 is not bad starting off the season on the road (again) and especially in AZ where weird happens, skipping two starters' spots almost immediately, having a huge hiccup by Bumgarner, plus losing two starters to nagging injuries, while already losing a key bench player before the season started.
Plus, 3-5 will soon be forgotten as we still have 154 games left in this season, basically a whole season left to play. People's anxieties just come to the fore immediately, it seems, when there is any bump in the road. It like many Giants fans became neurotic because of the over 50 years of never winning the World Championship, or something.
That's why I'm glad you are very much more level headed regarding the season MC, love to see your calm and appreciation for the length of the season, there is definitely always tomorrow when it is this early in the season. I'm already seeing people who think that they know baseball better than Bochy complain about this and that.
Now, if it's June and we are still struggling, then complaining is warranted, nobody is perfect. But the complaints, it is one thing to complain about a move Bochy makes, but then they would throw in digs that clearly show that they think they know baseball better than Bochy.
By now, if anyone thinks that they are better than Bochy, they are severely detached from reality. He is the one manager in recent history who has consistently and clearly been significantly above .500 in one-run games. And another study found that hitters improve significantly when they join Bochy teams (average extra win per season). And with three rings on his fingers, unless you have four similar rings on your hand, I am siding with Bochy most of the time.
He's not perfect (like, what is wrong with winning it in odd years? :^), but nobody is. However, he clearly is one of the best, and any fan thinking he or she is better than Bochy is deluded.
So, on a positive note, I am really liking what I am seeing from Aoki so far. His bat control is impressive. I hope a bit of him can rub off on youngsters like Joe Panik and Matt Duffy.
The River Cats' hottest hitter through 6 games is 3B Adam Duvall with an AVG of .478 and an OPS of 1.301. The Giants could use a bat like that.
I couldn't find a hits/RISP stat on baseball reference, but the Giants' total as of this morning scored baserunners was only 9%. That is such a low percentage that you have to wonder if it is a sort of a statistical fluke.
The percentage of hits the giants have with runners in scoring position is around the same percentage as the popularity of Congress. Imagine how bad we would be if Aoki was not getting on base at a 50% clip. He is on base all the time and yet has only scored 4 runs so far. He should have scored in double digits. Of course a couple of base running errors took two of those numerous chances away. I guess the high percentage of hits last year with runners in scoring position will now (even) out, once again in this (odd year). No luck. Belt's almost homer just foul. Posey and Panik hit shots that would have gone out most other places except maybe San Diego. Little bleeding grounders end up scoring runs for the opposition, while hard hit line drives for the giants with runners in scoring position end up being outs. That's baseball.
Some of those hard-hit balls are going to fall in tonight behind Timmy and the Giants will snap the losing streak!
Yo Zo: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=SFG&year=2015#bases
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