Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Mano a Mano

In spite of discouraging days like the day before yesterday, on other days the Giants manage to turn in some pretty competent baseball.  Yesterday, Madison Bumgarner dueled the dogger ace, Clayton Kershaw and beat him.  I think I heard Jon Miller say that Madison and Kershaw have faced off 5 times, with Madison walking away with the W in 4 of them.

Not a lot of scoring in this game, which is what you expect from these guys.  Madison allowed 5 hits and 1 run in 8 innings.  Santiago Castilla, who blew through the 9th on 10 pitches including a game-ending K of the fearsome Adrian Gonzalez.  The Giants actually piled up 10 hits, 7 off of Mr. Kershaw and 3 in the 8th and 9th after he had departed.  Improbably, Joaquin Arias had 3 hits, all courtesy of Kershaw.  Buster Posey had the hits that mattered, a 1st inning rbi to score Angel Pagan and a solo home run in the 4th.

Madison: 110 pitches, 73 strikes, 1 run, 5 hits, 9 K, 1 BB.  At the end of the day, Madison stands with a 3.73 era and a 1.21 WHIP in 31.1 innings.  Kershaw has a 3.73 era and 1.24 WHIP in 31.1 innings.  Madison's record is 2 - 1, Kershaw's is 1 - 2.  Most satisfying is to see Madison return to top form, he hadn't quite been there yet this season, but when confronted with the NL Cy winner and MVP (what, they couldn't find any more awards for Kershaw?), he came out on top.   Madison, with Buster in his corner v. Kershaw and whatever blue they can come up with?  I take that bet any day.

2 comments:

obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

Yeah, in one of the interviews, Madison noted that this was the first game where he felt good mechanically, and he noted that he would have said the same had he gave up 6 runs.

M.C. O'Connor said...

That was a hell of a game. Loved that Joaquin got the three hits (12 in his career v. Kershaw), the only Giants player with a 3-hit game against him! And Santiago Casilla looked absolutely filthy in the 9th. A little better "D" and the Dodgers would not have scored at all.

Remember when Tim lost every matchup one season (2011?) v. Kershaw? Those were all 2-1 and 1-0 games if I recall. Maybe this time Bum can be Kershaw kryptonite.