The Giants smacked the ball all over the place tonight against the Astros and scored EIGHT runs for the first time in the season. In fact, it was the first time they'd scored seven. But the real story was the performance of Chris Heston in homer-happy Houston. Using a nasty curveball to complement his natural sinker, he had that free-swinging bunch swinging freely into TEN strikeouts, his career high. Heston was so tough that he recorded all 27 outs for a complete game, his first, retiring the final 22 in order. It was the first complete game for a Giants pitcher in 2015. Heston's first batter hit a single and his only other blemish was a two-out homer by catcher Jason Castro in the 2nd. All the rest went down after that. A dominating display, to be sure, especially on the road against a good club. Let's hope we get to see more of that stuff from Giants pitchers during this bandbox junket.
Matt Duffy had a career high FIVE runs batted in with his bases-loaded double in the 2nd and two-run single in the 5th, by the way. It's easy to forget the great show he put on with both the bat and the glove. Giants fielded superbly, in fact, and the Astros had a key misplay. With Duffy, Craw, Panik, and Belt, that's a homegrown infield, and with Posey and Heston it was all former farmhands. You have to like that.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
8 comments:
Duffy!!
I'm impressed that he responded to his shakiest start by coming back with his best start ever. That was as good as it gets.
I think that we should pick up recent Cuban defector Luis Yander La O Camacho just to hear Jon Miller & Renel say his name. Apparently, a pesky line-drive hitting Infielder with virtually no power ... like, not even 2B's & 3B's.
Awesome effort by Heston & not too shabby by Duffy & Pagan.
Posey is due for one of his characteristic Team-carrying hot months.
Baggs has a historical take on Heston's performance.
That is a really good article by Baggs. I knew that Heston was terrific last night but I didn't realize just how special it was. I am so glad I saw that game. Best game of the season to date, woudn't you say?
Know the top 3 Giants in RBI so far this season?
There is no way any one ever would have predicted this in Feb. but they are : Crawford, Maxwell, and Duffy. Isn't that cool? I know it's SSS and RBIs are kind of a dumb stat, but I still find it exciting that we get such quality performances from the strangest places. As we all well know, that is what it takes to win a championship.
Great article on Timmy's evolution here:
http://tiny.cc/31f4xx
Let's hope it holds....
Timmy gets the start tonight in Cincy, a good place for ground balls. I like this "new" pitcher and I've always believed he had the talent and moxie to "re-invent" himself and be more valuable to the team. Glad to see others are noticing!
Weird game last night. Lots of missed chances. And Affeldt hasn't given up a homer in a long time! The Giants play two in Houston: one blowout and one nail-biter. They win the blowout and lose the nail-biter--go figure.
I'm not surprised by the RBI numbers. Crawford is just plain raking the ball and he gets a lot of chances with men on base. He has 12 XBH! He is the MVP so far. Posey, Belt, Aoki and Pagan are getting on base a lot and thus Maxwell and Duffy are benefiting. The Giants lineup is pretty solid. The runs aren't coming yet, but it seems to me to be sequencing more than anything. They hit the ball all over the place and put runners on and avoid strikeouts but aren't stringing together the big innings. Soon--and look out NL West!
Good news from the Chron:
Cain threw about 20 pitches in a Tuesday bullpen session, his first on-the-mound work since going on the DL shortly before the season, and will throw again Friday. After three or four mound sessions, he could begin throwing to hitters.
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