Boxscore
On their eighth attempt the San Francisco Giants get their 70th win. With the shitty post-season math out there the losing streak seemed like it would never end. Tonight a patchwork lineup and Jake Peavy led the team to victory. Peavy got burned in the 6th again to spoil a strong start. After an impressive whiff of Carlos Gonzalez with a man on and one out he gave up a two-strike homer to Nolan Arenado to cut a 5-1 lead to 5-3. It wasn't a fat pitch, but it was on the black, and it seems like any strike the Giants throw that guy he crushes. The lads bounced back right away though and made it 7-3 and that's how it ended. Jake Peavy, amazingly, was a hitting star with two booming doubles, scoring on the first one and driving in a run with the second. Angel Pagan also had a good night with a homer--his first in over a year--and a double. Nick Noonan, playing first base for the first time ever, had an RBI double and walked with the bases loaded for another RBI. FNG Alejandro De Aza, starting in left field, had two hits and a run scored. Gregor Blanco had two hits including a solo homer and Matt Duffy had three hits and two runs batted in.
Andrew Susac was sent home to have his hand looked at and Hector Sanchez started behind the plate. He hurt himself running out a bunt and had to be replaced by Buster Posey. It's 40-man roster time and the Giants are down to one catcher. I've no idea who the Giants plan to bring up to fill the spot. Juan Perez warmed up Hunter Strickland in the bullpen--maybe he'll don the gear at some point in this crazy season!
Just keep winning, Giants.
--M.C.
6 comments:
Move Lincecum to the 60-day DL so as create a place on the 40-man, and bring up Jackson Williams from Richmond? Can't hit--though this year, neither can Sanchez or Susac, at about .180 and .220 respectively--but as I recall, a very able defensive catcher.
Ha ha, my mind is racing just imagining throws from home to 2B by Juan Perez. I mean, maybe only second in ridiculousness to "if Crawford ever caught." The fact we currently have *NO* player to back-up 1B or catcher reflects lack of depth. I do understand, our #2 & #3 catchers are both hurt at the same time. Still... And Duffy had to play through that nasty ankle sprain because we also didn't have a back-up 3B.
$175M payroll? And still no back-ups? All those vets we re-signed for Sac? All the draft picks and IFA's? Trade scenarios and waiver claims available? Sheesh.
I really wish it wasn't Jackson Williams. This seems like the sort of "short-term fix" that we're used to. I don't like it. At all. Bring up one of potential catchers of the future and let them get some work. Ben Turner would be my obvious choice, Trevor Brown would be the other.
It's much like De Aza's playing time. Indeed, he had a fine game. But why aren't we investing evaluation time on Parker, or more time on Perez? Call Williamson up? I think we're going to have some tough decisions on the 40-man, the Rule 5 Draft, and 6-year minor league free agents. We've got team options on two guys (Aoki and Byrd). I'd like us to KNOW with more certainty if we need a 5th OF like Byrd, or whether Perez can be that. Give him more burn, IMO. Opportunity value, that's what we can still parse from this season. YMMV.
Anyways, nice win. Guys getting time and making something from it. Cheers.
I went to one San Jose Giants game in 2009 to see Buster Posey (he hit a homer for me) and one of the other young dudes who caught my eye was Nick Noonan. He came up to the Bigs for a while in '13 then not again until now.
And Noonan had never played first base before? We stuck him out there? That can't be true... Today we call up a AA catcher? Susac's hand injury sounds kinda scary ( it also explains much of his horrible recent performance ) and Hector's bumbling effort was just another bad break in his nightmarish season. For a gazillion $ organization we sure are showing some big holes. And I bet we now are in the market for a catcher ( full time I hope ) to handle a big part of the load now and next year. Our internal options simply failed.
Susac was put on the 60 day DL to clear space for Jackson. Was our 40 man already full? If so, there are a lot of guys in a Giants uniform that I have never heard mention of. Anyway, ligament damage does sound serious. First game ever for Peavy to have 2 extra base hits. First pitcher not named Madison Bumgarner to do it since.... Russ Ortiz.
The Giants purchased Jackson Williams' contract this March (from LAA). So they had a "fourth catcher" in the works. They released Guillermo Quiroz in July. It's not often that both the backup and the backup-backup are injured.
Giants had Belt to play first last night, but Boch sat down the regulars (except for Buster). I like how Boch has faith in his guys to rise to the challenge. Noonan's played SS in the bigs and the minors, he could handle it. He's a veteran despite the lack of ML time, he's been in the system since he was drafted out of HS. The Giants had five first round picks that year (2007): Bum #10, Alderson #22, Fairley #29, Noonan #32 (supplemental), Williams #43 (supp.) and Culberson #51 (supp.). Williams, once released, is now back in the fold much like Heston. Culberson was part of the Scutaro trade. But only Bum has ML positive WAR out of them all.
I guess Aramis Garcia is way to young and too low in the system to consider. Ty Ross as well. Susac will get healthy again and get another shot--maybe not this season, but certainly for 2016.
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