So this is how it is. Last year, Madison Bumgarner had to face Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke. This year, he has to face Clayton Kershaw AND Zack Greinke. That makes it hard to get a win for your ace, and it is that much harder when your team plays shitty defense or scores few runs. The Giants committed no errors tonight, nor did they score enough runs to win the game. After 18 scoreless innings, they did manage to push 1 across the plate, though.
The Giants got as many hits as the d-backs, each team had 7. The Giants got hits in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 9th. A quick bit of math will tell you that 7 hits in 6 innings means that only 1 inning had more than 1 hit. That was the 7th. A Gregor Blanco triple was followed by a single from Angel Pagan for the Giants big run-scoring inning. Arizona only scored in 1 inning, also the 7th, on a Wellington Castillo home run. Unfortunately, there was a man on base.
If there was something positive to take from this game in which the Giants dropped their 7th game in their last 8, it was Madison's performance. He threw 7 full, which is an improvement. He had given us 16 innings in his previous 3 starts, and that is not enough considering that his last 2 starts followed Jake Peavy and Matt Cain, who have given us 14 and 15.1 innings, respectively in their 3 starts. Madbum allowed 5 hits, struck out 8 and walked 1. Giants have gone from a good start at 6 - 2 to become a 7 - 9 team. Tomorrow, our sole winning pitcher, Johnny Cueto, faces Shelby Miller.
7 comments:
The ace gets the tough assignments--wouldn't want it any other way. The ace is supposed to neutralize the other team's ace and so get better matchups for the rest of the rotation. MadBum is doing that. The Giants have had a shot to beat a great pitcher each time. It hasn't quite worked out, but it's been close. Next go-round it will go our way.
Overall our starters are looking pretty good. The bullpen guys are not. And our best-ever offense has gone to sleep, as offenses will.
I wasn't watching last night's game very closely (I fell asleep in fact) but I recall 3 men left on third base. Maybe there were more. That's sad.
The Giants left 4 men on base in scoring position, 7 LOB total. I disagree that our starters "are looking pretty good." Cueto, yes, without question. Shark I can live with, he has given us 19.1 innings in 3 starts. That falls into the OK category. Cain, Peav and Madbum before last nights' 7 innings, have given us 9 games with a total of 45.1 innings. That's 5 innings per game. That's not nearly good enough. Cain and Peav have given up 25 runs, all earned, in their 30.1 innings. That is not good, that's bad.
Plenty of bad to go around when a team loses 7 of 8. We've seen crappy starts, crappy relief, crappy fielding, and crappy hitting. Everyone gets a share of the blame, as it should be, it's a team game.
Time for a big, cathartic win this afternoon!
Thursday, we're an offensive juggernaut! A bases-loaded walk & a run-scoring double play ... in the same inning!!!!
Yuck, another horrid loss. No hitting at all! Cueto was not as masterful as he was in LA but he pitched damn well and gave the team a real chance to win. Alas, they could not take advantage.
I'm just going to pretend the top of the 9th didn't happen.
Have the D-backs ever taken a 4-game series in SF before this one?
Someone needs to tell the baseball gods that this is an even year.
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