Giants starter Jeff Samardzija followed up his most impressive start (CG 4-hitter) of the season with his least impressive (3 IP, 3 HR, 6 R) but the Giants clawed their way back from the early deficit and pulled out a win. The mercurial righty has three starts this month, other than the gem, with a combined 12-2/3 and 14 runs allowed. He's seems to be a very on-off character, alternating between ass-kicking beast and gopher-ball machine. I reckon over the long haul he'll deliver more positives than negatives and we'll get lots of quality innings, but last night was ugly, his shortest outing so far.
Ramiro Peña, he of the who-dat club, clubbed two big hits to get the comeback going. BCraw added two hits, as did D-Span, and Joe Panik had a big two-RBI double. The 'pen (Law-Strickland-Osich-Gearrin-Casilla) delivered six scoreless on a mere four hits punctuated by nine whiffs. It's take a village sometimes!
Peña is a 30-year old utilityman from Monterrey, Mexico whose last stint in the bigs was two years ago in Atlanta. Last season he made two stops: one in El Paso with the PCL Chihuahuas (San Diego) and another in Culiacán with the Tomateros of the Mexican Pacific League. That's right, they are the Tomato Growers. Check out their logo:
That's awesome. The "minor" leagues have the best team names. Welcome back to the bigs, Ramiro, and keep slugging .692!
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
3 comments:
Giants prevail once again! And Romario Peña had two more hits. Big blows from Joe Panik (3-run triple) and Mac Williamson (3 hits incl. solo homer and RBI single). A shaky-at-first Albert Suarez gutted out five solid (three runs*, six strikeouts) and the 'pen did the rest (3 hitless IP from Kontos-Strickland-Gearrin) and a 26-pitch save (1 hit, 3 K) from Casilla.
Giants keep the mojo going!
*Two "earned" runs. Suarez made the error that led to his "unearned" run--tell me that's not a stupid scoring rule. Besides, all runs count equally, "earned" or not, so why bother with the distinction?
Isn't the distinction so as to help in evaluating pitchers? ERA and Game Score, which make the distinction, are among the most often used pitcher-eval stats. Is Earned/Unearned more misleading than pitcher wins, saves, FIP, and so on? None of these has any effect in terms of games won and games lost--they're all like Earned/Unearned, where, as you say, a run is a run is a run.
I'm being a little facetious on the subject, I'll admit. It's a pet peeve. I also have my suspicions about 'errors', many of which seem arbitrary. I think counting all runs the same reduces observer bias. I'll bet there are better schemes for separating out fielding from pitching skill.
But the team is playing some great ball right now, and all other matters can wait. Right? I mean WOW--the team is playing great ball!
No break until July 7th, 13 more games. Intense!
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