2-1 win at home
Dodgers young southpaw Julio Urias showed some impressive stuff (7 K) in his 5-1/3 but he also gave up a two-run homer to Giants lefty stud Brandon Belt and that was the difference in the game. Giants take the finale and get two of three from the Dodgers over the weekend series, losing only to a Clayton Kershaw start. Pretty impressive for a banged up lineup and a shaky bullpen, wouldn't you say?
Starter Jake Peavy had arguably his second-best outing of the season and he could not have timed it better. Giants improve to 5-5 for the month of June and serve notice that they shan't be swooning any time soon. At least that's what we hope. Notable today was the homer yielded by Hunter Strickland to make a 2-0 game 2-1 in the 7th, but he finished the inning without another blemish. That's his first long ball allowed for 2016. We had a Felipean 8th, with three relievers (Kontos-Osich-Gearrin) needed for the three outs, but they kept it together, and Lopez and Casilla had a blemish-free 9th and that was that. Also notable was Peavy's diving attempt at a putout at first base on a grounder to the right side in the 6th. Utley was safe, but it was a damn impressive effort, especially for an old fart. Way to give your all for the team, man.
Matt Cain goes tomorrow.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
6 comments:
Not swooning, no, but wobbly-kneed enough to make games exciting for the open-minded and often irritating to at least one Giants-minded observer, me. (Crawford leads off an inning with a triple, in a one-run game, and none of the three outfielders coming to bat--Williamson, Blanco, Span--can get him home??!!). The upcoming games are against teams with under-.500 records, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, and from what the Giants do against those comparatively weak opponents, we'll be able to tell if we need to buy a gross of smelling salts for swooners or pass back into the comfort of May.
Yeah that failure to score BCraw after the triple was galling, and appeared crucial, but they eked it out. Williamson swung at the first pitch! Yikes, the coaches don't like that. Blanco grounded out weakly on a pitch in on his hands. Poor execution, there. Looked like the mo' had shifted blue-ward, but they hung on. Clutch win, man. A few more wins to get past .500 for the month and we can all breathe without aid.
I agree that any swoon has been successful fought off, which is no small thing given our circumstances. We had several of the biggest challenges hit all at once; best hitter/team leader out with major injury, bullpen cool down with many BS, an AWOL offense with no one stepping up, and a tough schedule. To play .500 with that is just fine. Better than fine when we increase our lead!
I really have lost confidence in the offense. I remember being not at all shocked when we failed to get the triple in. I rather expected it. A few minutes later I realized how bad that was. The only guy right now that I look forward to hitting is Belt. I'm sure that will change, for example, Panik is looking better, as is Duffy. We are just saving some runs for October.
Up early? I'm in Brookings right now. Heading for Bandon later. It is almost my anniversary and I'm on VACATION. I will send along many pics soon. Woohoo!
I spent the weekend in Santa Cruz for my daughter's graduation from the UC (with honors of course). Then there's that whole thing in Orlando, so things are in an unusual perspective right now, but it's still good to beat LA.
14 runs in the 5 games since Sunday, June 7. Let's go Matt. 4th anniversary of his perfect game.
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