Thursday, June 30, 2016

Sigh of Relief

The Giants pulled one out.  They beat those tough, tough Oakland Athletics in the final of their 4 game, home-and-away 2016 series by a score of 12 - 6.

Madison Bumgarner on the hill.  He also hit, which, as it was in an American League ballpark, says a lot about the tattered state of the Giants right now.  When this game started, my first thought was "OMG, our hopes lie with Ruben Tejada?"  but then my second thought was "Madison better damn well not get himself hurt."  Even that Pena guy is banged up.  The Giants also brought up a River Cat named Grant Greene.  So, 2 newbies and a rook for the G's.

Madison was not sharp.  Fortunately, the Giants decided to do some offense tonight - they seem to do that about every other game and tonight there was enough so that the mighty A's couldn't overwhelm them.  Madbum went 6 1/3 innings, threw 104 pitches, walked no one and struck out 4.  He also gave up 4 runs, all earned, on 7 hits.  The first of those came in the 1st inning, a solo shot to Marcus Semien (his 16th, so at least he is a legit hitter).  The Giants came roaring back in the 3rd, initiated by Madbum's lead-off double.  Then, a walk to Span, a single by Pagan and a ground rule double over the center field wall by Belt gave the Giants 2 runs.  A homer by Posey made it 5 - 1 and a solo shot by Crawford made it 6 - 1.  The Giants tacked on 2 in the 4th, rbi's by Pagan and Crawford.  They seemed to know better than to think the bullpen could hold a 5 run lead.  Good thing, too, as the swingin' A's scored 1 in the bottom of the 4th, then homered for 2 more in the 7th, the end of Madbum's night.

The Giants tacked on 4 more in the 9th on a Crawford single, 5 walks and a Belt single.  The A's added 2 in the bottom of the 9th off of Derek Law, who is still very much a work in progress.  So a sloppy game, again, but a victory this time.  9 more games against Arizona and Colorado before the All Star break.  Arizona's been good to the Giants so far, maybe that can continue.  They'll need the remaining core: Span, Angel, Posey, Belt and Craw, to continue to hit.  The Giants have gone 3 - 4 in the last 7 games.  Amazingly, LA in that time has picked up exactly 0 games (heh, heh).

7 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

A sigh of relief, indeed. We've been spoiled by that incredible run of winning. Losing four in a row would not actually have been a catastrophe but I'm sure we all would have felt like it was!

Giants finally get their 50th--more than everyone except the Cubs and Rangers.

(For the record the Giants were up by 8 on Sunday and LA picked up two games as they won Monday and Tuesday--if you go back seven games then they picked up one. But that's quibbling. It's nice to have a lead. It'd be even nicer to have this same lead at the ASB!)



JC Parsons said...

The big news that no one is mentioning: Kershaw is hurt. On the DL with a herniated disc, something that doesn't go away quickly. I don't mean to be a ghoul but this is MAJOR news to my injury riddled squad. It is incredible that he has been having such a great year and then come up with a bad back. Even his injuries will be unpredictable. But he is on the shelf now, and that is big setback for the scum.

Just when I think our lineup has reached new "lows" we put out another one! All these roster changes without any key trade is impressive, but it feels patchwork. Fresh bodies out of no where! Too bad about Pena, he seemed to be our best option by far. It looks like Tejada is not ready at the plate or in the field. Green looks very plausible, I thought they would go with him before Tejada. I guess this is good for the future. Tough to watch now.

I like Williamson but he put on a remarkable display the other day. In the first few innings alone he ended an inning by sliding past second for automatic double play, grounded into a regular double play, completely botched a fly ball and injured a fellow player doing it, and the play was charged as an error to Pena , I believe. It was scary enough that Mac may lose some playing time. I hope our defense can survive these injuries.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I find it interesting that Kershaw has a back injury and not an arm injury. Truly, you pitch with your legs and core muscles--the arm is just the extension of the trunk.

He's only walked NINE guys this year. That's 121 innings, 16 starts. Amazing. This season is his best ever. Hard to imagine a guy like that getting better.

LA will have to make a move for a starter I suppose. They have the resources to go after a big name if one is available. I guess I should be looking at lousy teams with stud pitchers!

We'll see. It may not be a big deal. He is still young and in his prime. He could heal quickly and be back. I don't really see this as the 'elephant in the room'. Either way the Giants have to play good ball and keep LA at arm's length and win the damn division.

Zo said...

The doggers have apparently traded some minor league pitching for Bud Norris. Also, the Giants will miss Greinke in Arizona. Not sure why, if it is due to a minor injury or just a re-shuffling of their rotation (why would they do that?). The Giants are half way and have won 50 games. From a long view, what they have been going through is a hiccup, and they have survived so far. We have seen some poor baseball though.

carmot said...

Madison Bumgarner. Hitterish. In the AL.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Giants finish their injury=plagued month 17-10. Remarkable. It's going to be a tough 9-game grind to the ASB, I think. Weak teams, but the boys are worn and battered a bit. At least the last 6 are at home and include an off-day. All the division races are not as close as I would have thought. Orioles lead Red Sox by 5 games, all the rest have bigger leads! Crazy.

carmot said...

Yes, LAD picked up "none" games. Kershaw and Joc now on the DL. And to M.C.'s point, absolutely! 17-10 is remarkable for this month. Back in Sept/Oct of last year, when I reviewed scheduling, I figured an absolute best-case scenario would've been 37 wins by the end of May. After the horrible 7-10 start to this season? All bets were off. With some tough June games, a .500 month wouldn't have been bad. Again, that was "pretty much" my best-case scenario to hover around 50-52 wins by end of June!

Uh, a pretty long list of injuries before the midpoint of 2016's season. Pagan, Pence, Panik, Duffy, Romo, Kontos, Heston, Tomlinson, Williamson, Adrianza... Not much from Cain and Peavy, or worse than "not much." Nice job, Giants. FIFTY wins in the first 81 games! Get greedy. Go Cueto!