The game was not enjoyable. The Giants dropped another game, at home, to the Padres, 5 - 2. Ty Blach pitched well, and the Giants took a 2 - 0 lead into the 9th inning. Mark Melancon allowed a 2 run home run to Hector Sanchez for a blown save. According to Grant Bisbee, Hector Sanchez has now hit as many home runs in San Francisco in a Padres uniform as he did in roughly 800 plate appearances in a Giants uniform. In the 12th inning, with George Kontos pitching his second inning of relief, the Giants allowed another home run, this one a 3-run shot from Will Myers. Of course, the Giants were unable to score in the bottom of the 9th, 10th, 11th, or, for that matter, the 12th.
I was just thinking, as Derek Law was pitching in the 8th after a 7 inning, 3 hit, 0 run effort from Ty Blach (2 BB, 1K) that the Giants haven't really found pitchers for their bullpen niches yet, except for Melancon at closer. You want a bullpen where you have guys to rely on for the 7th and 8th inning, with maybe a specialist for left handed hitters, and maybe an extra in case you get into a situation where you have to use these guys on a lot of days. Then you have some guys that can do long relief or spot start and maybe a guy for garbage time. You don't see those guys as often but they are expected to pitch longer when they are in the game. And of course, a closer. The Giants went out a got a closer, but, I thought, the other guys haven't settled into defined roles, yet. Bruce Bochy keeps trying them out, and they all look pretty good at times, except when they don't. Like yesterday. Or Thursday. Or for that matter, Friday, even though they held on to win. Closers give up a bomb and blow a save every now and then. It happens. Rod Beck did it, Rob Nen did it. So did Santiago and Sergio. But 2 in April averages out to 12 in the season. That's too many. And the Giants just seem to rotate between different ways to lose. Make no mistake, though, pitching or not, the Giants can't win too many games if they are only scoring 2 runs.
Johnny Cueto throws tomorrow in Los Angeles. The Giants have now played every team in the western division both at home and away except the doggers, and have a losing record against every one of those teams. They are 29th in runs scored and 29th in slugging percentage, and 27th in on base percentage. The Royals are at the bottom of slugging and obp. One of their 7 wins was against the Giants. Tomorrow would be an excellent time to start to atone for that.
4 comments:
What really got me was that Kruk said, Sanchez's wheelhouse is the inside part of the plate slightly above the knee as he like the low inside strike. Exactly where Melancon put it. As if he heard Kruk and than wanted to see if he was correct. Myers home run had a similar weirdness, as Kruk says they have to keep the ball out of that letter high inside pitch over the plate because he loves that pitch. Again, this time Kontos, puts the ball right there, and boom. Is Posey calling these pitches? or is it our pitchers that are missing their spots badly? Either way, and I really hate to say this, but if this continues, (despite the injuries) Bochy may find his otherwise safe job, on the line. If we can go 17 and 9 or better in May we can end up going into join at 500 or above, and Bochy will be out of trouble. His record since last year's all star break is not flattering.
I find that "it can't get any worse" has not been a comfort. It gets worse each day.
The 9-17 month of April is the 4th-worst (.346) for the team since the start of division play in 1969. The worst were 1980 (6-14, .300), 1984 (7-16, .304), and 1983 (7-14, .333). I suppose it's superfluous to note that all those teams finished below .500 for the season.
I'm shooting for 20 wins. That's the May we need. 20-9, baby. (I don't think the chances of that are very high, but that's what the team needs.)
This team is much better than their record. Given the personnel, they simply have to be. They have sufficient players, and pitching (at least, starting pitching) to be a much better team. They got their spark with Arroyo, but so far that spark has fallen on waterlogged kindling. Posey has put up an average, but without much power. Panik has been pretty good. They string some hits together, get some breaks and chalk up some wins.
Yeah, that's the frustration. There's too much talent to be 9-17. But there's not enough production. No hitting. No relief. Inconsistent starts. Injuries. None of the cylinders are firing in unison. They've got this month to turn it around, a third of the season will be done by the end of May. If they play .400 ball the season is over. If they play .500-plus there's still hope.
Madison Bumgarner still leads the team in fWAR, which points out (1) how valuable he is, or was, and (2) how poorly the rest of the team is doing.
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