8-4 win in SF
Lots of things have gone wrong for the San Francisco Giants this season but one of the things that hasn't is Matt Cain. It was easy to think that any faith in the big righty was misplaced; age catches up with all athletes, no matter how accomplished. Somehow The Tennessee Stud has reinvented himself as a curveball pitcher and is getting results I have to think are better than most people expected. I've held out hope all along that the former ace, if healthy, could still pitch in the bigs and get guys out. He's been doing that pretty well so far--tonight was his second fine start against the Dodgers and the fifth time the Giants have won with him on the mound in eight chances. He also put down a sacrifice bunt and got a base hit.
The Giants had a four-run inning in the 4th, their second in two days, and scored eight runs in the game for the second time in two days. Who are these guys? It's an offensive juggernaut! Buster Posey hit another home run and he's now slashing .375/.453/.598 which I think we have to say is acceptable.
Giants get their fourth straight win and are now .500 (7-7) for the month of May.
--M.C.
p.s. Hunter Pence goes on the DL and Mac Williamson gets the call and he responds with two hits, a run scored, and a run batted in. Hey, I'll take it! On the flip side, Cory Gearrin turned a laugher into a save situation with two hits allowed to two batters with two runs scoring. That's 15 hits and 13 walks in 15-2/3 IP with 9 inherited runners out of 14 scoring. Yikes!
4 comments:
Watching the pen start to break down in the ninth started to get scarry.
How many solo dingers can this team hit? The giants may be honing in on a
record. Lets keep the wins right on coming.
All we have to do to cure ourselves from the solo HR pattern is to trade for Kevin Mitchell. In 1987, we were in a similar HR funk, & the Team was below .500. After the trade, in his debut as a Giant, Mitchell hit not just one, but two 2-run HR's in this Game at Wrigley Field:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198707050.shtml
Of course, we also went on to win the Division for the first time in 17 years.
Giants were a slugging team that season--over 200 HR if I remember. This season not so much. Hard to hit homers with men on base when you put men on base at a .289 clip!!
Matt Cain at 0.5 fWAR, 0.7 bWAR, first time in a long time he's putting up a positive number.
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