Thursday, April 12, 2018

Back to .500

SF 7 SD 0
Giants bounce back from their 3-4 homestand with a big win in San Diego. Chris Stratton held the Padres to only one hit in his seven innings of work. Except for a 32-pitch, two-walk 5th he was in command the whole way. The lineup jumped on Padres starter Bryan Mitchell immediately, scoring three in the 1st, and then added four more off Colten Brewer in the 6th. When Mitchell was pulled in the 3rd Andy Green called on Clayton Richard to pinch-hit. His single was the one Padres hit!

That's the third team shutout. The first was Blach/Osich/Gearrin/Watson/Strickland. The second was Cueto/Watson/Strickland. This one was Stratton/Law. Derek Law was just recalled today as Andrew Suarez (who showed some moxie in his debut) was sent back down.

Ty Blach tomorrow. Go Giants!

--M.C.

2 comments:

campanari said...

We all worried about the rotation, and intensified the worry as our three top pitchers went, one by one, on the DL. And we worried still more about the bullpen, minus Smith, minus Melancon. Here we are now, with the Giants tied for seventh in fWAR pitching among the thirty teams in MLB, and eighth in ERA—these stats do not count today’s one-hit shutout by Stratton + Law.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Only 5 HR allowed (4.7% HR/FB rate best in ML). Is that just random variation? Ballpark effects? Games in LA, SF, and SD would tend to suppress homers, I suppose. Or are the pitchers just throwing more sinkers and whatnot and getting more grounders? I don't know. Giants 92 K is near the bottom--23rd. Whatever it is, it is working. 41 RA is 7th-best.

This is a chance for the Giants to get fat. Play even with the tough clubs, stomp on the weaker ones. This should be a mismatch. We'll see!