SF 4 PHI 0
Chris Stratton and three relievers (Tony Watson, Sam Dyson, Hunter Strickland) combine to blank the Phillies to open the month of June. Giants hurlers allowed six singles and a walk while whiffing thirteen. It was a crisp and efficient win featuring the return of Joe Panik who was on base four times at the leadoff spot in his return from the DL. But the real story was a strong start from Stratton, a bounce back for him after an ugly month of May (19 runs in 25-2/3 innings). For the Giants to be competitive they have to get consistent starts so they can use their excellent bullpen effectively without burning them out. Brandon Crawford had two hits and is now slashing .311/.352/.474 to go along with his outstanding glove work. Brandon Belt left the game after two innings which was reported on the broadcast as stomach pain, a tweet from Baggs says he's getting checked for appendicitis. Let's hope he and his .950 OPS are back soon.
Andy Suarez takes the hill tomorrow night (7:05 p.m.). Go Giants!
--M.C.
5 comments:
Belt is OK minus one appendix.
Here's a piece from MLBTR about changing roles for pitchers, referencing Andrew Miller and Sergio Romo. Here's the concluding paragraph for those understandably unwilling to read the whole damn thing:
The evolution of out-getting won’t simply end with the Rays’ latest experiment. There are clear advantages to be found in the creative deployment of pitchers that contrast heavily with baseball traditions, and with teams becoming more and more data driven, you can bet they’ll continue to search for more effective ways to get from zero to 27. Traditions aren’t rules, after all.
I thought that the Giants were using a lot of extra relief this season, but looking at the numbers, I am finding that assumption to be not necessarily true, at least so far. The Giants are 11th in number of innings pitched by starters in the National League (22nd in the majors) but within a standard deviation of the average. The only real outlier are the Nationals, with 31 more innings pitched than the next best team, the Pirates, and that is because of Scherzer. The Mets are barely more than one standard deviation at the low end. This was a bit surprising to me, as it says that lots of teams are pulling their starters in the 5th and 6th innings. Notwithstanding, your comment, "For the Giants to be competitive they have to get consistent starts so they can use their excellent bullpen effectively without burning them out" remains true. Call it a subtle example of the evolution of out-getting, if you want.
Seems to me Blach is good most of the time for about 96 pitches. After that almost all the time there is a definite drop off. Stratton about 90 pitches. The others I am not sure. Of course Bummy is usually good for a bit over 100 pitches. Unless it is the post season I would try not to stretch him to more than 110. That is when he is in mid season shape.
Blach is now slated for relief duties.
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