Friday, June 29, 2018

The Suarez-Slater-Smith Show

SF 2 AZ 1
The Giants bounce back from yesterday's heartbreaker with a superbly-pitched effort tonight in Arizona. Rookie Andrew Suarez allowed only one run in his six-inning start, stymieing a hot Diamondbacks lineup with a heap o'grounders (they had FIVE infield hits). Rookie Austin Slater had three great at-bats, hammering a liner each time, two went for doubles, both drove in a run. That was the offense. Rookie Reyes Moronta pitched the 7th in dominating fashion. He's been superb this season what with 42 K and 19 H in 35-2/3 IP. Tony Watson was equally brilliant with a 1-2-3 8th. He has to be the best off-season move the team made. Will Smith overpowered them in the 9th for his first career save*. So nice to have him healthy and performing at the level everyone was hoping for. A terrific win against the first-place club, especially in their yard. The Giants were 25-30 on May 29th, here on June 29th they are 43-40. Not a bad turnaround!

Five more games on the road and then they are back home for six before The Break. Derek Rodriguez starts tomorrow night (7:10 Pacific). Go Giants!

--M.C.

*turns out it was second career save, his saved a game with Milwaukee in 2014 

2 comments:

Zo said...

I think the loss to Colorado was a case of going to the well once too often. What are we at now, 4 one run games in a row? Good thing we won 3 of those.

M.C. O'Connor said...

The pitching has been excellent this month. 84 RA in 27 games (17 victories). That's pretty damn good (3.1 rpg). The young starters are getting that seasoning they need and starting to be more consistent. The 'pen has been dominant. Yeah, they'll blow a few now and then, the workload, as you say, is a factor, but they sure look good overall. But I really like the way the starters are figuring it out. Cueto's return will certainly help. I have this crazy idea that maybe the closer we are looking for is Jeff Samardzija. What if we paid that guy to throw for an inning every other night instead of 200 per season? Just go out there and throw what Buster tells you and don't think. He's got plenty of heat his secondary pitches would work better in the short duration spots instead of the long haul. I know it's a nutty idea, but why not?