After scoring less than 4 runs per game for July, the Giants beat the dbacks behind Madison Bumgarner tonight by a score of 8 - 1. That suggests that Madison dominated and that the Arizona starter flailed, but neither of those things are true. Zach Greinke threw for the snakes, he was effective and made it through most innings in very few pitches as the Giants made quick outs. Evan Longoria put the Giants on the board with a 1st inning solo home run, and Madison loaded the bases before getting the 3rd out in the 1st. Maddy also loaded the bases in the 2nd, and allowed a tying run to score on a sac fly. He allowed 2 runners on in the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and 1 in the 5th. Somehow, no further runs scored, but by that time he had thrown over 100 pitches and was done for the evening. Maddy's line: 5 innings, 101 pitches, 7 hits, 3 walks, but only 1 run. Meanwhile Greinke allowed only 4 hits and 1 walk. 2 of those hits came in the 5th, when Austin Slater, who is the only Giant who has a batting average that is not totally unimpressive these days, doubled, went to 3rd on a Steve Duggar ground out, and then scored on a Madison Bumgarner rope to left. That was the Giants' second run and Greinke left the game at 2 - 1 Giants.
The game fell apart for the dbacks with their relief - recently acquired Jake Diekman was a mess, walking 2; recently acquired (or, re-acquired) Brad Ziegler gave up 4 runs on 3 hits and TJ McFarland added the 8th. Melancon, Black and Blach allowed no runs in relief.
So that's 4 wins in a row for the Giants, just 1 short of their season's best streak. It is also their 5th consecutive win against the dbacks. LA won (by a lot), so the win only moves the snakes 1 game behind, although Colorado also loses a game. The Panda will need hamstring surgery, so is out for the year. Brandon Belt will need another 8 - 10 days on the DL, according to Alex Pavlovic. Chris Stratton is expected to re-join the Giants.
5 comments:
The giants won this game, in a manner that they have lost too often over the last year and a half. Good to see a win, and a comfortable win, in a game that looked as if it would have been close. Bumgarner was channeling Houdini.
Take 'em anyway we can get 'em. Too bad about Sandoval, he was playing well overall in his multi-part role. Man I hope Belt gets back soon.
What's the deal with Stratton? When the season started with 3 rookie pitchers, he was THE GUY everyone wanted to see. Last night he pitched about as poorly as possible for a pitcher not to get yanked in less than an inning.
Ever since Stratton's wife gave birth he has not been the same pitcher. What happened to his elite spin rate? The Sandoval injury is odd. Not like the guy did not do his stretches. Despite his physical appearance the guy could do a split on first base to catch a ball quickly and get the runner out on a close play. The exact spot he was holding, I have torn my hamstring. It hurt like hell, but within about 6 weeks without surgery I was able to function at about 100 percent. His injury must have been really bad, but he did not seem to think it was that bad at first. Those MRI's they can be something. I already miss his left hand at bats late in the game with a righty on the mound and the giants need some runs.
Yeah the Stratton thing is a mystery. Just goes to show how hard it is to succeed in the big leagues.
Post a Comment