Saturday, August 18, 2018

One Run a Game, That's All We Ask

Well, that sucked, didn't it?

32 innings, 3 games, 3 runs.  Remember back, earlier in the season, when the Giants were among the league leaders in home runs?  WTF happened?  We hit fly balls to the track, they hit home runs.  When we go to a bandbox on a warm night, we hit fly balls to the track.

Madison Bumgarner pitched against the Reds and Matt Harvey.  The Reds are in last place in their division, by a substantial margin.  The Giants are now 2 games below .500.  Matt Harvey was at one time a pretty good pitcher with the Mets.  Then he sucked.  But maybe seeing his name in the lineup to start against the Giants is like a super B vitamin/steroid/line of coke/adrenaline rush.  Or maybe it's magic, because it seems to work for everything from untested rookies to washed-up rehab projects.

Madison pitched well for 3 innings, then he didn't.  After 6, it was 6 - 0 Reds.  Then Hunter Strickland, who is here solely to be showcased before he can be moved for, hopefully, someone with at least half a brain added a run.  Matt Harvey threw 6 1/3.   The Giants loaded the bases in the 8th with NO OUTS.  They got 1 run, and were lucky to get that.   Final score: 7 - 1 Reds.

Ron's right - short of astounding reversal at this late date, there has to be a change.   Probably several, and look for many of our favorites to be gone in the off season.  Waiting for guys to get healthy is not going to win more games - everyone IS healthy except for Cueto and Smardjy, and you're not going to see better performances from them than you've seen from DRod and Holland lately.

2 comments:

nomisnala said...

Saturday's game was brutal. Didn't we used to hit Harvey when he was a good pitcher, and now that he is not, the giants cannot hit him. Back to back days they faced someone with an above 4 ERA and then an above 5 ERA and they could not do squat. Yet this team beat Scherzer and made Atlanta's cracker jack rotation look eminently human. The middle of the lineup needs to produce. Not sure if Belt was hurting, or Bochy made a lefty righty switch to put in Slater to pinch hit for him. But if that is not sending a message, I do not know what is. Pinch hitting a league minimum player, without serious power, for a proven first base hitter with a reasonable amount of power. The bases were loaded and I believe no outs. That could either work for Bochy, or get the veterans more upset.

Brother Bob said...

Ugh. Just when a flicker of hope appeared, this stinker of a series comes along. This season is lost. Not as awful as last year, obviously.