Thursday, August 23, 2018

Shitty Road Trip Ends With a Win

The marquee match-up: Madison Bumgarner facing Jacob deGrom on a fine looking Thursday afternoon in New York.  DeGrom, as you may be aware, is a leading candidate for the Cy Young award because of these numbers:  214 K in 174 innings; 1.71 ERA; 0.97 WHIP; .205 BAA.  He doesn't have so many wins, though, actually, after today he is 8 - 8.  That's because the Mets are actually a worse team than the Giants, clocking in with a 56 - 71 record.

DeGrom struck out 10 today in 6 innings, allowing 1 earned run and 2 total.   He allowed only 4 hits but put 4 Giants on base via the walk.  Madison pitched better.  He went 8 innings, threw 109 pitches (but only 73 to get through 6 innings), hit one Met with a pitch, but walked none.  Also, the 2nd run was a Madison Bumgarner rbi double in the 4th, scoring Austin Slater.  The first was Steve Duggar, who walked and went to 3rd on a ground out before scoring on a passed ball.  Todd Frazier homered for the Mets in the 7th.  Evan Longoria hit a solo home run in the 8th to make the final 3 - 1 Giants.  Will Smith got the save.

This road trip started with 2 victories over a good Los Angeles dogger team.  It ended with today's victory to give the Giants a 4 - 6 road trip record.   There are 6 teams in the 15-team National League that have a record that is sub-.500.  The Giants aren't even on the top of that pile of dog doo, Pittsburgh is.  The split the 4 games with the Mets (15 games under .500) and lost all 3 to the Reds (also 15 games under .500 which includes the victories over the Giants).  The Giants climb back to 3 games under.  It never ceases to amaze me how the Giants have the talent to play with the elite teams, but manage to play down to the crappy ones.  They come home to face the Rangers (last in the AL West at 15 under, so THEY should be a problem) and Arizona (still in first place in our division of deplorables) before they get a day off.

4 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

That was a great game! I think I expected more games like today's out of the Giants this season. Alas, they've been few and far between, but man that was a great game! Bumgarner turned it up a notch and the RBI double was full-on Beast Mode. I thought the Giants, despite the big K totals, worked hard and were pesky and forced a lot of pitches out of deGrom. The late homer from Longoria was just the kind of thing he was signed to do, of course we've not seen enough of that, but it was great nonetheless. And the little-ball run with Duggar's walk & steal, the grounder, and the passed ball, that was also great. Giants really need a leadoff hitter next year, I'm hoping Duggar can improve his hitting and his on-base skills enough to be that guy. To work a walk and steal off deGrom was huge. And Slater got another hit, I'm happy to see that. Hope he can find his stroke, too.

Zo said...

You're right, it was a great game. I wish I could live for the moment more - let the game wash over me without thinking about how the Giants are doing in the standings, or whether they have a chance, or what they would have to do to get a chance, or, for that matter, last night. Madbum is looking more like vintage MB every game. Belt should start finding some hits soon, too.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Man, Belt is Mr. Hard Luck. He and Cain have a lot in common. Something always seems to derail Belt when he's really producing. I can't believe he had appendicitis! How many ballplayers in your lifetime have been sidelined by appendicitis? Crazy. He needs to get his groove back on!

nomisnala said...

The giants beat DeGrom, the giants beat Scherzer, but they lose 3 games to Cincy, and can barely score any runs against guys with ERA's above 4 or even above 5 before they pitched against the giants. This is a team that plays to the level of the opposition. Such teams become 500 teams give or take a game or two either way. Can anyone put a fire under these guys to finish the season with a big time winning record? Bochy, the future hall of famer, no longer seems to be able to do it.