1st inning: 7-11
2nd inning: 12-6
3rd inning: 6-12
4th inning: 10-8
5th inning: 11-7
6th inning: 8-10
7th inning: 8-10
8th inning: 6-12
That brings the team to 68-76 (.472), fourth place in the NL West, 11 games off the pace. The Giants are winless (0-8) in the month of September. They had already taken themselves out of the race and now they've fallen off a cliff. Starting tonight there is one seasonal inning--18 games--remaining in 2018: six three game sets; four at home (39-30, .565) and two on the road (29-46, .387). The Braves are in San Francisco this week and the Rockies visit this weekend. The Giants then go to San Diego and St. Louis, and finish the season at home with the Padres and Dodgers. There are three Thursdays left in September, all are off-days. The one tiny flickering hope is that LA will need to win those final three games (Sep 29-30) and the Giants can somehow prevent that. But that's a small consolation in a frustrating and ultimately disappointing season.
The team's 557 runs scored (3.87 rpg) is the 5th-worst in MLB and their 613 runs allowed (4.26 rpg) puts them right in the middle of the pack. One of the few bright spots of the season, rookie right-hander Dereck Rodriguez (1.8 fWAR in 97 IP), gets the ball tonight at 7:15 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
11 comments:
FanGraphs talks to Oakland A's Assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz. I liked this piece because it gave a little insight into what someone in this position in a Major League front office actually does! Kantrovitz was a former director of scouting for the Cardinals and also has a Harvard statistics background.
We'll be thinking A LOT about what the Giants will/won't do and should/shouldn't do this off-season. I've always been curious what it is really like to make those big personnel-and-money decisions, having played armchair GM for so many years as a fan.
6 - 12! Bleah!
I've been away a bit - after my last post, I added a comment about how the Giants could go about winning the division. My intent wasn't to suggest that the Giants might do so, but to show how very difficult it would be for them, more difficult than just playing x% baseball. In that scenario, they would have had to sweep the remaining 16 games against the NL West and then won some other games, and have the other NL West teams break right to get there. Did anyone believe the 2018 Giants would actually sweep all the other games in the division? Of course, the Giants promptly went out and lost against Arizona and then got their sorry asses swept in Colorado. And then again in Milwaukee. So now they are 8 games under .500. If they were to sweep the Padres and beat the doggers 2 of 3 at the end of the season, that's 8 games. And they would have to play .500 baseball in the other 10 games (the other game against LA, and 3 each against Colorado, Atlanta and St. Louis).
That's to finish at .500. Or: thoroughly mediocre. But it is a goal and not an easy one for the Giants. I would love to see them finish at .500 and much of the season they looked like a .500 team, but now it would take a great deal of luck, just like making the playoffs was a little over a week ago. And not that it needs to be said, but the other teams, Colorado, Atlanta and St. Louis, all have something on the line. The only other goal that I can see is to be a spoiler. For LA.
13-5 to get to .500 for the season. That's .722 ball, a rather tall order.
Kurt Suzuki--3 hits last night--is one of those guys who is hitting better at age 34 than ever before in his 12-year career. It is possible for old dogs to learn new tricks, perhaps.
ELEVEN in a row after today's game: that's the longest losing streak since the team moved to San Francisco.
Just weighing in on Wednesday's loss. I thought the umps took a run away from the giants, and gave a run to the Braves, and the N.Y. office was complicit. First, on a bad play, Hanson was safe on first. But he supposedly looked toward second, and was called out making the turn. Earlier in the year. a Dodger game ended when Kemp did something similar, but Kemp actually took a step across and then quickly changed his mind, and went straight. He was similarly called out, and it was the final out of the game I think against Colorado. As much as I was glad to see the bums lose, I thought they were a bit robbed. I posted it somewhere. But this was much worse. Hanson kind of just kind of looked to second and really did not make any real move to second, and stayed on course. They called him out as if he made a real move to second. Seen plenty of guys this year do what Hanson did, and no call. It Ended up that Crawfords two out grounder, probably would have brought in a run. But then we have the two out play with a man on third for the Braves. Longoria makes a nice play, and gets it on a hop to Belt. They call Belt off the bag. The runner was out by several feet. Belt was on the bag through the catch. The giants replayed it. Was sure the call would easily be overturned. They called the guy safe, so instead of three outs and no runs, the runner scored. Both the game umps, and the guys in N.Y. seem not to care much about the game, the giants fans, and seem to want to make sure that Atlanta has no problems making the playoffs. I am sure the Phillies fans that saw that play are equally upset. I have not been happy with calls all year, but ever since the Milwaukee series. it is as if the giants are the designated team to lose to the globetrotters and the umps are in on it.
It's what happens when bad teams play good teams--the little breaks hurt more than they should. Giants can only manage a run or two so EVERY SINGLE PLAY is epic in terms of game results. With the team's pitching doing as well as it has since the 1st of June they should have more wins, but the lineup cannot produce.
The breaks are the breaks, and they in general have not gone the giants way, but in addition, what happened today was more than just breaks, and it is not the only time such things have happened.
I think Hanson's gaffe was the biggest thing. If he's safe on that play they have a chance to score some runs. Hard to believe an almost 26-year old with 1000+ games of pro experience would be caught out like that. But that's one small thing. Mainly they just cannot get hits that drive in runs.
10 unscored RISP yesterday. 2 guys on third with less than 2 outs, unscored. And bad umpiring.
MLB average slash line: .248/.318/.410 (.728 OPS)
Giants team slash line: .241/.303/.373 (.676 OPS)
If you like "new school" stats, the league average wOBA is about .315-.320 and the Giants are tied with the Padres for 29th with .293, besting only the Marlins by .002 points. By wRC+ the Giants and Padres are tied for last with 83 ("average" is 100).
In other news David Wright is retiring at 35. Exceptional player who just could not come back from multiple injuries. Once he turned 30 his body gave out. Guys who can stay healthy and continue to perform at a high level in their 30s are a special breed. Most guys peak out before then and decline fairly predictably. We saw Cain and Lincecum fade away by age 30 or right afterwards. Hunter Pence peaked at 31 and injuries diminished his age 32-33 seasons and by 34-35 he was well below his career norms. We have lots of players in the bigs who are in their 30s and still stars but they are the survivors. Most players are done by then.
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