SF 2 COL 0
I've always hated the idea of a 'stopper' in baseball, it's such a negative thing. Instead of a guy who helps you win you have a guy that stops you from losing. Terrible. But baseball is as much about losing as it is about winning. Kind of like what one guy--I can't remember who--said about writing, that it was really about managing writer's block. I can relate to that. So tonight we got a guy who stopped the losing, and far from a negative thing it was an enormous positive event. I know "enormous" is hyperbolic, by my goodness an eleven-game losing streak is a string of events that even hyperbole can't encompass.
Chris Stratton breathed life into the gasping near-corpse that is the 2018 Giants with a scintillating shutout of the first-place Colorado Rockies. It was his first MLB complete game and the first by a Giants pitcher this season. The 27-year old from Tupelo allowed only two hits and two walks and kept the Rockies from making solid contact all night long with a dazzling array of curveballs and superb command of the fastball and cutter. Despite leading the club in pitcher-wins (10) it has been a hard slog for the former first-rounder. Only half (12 of 25) of his starts have been of the QS variety (min 6 IP, max 3 RA). Eleven times he's lasted five or fewer frames. Eight of those he's allowed four or more runs. But at the end of August he threw eight scoreless against the D-Backs at home and followed that with a solid effort against the Mets. He got rocked in Milwaukee, but responded with his best-ever effort tonight to play the stopper.
The Giants ended their eleven-game slide, the worst in the sixty-year history of the San Francisco franchise. Like I said, baseball is as much about losing as it is about winning. How you manage your losing streaks--and they will come to all ballclubs--says much about you. Just like how players manage those inevitable slumps. They will happen to every one in uniform, no exceptions. The Giants have played themselves into a gaping organizational cavern, and how they'll find their way out is anyone's guess. But at least we can get excited about a terrific performance by a player that will probably be an important piece of next year's team. For tonight, that's all right. Nice work, Strat. Keep it up!
--M.C.
3 comments:
The Giants have had at least one CG in every season. Strat kept the streak alive! Only the D-Backs have more CG's than the Giants: two. The Dodgers, Rockies, and Padres have zero so far in 2018.
stratton has shown flashes of being able to do this throughout his career, but unable to sustain these performances. He did have a nice run in 2017.
It would be nice to see him healthy and consistent for an entire season. Remember Jonathan Sanchez? He was around for a while before it all came together for him. Giants got some pretty epic performances from him for a stretch. Maybe Strat can give us a few back-to-back seasons like that. Ryan Vogelsong had a similar run as well and he was in his thirties before it all clicked.
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