SD 4 SF 1
The Giants broke their 17-inning scoreless streak in the 9th inning when Evan Longoria led off with a homer against Padres reliever Phil Maton. They loaded the bases with one out against closer Kirby Yates, but Gerardo Parra and Brandon Belt both struck out looking to end it. Home plate umpire Lance Barksdale got an earful from both hitters and the Giants bench as both final strikes were borderline calls. He probably had a hot date and needed to finish up! Regardless, the lineup struggled once again to execute and create scoring chances. The Padres didn't exactly batter Derek Holland (4 IP, 3 R, 5 K) and Trevor Gott (1-2/3 IP, 1 R, 2 K) but they did enough with seven hits (including two doubles and a homer) and four walks. Travis Bergen, Mark Melancon, and Sam Dyson completed the final 2-1/3 yielding only one hit and whiffing two. Holland looked like he had a nice fastball-slider combo working but the Padres wore him down (18 batters, 71 pitches) anyway. Gott has some nasty stuff but looked a little wild. It was a revamped lineup (Posey batting second and Longoria cleanup--I like those choices) but a familiar result.
Tomorrow's game is at 5:40 Pacific with Derek Holland facing 22-year old Nick Margevicius.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
3 comments:
The little graphic on espn's play-by-play shows that last pitch to Belt was a strike. There was no graphic box on tv, or at least on my tv, from which to judge. Belt has a good eye, but seems to get called out a lot on pitches just like these, or ones where he is correct, but it's close enough. He has the plate discipline, but needs to swing at those pitches. Being called out on strikes in the last at-bat doesn't help the team much, even if he's right about the call.
Belt's strength--strike zone discipline--is also his weakness. We've seen him watch a lot of called third strikes. But over the long haul he will likely benefit from his patience, and get on base at a decent clip. I'd like to see him lead off, actually. Over the last few years he and Posey have the best OBPs on the team. I'd bat them 1-2. The problem then becomes the 3-4-5, I'm not sure we have any. Maybe Longoria, who has the best SLG% career-wise, can fit in one of those traditional "power" spots. Maybe the "hot hand" (Panik, Parra, BCraw, whatever) can get the 3-spot. I'd also like to see them hit the pitcher 8th--at least Bumgarner--and get Duggar, Joe, and Reed PAs at the 9th spot.
It may be re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but it can't hurt.
I watched it on the Padres station. There was a graphic box all night. There were consistent strikes on the inside of the box to right handed hitters, and not much outside corners making me think that they placed the box a little off. There were some bad calls to both teams based on the box. But I can tell you this. Belt's pitch last night in the ninth was the only pitch in that position all game that was called a strike. No similar pitches above the Padre's graphic box had been called a strike. Also only two pitches slightly below the line of the graphic box had been called strikes. One was earlier in the game to Crawford, and the other was to Parra. As far as Parr's pitch being outside, I will say even pitches more outside had been called strikes but none of them at the bottom or slightly below the bottom of the zone. If you can catch a replay of the game on the Padre's station you can see the game with the graphic strike zone box.
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