Madison Bumgarner got two quick outs in the 1st and then gave up four runs and that was the ballgame. The Pirates didn't score again and the Giants eked out a run in the 8th on a Buster Posey base hit. The Mystic Zo is here with me tonight and neither of us were particularly excited about posting. After all, it was another goddamn feeble effort. Derek Holland tomorrow at 1:05 PDT.
--M.C.
5 comments:
If you aren't reading The Athletic I have to once again recommend it. There is a piece from Grant Brisbee (ex-McCovey Chronicles) about the Giants pitchers. Turns out they are doing some things really well despite the fact that they don't throw that hard relative to the rest of the league. They have superior command: they get the most called strikes and get the most contact on pitches just out of the zone. They get outs because they pitch to the edges of the strike zone. They "hit the corners." There's not much so far to get excited about this season, but the pitching has been very good (the bullpen is the best at preventing runs) and they are doing it with "fundamentals." It's not like they are the most talented bunch but they are executing consistently. So, that's something.
https://theathletic.com/934538/2019/04/19/getting-outs-without-great-velocity-giants-pitchers-have-the-best-command-in-baseball/
There's a good chance that this April will feature the most homers in a month in the history of the game. Homers are coming at a record pace despite the drug testing. It seems that PEDs allowed players to discover what was possible and today the athletes can do that stuff without the drugs. The game is progressive. Each generation of ballplayers builds on what the previous generations did.
Now if we can only get Giants hitters to knock a few more dingers!
Are we sure that Altuve is not on something, whether legal or not, that is giving him super-powers? Guys like Posey have zero dingers, while as of yesterday, Altuve already had 8. Amazing. I think the recent past when the giants could have made a run for Yelich, or Osuna. They did go for the Marlin's other outfielder who went to the damn Yankees. What an outfield that would have been if the fish would have kept them.
I kept thinking that if one pitch had been in a slightly different location, Madison would have gotten out of that inning without any harm. And then the ball game is entirely different. Not enough offense, particularly timely hits, is killing us.
As far as Altuve goes, this is an MVP-level, elite talent who is just 29 years old. It should not be so surprising that he's having a great season--he is at his athletic peak. Just because he's small doesn't mean he can't hit homers. He is incredibly quick, has superb hand-eye coordination, has won 3 batting titles, and is obviously strong. I'm sure he can generate elite-level bat speed. He gets a lot of suspicion about PEDs because of his size. No one suspects Aaron Judge (6'7", 280 lbs) for example.
One good thing about Bum's start yesterday was no homers. Just one double and five singles. If one of those singles falls into a glove then yeah, the outcome is quite a bit different. Like you say the Giants just don't have enough offense so any blip by the pitchers and they are practically doomed to lose.
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