You would have been forgiven for leaving this game early. I almost did.
Madison Bumgarner had his worst among 35 starts against LA. He didn't even face a starter, LA simply used relief (which is not their strength). He did pretty well for 3 innings, giving up just 1 run. Then came the 4th. They batted around + 1. It went like this: whap, homer, whap, homer, K, single, single, single, fly out, single (for the 5th run of the fucking inning), Bruce Bochy can't take it anymore, changes pitchers. Out.
LA ran the score to 7 - 1 before the Giants mounted a rally in the 7th. They scored 3 from a Crawford sac fly and a Yaz home run. LA got 2 more to again rack up 9 for the game and make it a 5 run lead. The Giants showed spunk in the 9th. Longo and Pillar reached, then Crawford doubled them home. That made it 9 - 6 and brought in Jansen, their closer. He did not shut down the Giants. Yaz singled to bring home Crawford (9 - 7); Vogt, pinch hitting, walked; Panik singled (his first hit of the series, 1 more than Brandon Belt) to drive in Yaz (9 - 8). Austin bunted, and Vogt was out at third. Maybe. But Posey lined out and Belt flew out to end it.
Were there bad calls? Posey, a guy who takes the discretion-is-the-better-part-of-valor view of umpire interactions, made a case because he was called out on a strike that Madbum did not get, just before Barnes' home run. Vogt may have been safe. I am sick of hearing about how you have to have sufficient evidence to overturn. Either make the correct call, regardless of what the on-field umps called, or the hell with it. In any case, the Giants, so badly over-matched for 2 games after their impressive win way back on Monday, drop the 4th game of the series by a final score of 9 - 8 and head to Arizona. Where we will see if their recent semi-decent play, Tuesday and Wednesday notwithstanding, are a sign of the team or just a mirage.
5 comments:
I was hoping for a better outcome for Bum. I wonder if this was the last time he faces LA in a Giants uniform.
The replay situation is frustrating especially because of the time involved. They ought to be able to say very quickly that a play is "too close to call" and thus the call on the field stands. If you have to do frame-by-frame analysis for five minutes then you have reached the limit of the technology. I've always felt the best use of the replay is to clean up the obvious errors--Jim Joyce and The Perfect Game That Wasn't is an example. The bang-bang plays may be too fast and too close to parse out exactly, at least within the current technology.
I also think the "robot ump" is, at this point, a tech fantasy. We are a long way from an effective system. It will likely require some kind of AI, along with the cameras and sensors in the ground, and possibly even sensors in the uniforms. The boxes on TV and on GameCast are cute, but they are only idealized simulations.
Umpire training and accountability using Statcast data and other biometrics applications is the best way forward. Maybe in a few years we can see some pilot robot ump systems in minor-league parks or at exhibition games and they can start to work out the kinks. People have too much faith in technology. These things aren't magic and they require enormous inputs of energy and time to develop, deploy, and trouble-shoot.
"I wonder if this was the last time he faces LA in a Giant uniform". That, with a question mark, was exactly the Chron's headline and I'm sick of it. I fully expected today's to be "Madbum's Trade Value Decreases". I just want to watch my favorite pitcher for my favorite team, but everyone else is watching market gyrations. I guess I'm an anachronism.
I wonder if that dirt bike fiasco in 2017 poisoned the well with the FO. He was on the last year of a team-friendly deal and it seemed like they were poised to talk about an extension. If he had been healthy and done something similar to 2015 or 2016 that season I think they would have extended him. Alas, he was out for two months. So, they exercised his option instead.
He might have been able to re-build his "value" with a good 2018 but he got injured, this time a baseball injury, but an injury nonetheless. So, there was no talk of a new contract and they exercised his final option for this season. Plus, they had already gone "all-in" on Melancon and Cueto and Samardzija and that probably kept them from throwing good money after bad.
It is unfortunate. I'd rather not see him in another uniform but it seems increasingly likely. I suspect his value, even ignoring yesterday's start, is not all that high. As a starter he is among the lead leaders in IP but strictly middle-of-the-pack in almost everything else.
If you sort for "starters" on FanGraphs, his 1.0 fWAR puts him at 55th, right next to Jon Lester. The Cubs have three guys rated higher: Hamels, Hendricks, and Quintana. Most of the league-leading teams have excellent staffs already, that is why they are leading the league. Bum could help a team like St Louis or Philly or Atlanta, perhaps.
Giants pick up another OF from waivers, this time Joey Rickard, a lefty thrower with a RH bat, like Cody Ross. Nick Vincent goes to the 60-day IL to make space on the 40-man.
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