And once again, when and whether Madison Bumgarner would be on another team was the very first thing out of the mouth of the host of the post-game show on tv (Kelli Johnson). (following long winded rant deleted).
But anyway, Madbum pitched great and the Giants beat the Crockies, 4 - 2. It probably should have been 4 - 1, but in the 6th, after a Charlie Blackmon double, David Dahl hit a pop that our left fielder, Alex Dickerman, had no clue as to the location of. It dropped and Blackmon scored. It wasn't an error, even though it kind of was, because Dickerman never got close to the ball. Madbum threw 97 pitches in 6 full innings, he gave up a solo home run to Ian Desmond in the 2nd and a total of 2 runs, 3 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 11. That means he just passed Matt Cain by 1 K to claim the #5 spot on the all time Giants strikeout list.
Madbum got a hit, too, that proved to be the GWRBI. In the 4th, after Dickerson singled to start the inning, and Pillar and Longoria lined out, Crawford drew a walk and Solano singled to score Dickerson and put Crawford on 3rd. That was the Giants second run. Madbum, with 2 strikes, lined a single to left to score Crawford for the third. Belt sacrificed Solano home in the 2nd and Tyler homered with no one on in the 7th. Know what else happened? The Giants did not roll over against a pitcher they had never seen before. How about that! The Giants are 12 - 10 in June and 7 - 7 against western division foes this month, with more to come.
2 comments:
Dickerson lost the ball in the lights and did the right thing by letting his teammates know that he could not make the play. (Pillar almost did!) You can't really fault a guy for that situation, it can happen to anyone, it is one of those random events that no one controls. Perhaps we can blame the park architect. The important thing is that Bum got the out on the next guy. (You know me and my impatience with "errors" and "unearned vs. earned runs" and all that, I'll spare you my rant as well. There are so many better ways to evaluate pitching and defense these days.)
I like that the team is playing better ball this month. And it was good to see the big lefty look filthy.
One of the guys on the post-game wrap, Kruk or Kuip, joked about a package deal including Bum, Dyson, Watson, and Smith all to one club for "five prospects and the team plane." I thought that was pretty funny.
That's about what I expect - trade 4 really good guys for 5 might-be-able-to-make-it-but-might-not guys.
But I did want to mention our relief. Dyson, Watson and Smith all have ERA+ greater than 150. Smith's is 219 with no blown saves out of 21 chances this year. And, like last night, he made it look easy against the heart of their order. Look around the league at all the late scoring and blown saves and you know that a lot of teams want better relief. They always do, and especially these days with the tendency of teams to limit starts and pull starters in any inning as soon as they get into trouble.
Post a Comment