Well then. A sweep would have been really sweet, but the Giants, generators of 28 runs in their previous 3 games, couldn't find an offense and lost to the dbacks, 6 - 1.
The Giants have won 9 of the last 10 Madison Bumgarner starts, with Madison improving his record from 3 - 7 to 8 - 7 in that time. His opponent was Merrill Kelly. Arizona has won only twice the last 10 times he has been on the mound (one of those was against the Giants in June). Yet the game was really over in the 1st inning. Madison got 2 quick outs, then a double turned into a triple because Slater couldn't pick up the ball cleanly in right, and a walk and a two-rbi triple and a bloop hit and it was 3 - 0. Flores homered in the 5th inning for the 4th run against Madbum.
In the 6th, the Giants pushed a run across thanks to a Yaz triple and a Gennett single. It looked promising, after a Posey ground-out, Belt walked, Pillar struck out and Slater walked to load the bases. But Crawford grounded out to end the inning and that was the end of the Giants offensive threats. They were 1 for 6 with RISP.
Madbum's line: 104 pitches in 6 innings, 6 hits, 2 walks, 4 earned runs and 9 K. And the L. Fernando Abad allowed a solo shot and Tony Watson allowed the 6th run. So the Giants, who didn't play Arizona until May, are now 9 - 8 against them. They were 2 - 4 in the first 2 series in May and 4 - 3 against them in 2 series in June before taking 3 of 4 in Arizona. We have 2 games remaining with this team in SF in the last week in August. No games against them in April or September. The Giants have a day off tomorrow before playing the Cubs in Chicago and then have another day off Friday before playing the A's in Oakland. Weird. The Giants will have to face the Cubs and St. Louis and Boston and Atlanta in addition to Loos Angeles, twice. It will be tough to stay in contention for a wild card. We did get two very strong performances out of young pitchers, so that is positive (and absolutely necessary going forward). Still, I think an off day in Chicago would be lot more fun coming off of a sweep.
2 comments:
difficult to generate offense when you have Posey and Belt batting 3rd and 4th, despite Belts recent modicum of success in this series. Clearly, with these guys batting 3rd and 4th, compared to league average in those spots it has to cost runs. I don't know why Bochy is not over the experiment of having Posey bat either in the third or fourth slot. I wish it was a few years ago when he was still productive, and maybe he will become productive again some day, but right now he is not a number 3 or 4 hitter, and over the course of the season it has cost us a bunch of runs. Good to see that Panik had 3 hits today including a triple. Maybe if Pillar would have gotten to that ball that turned into a triple in the first inning the game may have gone differently. The giants also had quite a few shots either home run distance or down the line double or triple distance that just went foul. I guess Bochy took a shot at this lineup on a hunch and it did not pan out. I was happy when Gennett hit the double in the first thinking, "at least Posey will not hit into a double play" Shame on me for that thought. Hopefully they will gather up their winning mojo, and take care of the Cubs.
Bum pitched pretty well--nine strikeouts--but had a little bad luck in the 1st. The lack of offense meant it didn't matter that much. I think if they'd racked up a few runs early to tie it or make it closer it could have panned out better, but they didn't get the big hit. Man, they clobbered the ball the last three games. Weird, huh?
I think the off-days are great. A team with an up-in-the-air rotation can use help from the schedule!
Beede Tues, D-Rod Wed, and Smardj Thurs in Chicago. That means Bumgarner Saturday against the A's.
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