SF 5 OAK 4
Evan Longoria had two hits (one a homer) and three runs batted in to lead the offense in a comeback win over the Athletics in Oakland. It was an impressive weekend for the Boys in Black as they bounced back from a tough series in Wrigley and beat a very good team to get back to a .500 record (65-65). Longo tops 1000 RBI for his career--he came in to the game today with 999 and now has 1002. His next milestone will be his 300th homer, he has 293 of those so that might be next year, but he will certainly get to 3000 total bases next month as he currently sits at 2984. He's not the star player he once was, but he's playing his best baseball since 2016, and he's the team (non-pitcher) WAR leader. He's been a big contributor to the club's turnaround and subsequent level of improved play.
Speaking of improved, the bullpen work today was exceptional. Jandel Gustave relieved a beleagured Logan Webb and got a huge strikeout. He then put two on in the next frame but Sam Coonrod bailed him out (with some superb DP work from Solano and BCraw). Then we got the three-headed beast of Moronta, Watson, and Smith to close it out. Like I said, exceptional work. And like I said earlier, an impressive weekend.
Diamondbacks in San Francisco tomorrow night at 6:45 PDT. Tyler Beede gets the start.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
7 comments:
The three headed beast worked like it is supposed to for the first time since the trade deadline, seemingly. And what's up with Longo? Without looking up stats, he seems like he is better defensively than previous years and I'm sure he is much better with the bat. It's a welcome sight to see him turn into the guy they traded for.
PS. The Giants moved up on every wild card chasing team in front of the (except Wasington, who beat the Cubs).
According to Fangraphs, Longoria is better defensively than he’s been any season since 2011; and his fWAR, normalized to 600 PA, is over 3. Matt Chapman and David Fletcher are having better defensive seasons than he, and he’s about tied with Nolan Arenado as to defensive fWAR per equal game exposure.
That is, ONLY Chapman and Fletcher are better defensively at 3B in all 2019 MLB, as measured by exposure-normalized fWAR.
He is hitting about 100 points (OPS) higher than last season. Add in the stellar glove work and he's making a big contribution to the team. If he can stay healthy and be a steady producer that trade is going to pay off. Rays are still contributing to his salary, they owe an additional $9M over the next three years. The Giants need an infield make-over so it will be good if Longoria can hold down third base.
Here is something I wrote on July 9: "33 wins out of 73 remaining gives Bruce Bochy a nice, even 2000 wins for his career. 40 wins out of 73 remaining gives the Giants a .500 record for 2019."
At the time, 33 wins seemed possible, but not likely and 40 seemed a bit of a stretch. Well, after what was improbably a winning 9-game road trip wrapped around 4 consecutive losses, the Giants are at .500 and only 9 wins away from his 2000th career win as a manager (his 1000th as a Giant manager came on June 4 with a 6-run 10th inning in New York against the Mets). Who'd a thunk it?
Yeah, the team really turned it around. A lot of that was due to the new faces. The roster-churning paid off. Let's hope they can sustain the better play all the way to the final six games at home against the Rockies and the Dodgers and finish over .500!
Should be an exciting off-season. Getting a new manager is a big deal. Plus I expect some higher-profile moves will be happening. Bumgarner, for one. We'll see how that goes.
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