It took seven pitchers to get the shutout, but the Giants 1-0 victory over the Dodgers tonight in LA has to be one of the most satisfying wins of the season. Eking out a run in the 1st on a bases-loaded Kevin Pillar ground out, the Giants made it stand up against the best offense in the NL. The Dodgers have 253 homers in 143 games, an average of 1.77 per game or roughly seven homers every four games. Not tonight!
In the 5th inning starter Tyler Beede, who had looked great through four, loaded the bases with two outs and had to face Cody Bellinger. In a pennant race there's a good chance he gets pulled (76 pitches), especially with his youth and recent history. Bring in a LOOGY there and go after the putative MVP. But this is a rebuilding team and there is an opportunity to develop a young pitcher, so Boch left in Beede to face Bellinger. Four pitches later he got a fly out to left field and walked off with five of the best innings of his rocky rookie campaign.
With Reyes Moronta on the IL, Tony Watson recovering, and Will Smith unavailable, it took a fresh bullpen approach for the late innings. Shaun Anderson, a closer in college, threw a scoreless 6th with two strikeouts. Tyler Rogers got two outs in the 7th and Andrew Suarez closed the inning and got the first out of the 8th. There was a tense moment when Sam Coonrod hit Justin Turner with a pitch but Fernando Abad induced a double play from Bellinger to finish the 8th. In the 9th Jandel Gustave gave us tooth-gnashing moments with a walk and a scary line out but Kike Hernandez obliged with a double play grounder and the Giants had their win. You have to love the creative use of the pitching staff, and the fact that they executed--in new roles--against a very tough opponent. It was torture, of course, I would have preferred a 10-0 lead, but it all worked out. That's back-to-back one-run wins!
Bruce Bochy has the most wins (107) of any visiting manager in Dodger Stadium. That's only the fifth time this season the Dodgers have been shut out.
Dereck Rodriguez gets the start tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 PDT.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
p.s. Johnny Cueto starts Tuesday night at home against the Pirates.
5 comments:
At least now the Dodgers cannot clinch the West against the Giants tomorrow.
I'm starting to think that Tyler Rogers has some real potential. At first he registered as a gimmick pitcher and those guys don't last long. But he has shown some serious stuff and guts to go with his underhand approach.
It's been a weird and unsatisfying season but it sure feels great to BEAT LA two in a row.
There's Brad Ziegler. Steve Reed pitched until he was 40. I suppose you can go back to Dan Quisenberry and Kent Tekulve as well. Like a knuckleballer, a siderarmer/submariner can find work in the bigs.
Another good story on The Athletic (by Baggs) about the Giants bullpen. Here's a snippet:
Entering Saturday’s game, the “traded trio” (Melancon, Dyson and Pomeranz) had thrown 41 innings since Aug. 1. Their combined totals: 5.27 ERA, 42 hits, seven home runs, 51/15 K/BB ratio.
The holdover pieces (Watson, Smith, Gott and Moronta) also had thrown a combined 41 innings since Aug. 1. Their combined totals: 6.37 ERA, 46 hits, nine home runs, 44/28 K/BB ratio.
And what about the three primary relievers (Gustave, Coonrod, Abad) that replaced the traded trio? They also had worked 41 innings since Aug. 1. Their combined totals: 2.63 ERA, 26 hits, three home runs, 22/13 K/BB ratio.
The Giants have used 60 players this season and the Mariners have used 62. The record is 64 by the 2014 Rangers. Only four position players from the Opening Day group are still on the team: Posey, Belt, BCraw, Longo.
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