Kevin Gausman gets the Matt Cain Award for a brilliant effort that results in a loss for the team. He held the Pirates scoreless through eight and was leading 1-0 in the 9th but was bedeviled by two bloopers from the first two batters. On came Jake McGee who gave up a grounder through the drawn-in infield and the game was tied. McGee struck out the next three and Tyler Rogers pitched a scoreless 10th. The Giants could only manage one run in the 11th and Caleb Baragar couldn't hold the 2-1 lead. The Pirates got two in the bottom half to even up the series.
If you like old school NL-style pitching duels the 2021 Giants are your team. In fact, the 2021 version of MLB is looking like 1968. Tonight there were a lot of clutch defensive plays by both teams and luck--both good and bad--played a big role. When games are close, anything can happen. The Giants lineup could not get it going against six Pittsburgh pitchers and it cost them a win. Kevin Gausman's final line: 8+ IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 12 SO, 96 pitches to 29 batters.
Johnny Cueto tomorrow at 3:35 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
p.s. Baragar had only allowed one run (unearned) this season in his first 14 appearances (11 IP). He did not allow a run in his final 16 appearances last season (14-1/3 IP).
3 comments:
A disturbing stat I noticed was that Buster Posey was only hitting 167 with runners in scoring position, but 477 with not one on base. Does he just hit better when pitchers are in the windup. Is this just a statistical anomaly? (sample size error). Or is this something he needs to address? The guy is hitting 365, with 8 home runs, and lately has been hitting more toward the top of the lineup, but yet only has 12 RBI. He is scoring a lot of runs but not driving them in. Having Posey behind the plate is a great asset but I am just not sure how he can benefit with information coming in from advanced metrics. Hopefully Cueto will find his A game Saturday. The giants had their chances, and had a lead in the game, but could not hold on vs the last place Pirates. The giants did hit quite a few balls hard, but way too frequently in spots where they were easily fielded and turned into outs. Of course Pittsburgh also made a few very nice plays in the field.
One of the things about batting average with RISP is that it varies a lot from year-to-year. Guys who are "clutch" one year are ordinary or even "bad" the next year.
I think of it as one of those "story" stats, that is, it tells the story of the team or the player for that season. As in "they won because they got lots of hits with RISP." It is not an analytical or predictive stat, that is, it doesn't tell you anything about the hitter, it just reflects the vagaries of sequencing.
The problem with one-run games is a couple of fluky hits or lucky bounces can determine the outcome.
It's hard not to like a manager who says this:
“There’s actually a lot of good things that happened in this game,” Kapler said. “I thought our guys were gritty and resilient. The ending is super shitty. But I really, really feel like a lot of the guys did good work today, (including) Rogers and McGee.”
It's the Hunter Pence School of Baseball--focus (relentlessly) on the positive. It's a funny thing that ballplayers have to do, to forget about the past and ignore the notion of failure. It's all about going forward and getting better.
Kap may be a weird cat but he's authentic. He's not a phony. He is who he is, a Valley Boy (he's from Reseda), a California Dude. He speaks a blend of Post-Hippie Life Coach and Corporate Group Think but he also can get really specific about particular events and players. I think he's working really hard and lives and breathes what he's preaching. The players seem to respond to it and I don't hear any complaints.
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