On June 29th, 1967 in St. Louis, the Giants scored 11 runs in the first inning. Nine of those were charged to Bob Gibson who exited without getting the third out. Bob Gibson! The Cardinals won the World Series that season. No one is going to confuse German Marquez for Bob Gibson, or the '67 champs for the '21 Rockies, but the Giants scored 10 runs in the first inning in Denver today. Marquez only lasted 2/3 of an inning, too.
Brandon Belt launched a no-doubter for a grand slam, and had an RBI single as well, giving him a 5-RBI inning. Let's just say there were lots of offensive highlights, but we do have to mention Buster Posey yanking one immediately following Belt's bomb, which is way cool. Buster had three hits and is now slashing .382/.440/.735 for an OPS of 1.175!
Is ten runs enough in Coors Field? Maybe. The Giants tacked on two more in the 6th with a two-run homer from Brandon Crawford, so apparently they weren't sure, either. Way to go, greybeards! Seriously, you never know in that accursed place, and I admit to some irrational worrying that the Giants would make a mess of things and blow the lead. That's because "Coors Field, man." Do I have to say more?
Aaron Sanchez gave up a grand slam of his own to Raimel Tapia, but that was it for the Rockies. They got all seven hits in the first four frames. The Giants bullpen--Jose Alvarez and Matt Wisler--split the final three innings, marred only by Alvarez' two walks. Wisler was awarded the win for completing the final 1-2/3. Obviously a starting pitcher has to go five innings in a nine-inning game to get a W, but don't you think it could be changed to four innings for a seven-inning game? (I don't really care, mind you, but it does raise the question.)
That's a great way to start a series, don't you think? Score ten runs first chance you get? Yeah, I like that. Let's see some more of that!
--M.C.
update: See? 10 runs is just enough! The Giants lose the second game 8-6 on a walkoff homer. Giants led 6-2 going into the bottom of the 7th but Jake McGee could only get two outs and got pulled after giving up three runs. Camilo Doval then induced a pop-up that shoulda-coulda been the third out but fell for a hit. Then the homer. The Giants wasted a lot of scoring opportunities earlier in the game. Brutal loss. A sweep would have been sweet.
p.s. Logan Webb tomorrow at 12:10 Pacific. Go Giants!
8 comments:
In the second game a few things bothered me. I did not like the choices made late in the game by the giants manager. Maybe later in the season he would have made different decisions. Sometimes earlier in the season I guess, you have to see what guys are going to do. But it seems to me, that Doval can be hit so far by seasoned hitters. His stuff looks good enough to get guys out who are not the really good hitters, but when he came in, myself and my friends watching the game said we could see a walk off homer coming. It is like when he decided to keep putting in Trevor Gott when he was off, and every time he put him in to close, it failed. Sometimes the kinks have to be worked out before guys keep going into high pressure situations. Once again I thought the calling of balls and strikes had their impact. Although Rogers got a nice call on an inside pitch, and it helped the giants, Belt had two horrible calls on one of his AB's with runners in scoring position and one out. Instead of a walk, and the bases loaded with one out, he went back to the dugout with a K. In the bottom of the 7th, on a 1-0 pitch McGee made a nice pitch over the plate to story, called a ball. Then he came in with one with the 2-0 count catching more of the plate and story jumped on it for a double. I thought the bloop pop up would be the end of the game, but with the outfield playing deep, and with Flores slow afoot, it was an ominous hit. At least the giants are still in first, but they have lost too many games in late innings with large leads. We may need to find ourselves a real closer, or at least, different late inning pitching decisions may be required. It looked as if all the cards were falling in the right place for the giants today, until the bottom of the seventh in the second game. We can chalk it up to Coors field, but Alex Wood deserved better than that. Time to learn from mistakes and not blow too many games late, when the giants hold a big lead. Hoping for a series win tomorrow. Maybe at a different park I pinch hit Bart, but in Denver I probably go with a professional hitter against a young pitcher.
I think Doval made the classic mistake of a young pitcher in throwing the same pitch over and over again. He needs to mix it up. But he did induce the pop-up and that's usually an out so I can't complain too much. He's going to have some growing pains.
McGee had a nice long rest and I expected him to be sharper. But the whole relive staff (other than Rogers) has been really inconsistent. It's why they promoted an inexperienced 23-year old in the first place!
I was hoping that with an experienced catcher, that Doval would not fall into that inexperience trap, but the manager kind of fell into the trap. He had other options. We have seen this with other pitchers with great stuff, even though they may come up later than their 23 year old year. Coonrod, and Strickland were among others, even though Strickland was slightly more polished. Caseli has never been as bad a hitter as he has been this year. I thought he was going to pinch hit Posey. A 4 run lead in Denver, should qualify as a save situation.
Yeah I think almost any lead in Coors Field is a "save" situation!
It was a very frustrating loss, but I really think the issue is that none of the relievers (with the exception of Rogers) have been reliable. McGee was all lined up and well-rested, he obviously is not 100%. What do they do with that?
I'm guessing guys like Selman, Baragar, Alvarez, Littell, and Wisler will get more high-leverage opportunities.
Skye Bolt (who had been DFA'd) goes back to Oakland for "cash considerations."
Joey Bart is on the active roster in case you missed that!
I was surprised they pinch hit Bart instead of Posey, with only a 4 run lead in Denver. Is Dickerson a bit hurt or under the weather? I expected him to be in the starting lineup today but he is not. Also after Dubon's HBP, it seemed that he still had some hard swings, but seemed to be missing the ball. I wonder if it affected his grip. I think the 3 batter rule, is significantly affecting the giants bullpen.
I think the 3-batter rule is bad for everyone!
The reason it seems worse for the giants than some other teams is that we do not have the big strike out pitchers in relief. Some teams can throw in a guy that is a high strike out guy, and it does not matter so much about the lefty right match ups. Giants pitchers for the most part are more the put it into play type of staff, at least in comparison with the rest of the league. I think it always seems like more of a disadvantage. If we have ground ball type pitchers, and their is a guy on second with less than two outs, it just may be easier to hit the ball toward right, and in case it is grounder, the runner will often advance to third on an out. Something that usually does not happen on a K.
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