The Giants used eight pitchers and three homers to subdue the Nationals tonight and notch their 55th win. Logan Webb returned to the rotation and logged a tidy three innings, yielding only one hit and striking out four. He left with a 3-0 lead courtesy of a two-out RBI from Darin Ruf in the 1st and a two-run homer from Curt Casali in the 2nd. Jose Alvarez and John Brebbia gave the lead back in the 4th, but Jarlin Garcia, Zack Littell, Dominic Leone, Tyler Rogers, and Jake McGee each pitched a scoreless inning to redeem the 'pen. Giants fielders put on a show, the highlight being a Brandon Crawford double play in the 6th where he made a miraculous dive to steal a hit and then glove-flipped it to Donovan Solano who barehanded it at the bag and then threw to first. They also threw out a runner at the plate in the 4th to end the inning and again in the 7th to get the second out and stifle a rally. The runner in both cases was Gerardo Parra! Parra also hit into a double play to end the 8th. The Nats put a lot of pressure on Giants relievers but the defense stepped up and bailed them out. A homer by Ruf in the 5th gave the Giants the lead back and one by Wilmer Flores in the 7th completed the scoring.Ruf is 6-for-12 in his last five games with four runs scored and seven RBI.
Day game tomorrow (1:05) with Anthony DeSclafani getting the start.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
10 comments:
I think the new uniforms are kind of dumb-looking. They aren't hideous, but they aren't an improvement, either. The players seem to like them. It's some promotion with Nike. Let's hope they don't wear them too often.
The uniforms are quite lame. Too white, no black is absurd. The big g is lame too. Looks like spray paint on edges, not fog. Definitely lose them.
The game however was not lame. Yet another highlight festival. I swear this team cranks out the best highlights. Regularly. The Crawford flip dp is so slick. And of course homers are the classic highlight. Is this team really more “flashy” or am I just having a post pandemic reaction?
I think "no black" is my biggest critique. That is absurd, as you say. I'll give 'em props for using lots of orange, but you gotta have some black. Like I said they aren't hideous, so I'm thankful for that. I guess my bar is kinda low!
Funny I wouldn't call this team "flashy" despite all the highlights. They get contributions up and down the lineup and from role players as well as starters. Hell, they are all "role" players except Yaz and Craw! I think it's their no-nonsense vibe. They are calm and collected and play a very grind-it-out, attritional style of baseball. Homers are flashy but the Giants don't have anyone who will finish among the leaders. They'll have ten guys with ten or more instead. Timmy was flashy but Gausman isn't even though he is kicking ass and pitches similarly (FB/splitter). Gausman looks so relaxed out there sometimes it's hard to believe he's one of the game's aces!
Here's Ruf:
“It’s just a total team effort,” Ruf said. “I think it starts with our pitching and our defense. It takes a lot of pressure off us offensively to not try to do more than you’re capable of. It’s about having quality at-bats. Luckily, the quality at-bats that a lot of us are having end in positive results.”
That's from Maria Guardado's game story on the website.
Ruf, in my mind, embodies this team. He's stepped up to play an exceptional first base after Wade went down (who was subbing for Belt!). He is a solid outfielder and was mostly a lefty-masher at the start of the year but has evolved into a more complete hitter. He was kind of a nobody who reinvented himself in Korea and has made the most of his chances with the Giants.
The orange isn't the right shade, but the bigger problem is that this is a such a crass money grab akin to putting Spiderman advertisements on bases. (New shit to buy!) Please spare me the response that baseball has always tried to sell stuff, that is no excuse for an AWFUL concept. City Connect, my ass. It was rushed out with almost no thought or effort put into the design at all. The fog is alright, but you know what they put on a proposed (not executed) OAKland uniform? A PALM tree. Boston's is blue and yellow. From Nike's self-congratulatory statement: The designs continue to explore a franchise’s connection to its city and its fanbase, each with distinct personalities, values, customs and traditions.
You can read the whole thing on the Nike website if you want to die a little inside.
The G will come in handy when the team moves to Galveston, though.
I have to say I do like the orange belt.
Y'all have apparently not been paying much attention to the NBA lately - these stupidly-named, irrelevantly-colored, preposterous Uniform variations have been around for a couple of Seasons now. And, they change both names & schemes every year. It's just another way for the money-grubbing Ownership groups to extract more money out of the portion of the fan base that 'has to have' everything that the Team produces. It's sickening.
In 2019-2020, the Blazers had this dopey Grey-Black thing - that year, all of the Team's 'special uniforms' were called the 'City Edition'.
In 2021-2021, the Blazers had this fucking hideous Brown variation (w/ weirdly jagged trim of other irrelevant colors). The special uniforms were called something equally stupid, like the Extra Effort Edition, or something like that.
I hate the whole idea - like I said, it's just not enough to soak the Fans for megabucks for Tickets, Concessions, & normal 'official' clothing & memorabilia. Now, there have to be many more insidious ways to extract hard-earned money.
Needless-to-say, I was so glad, when we were able to thread the needle between that ridiculous 4th of July crap that everyone has to wear & the debut of the 'City Connect' Uniform. On Wednesday night, we got to see a Game featuring 2 Teams wearing 2 of the classiest & most timeless of all Uniforms.
I thought the orange uni looked a lot better with the black batting helmets.
I suppose fans whose favorite color is green or pink or whatever can still like a blue-and-gold team or whatever. They started that with the caps a while back. You can get an SF-logo ball cap in almost any color.
If you look at old TV from the 70s and before hardly anyone in the stands wore team gear. Caps, sure, and an occasional T-shirt, but most folks are in street clothes. That all changed and now everyone wears "the colors" at the games. Merchandise, baby! That's the ticket to riches!! I remember in 1987 during the NLCS it was a big deal on TV that all the Cardinals fans came to the park sporting red. When the Giants came home there was a big push to "wear black" to Candlestick to show support for the team. Now that sort of thing is automatic.
Wow. I must give the uniforms credit for getting everyone to comment. Good to see all the old farts check in!
Also, Zo is right. The orange is off… I thought it was red the first few times I saw it.
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