The Giants got whupped by the Brewers again and have now lost three in a row. Milwaukee has a good team. The Dodgers won and are half a game back. Brandon Belt got his 20th homer--a nice milestone for him, and in only 279 plate appearances.
Kevin Gausman tonight at 6:45 PT.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
6 comments:
Yeah ... things are looking tough right now, what w/ our Starting Rotation in a shambles. On the bright side, Jim & I are 2-0 lifetime in the Arcade, & that's where we're sitting tonight! The only (untested) variation is that we're on the foul side of the Foul Pole. We'll be in the Front Row, & we think that we'll be right above the 'K' Counter. Hoping that Gausman keeps the K's coming, & is generally effective. And, then, some other folks need to step up to the occasion & deliver! Go Giants!!!
It seems odd to me that getting 20 homers is a big deal. It's nice, sure. I just checked Henry Aaron's stats. Beginning in 1955 he hit at least 20 homers per season -- for 20 straight seasons. His best homer year he got 47. He hit 44 multiple times. So consistent.
Not usually one to look on the bright side, but Cueto gave us more innings than our other starters in the last couple days even though he was clearly not up to snuff, and Quintana gave us 3+ with 6 K.
There are only a handful of players that look good in comparison to Henry Aaron. It seems odd to me that we would compare players to freaks like Aaron and Mays! Those guys are the one-percenters. The very tip-top of the pyramid. Most ballplayers--the overwhelming majority--will never come close to those kinds of careers.
For the record, Belt's 4679 PAs makes him 50th among active players. Next year he will crack the Top 1000 among career leaders in PAs. There have been 22,515 ML players, so that's a pretty damn significant accomplishment in my book. You don't last ten seasons in the bigs without being a good ballplayer.
I think the Giants are going to be fine. We knew the Dodgers weren't going away. We knew the team would have some tough stretches. The starting rotation is a little scary right now but I think they will find their groove again.
For the first 7 innings I thought it was one of the better home plate umpire games as far as calling balls and strikes. But then came the 8th inning and Suter continually got strikes way above the zone the ump had been calling all game. Cueto had thrown many pitches just above the K zone that were consistently called balls. Worse pitches on multiple occasions for Suter were called strikes. If he would have given those pitches to Cueto maybe the outcome would have been a little different. In this past few games the giants positioning in the field is finally working against them. (supposedly that have been the best all season). Perhaps teams have figured out how to hit against our defense. Belt deciding to bunt with 2 strikes was made to look even worse as he homered off of the same pitcher in his next AB. Maybe growing up playing baseball in Texas has clogged his cerebral cortex. Seems as if, even when the team is behind and needs base runners, most of the guys are still swinging for the fences. Posey seems to be in a horrible slump. If he is hurt, perhaps he can take a few days off or even go on some kind of I.L, and we can bring up a healthy catcher. I hope it is just a slump which is soon to be over, but he looks way off balance at the plate. Seems as if Crawford is in a bit of a slump too, but he still looks good at the plate and is getting off some good swings. Really hoping that we can take the last two games of this series. With wood going down to covid, it does not look so good for our starting staff. Perhaps, Desclafani, will come back strong, and we have Gausman, Webb, and Cueto. Our next option ie; Long perhaps seems to be a big drop off from Wood. I do want to see the home runs continuing, but would like to see more men on base, and the team coming through with men on base. It is not totally surprising that the team is struggling as Posey and Crawford are slumping at the same time. It is now September, and hoping that Buster has a great month leading this team to the Western division Championship, against a bought team of all star players.
I wasn't trying to compare Belt to Aaron, I was just appreciating Aaron. I was more interested in his upper range. It's striking that he never got to 50, just 40-some year after year. Fortunately for Giants fans, we have a couple of guys who are comparable to Aaron- Mays and Bonds.
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