The Giants prevailed in a see-saw battle and held on to their one-game advantage in the West. The Dodgers won in extras in Colorado. The Padres inch closer to elimination as they are now five back of the surging Cardinals. The NL's early-season darlings are in a desperate fight for the final post-season spot and we all know that cornered critters are the most dangerous. Manny Machado smacked two homers and almost had a third as the linuep battered Kevin Gausman with nine hits and four runs in four frames. The Giants kept their cool despite down 4-1 and with two in the 5th and two more in the 6th looked poised for a comeback win. A homer by Austin Nola (Padres hit four, Tommy Pham also dinged Gausman) tied the game but a 9th-inning rally off Mark Melancon turned the tide. Tyler Rogers struck out Fernando Tatis, Jr. and induced a double play grounder from Machado to save it.
"Late Night" LaMonte once again delivered the big hit. Singles by Brandon Belt and Buster Posey set it up and Wade, Jr. smoked a liner on a 2-2 count to drive in the go-ahead run. He really has a knack for big moments! Padres ace Joe Musgrove went 5-2/3 and allowed eight hits and five runs including a leadoff homer from Tommy La Stella. Every starting player in the Giants lineup had a hit and Wilmer Flores had a huge pinch-hit (for Gausman) in the 5th.
Scott Kazmir will get the start tonight at 7:10 PT. Eleven games left.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
4 comments:
Glad you are back dude!
The pudres must hate our guts. They kicked the shit out of Gausman…superstar homers into their ugly stupid meat factory thing…everything looking solid. Then the Giants do their thing AGAIN. Even facing the league leader in saves and you kind of knew they would do it AGAIN. I bet the puds knew it too.
Glad to be back!
That was a ridiculous DP to end the game. Machado crushed that ball. Padres, I think, don't know why they are losing. They have a LOT of talent, they should probably be winning more. I suppose they took some big hits with pitching injuries. There are rumblings about Jayce Tingler getting fired.
Very complimentary article from Tim Keown at ESPN today, "The San Francisco Giants Just Keep Surprising Us". The Giants were projected to have a 74 win season, which they surpassed back in August. Their odds of making the playoffs were 9 to 1.
I thought it odd that people were projecting the giants to win less than 81 games. Last year only the loss of the umpire aided final game kept them under 500. Last year they had a catching duo of Tromp and Bart. Bart was not ready yet as a receiver or game caller. Tromp was okay, but the advantage of having a seriously good catcher means a bunch more wins for so many reasons that are not projected in WAR. I wrote on one site in the beginning of the season that if Posey had a decent season, and the bullpen gets figured out, that the giants had a chance to see 90 wins. I was told that I was an idiot and didn't know baseball. Perhaps. But the folks saying so, seemed to be overlooking a whole bunch of things. Of course I did not expect the closing in on 100 wins, but several players emerged including Lamont Wade, who has helped this team rise above even the optimistic projections based on a modicum of information. Last night's game ending double play as mentioned by M.C. was indeed ridiculous, it was surreal and amazing.
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