overall: 39-33, .542, 3rd place, 6 GB
Losing two of three to the Reds has to be the low point of the month especially after today's god-awful result (10-3 Cincy). Anthony DeSclafani continues to struggle—this time it was a seven-run meltdown in the 3rd.
The Giants lost on Friday night 4-2 in a game memorable for its lack of memorable-ness. The Giants offense simply could not handle Graham Ashcraft and they faded feebly after they fell behind in the 2nd. The lineup clobbered Mike Minor and reliever Jared Solomon 9-2 on Saturday so one could be forgiven for optimism about today's game. Alas, they stunk and failed to win their 40th game and fell further behind in the West. Last year at this time the team was 46-26 which was the best record in MLB.
At least this inning featured a very nice sweep of the Dodgers. And they've inched back above .500 and maybe we can see that pace pick up a bit and keep going. The Giants have played a lot of close games and are 9-14 in games decided by one run. Some of that is execution of course but some of it is bad luck and I think things will even out over the long haul and the team will catch some of the breaks that have gone against them.
Off-day tomorrow. The Tigers come to town for two starting Tuesday at 6:45 Pacific. Carlos Rodón takes the hill.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
2 comments:
I thought Longo should have been charged with an error as a good throw would have gotten the runner. I also thought, that Votto's foul ball instead of a fair grounder for the third out was a bad call. I watched it several times on replay and not once did that ball ever seem foul. On the other hand, the dodger victory after being down 2-0 with two outs in the ninth and the Braves closer on the mound, shows us that anything could happen, and that the umps should never take an at bat away from a player late in the game in a key series and a key rivalry on a bad call like they did to the giants and Wilmer Flores last year. When the giants make an error, or get a really bad call the team seems to fall apart. By not making big arguments in those situations, and not having the players argue, supposedly keeps the team focused and not too high and not too low. But sometimes a good argument is needed to stir the team up. Cincy's manager with a 10-3 lead got himself kicked out on a call that was not that bad. Belt was called out early in the game with 2 called strikes neither of which was close, and on a full count Slater was called out on a pitch much worse than the pitch Cincy argued over. Giants got a few decent calls, but they were not in crucial moments. Cincy seemed to have a fair ball down the third base line that would have added even more to their lead and it was called foul. It seems as if they brought back DeScaffani too soon. He seems sharp for up to about 45 pitches at which point his commmand decreases and the movement on his pitches dissipate. Perhaps the giants should either pitch him out of the pen for a while, especially if Junis comes back, or they should give him a few more rehab starts. He clearly is not ready to go past around 45 pitches. His fastball in the third inning became a batting practice pitch. He did throw some good breaking pitches but went to his reliable fast ball from 2021, but at that point the reds were feasting on it. Slater also looked terrible out there. He misjudged at least to balls that he should have had. Of course the sun makes those catches difficult, but had he gotten a better jump on those hits he would not have had to struggle so much to come down with the ball. Giants also seem to be breaking some kind of record for giving up infield hits. I am not so sure that the shift is working as well this year.
Just a side note, the giants were 20-13 with Dubon and 19-20 since his trade.
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