Sunday, June 19, 2022

Rookie slugger makes his mark

PIT 4  SF 3

Lefty-hitting 23-year old newbie Jack Suwinski hit three homers today in his 47th major-league game. The Giants were up 2-1 in the 4th when he tagged starter Alex Cobb with the tying blast. He dinged Sam Long in the 6th with his second, and won the game in the bottom of the 9th with his third, this one off Tyler Rogers. Suwinski was drafted by the Padres out of high school (he's from Chicago) but went to the Pirates in the Adam Frazier deal. That turned out be be a bit of a bust for the Padres as they traded Frazier to the Mariners a year later! Anyway, Pirates fans look like they have an exciting young player to root for.

The Giants got Cobb back from the IL and he threw 60 pitches and gave up two solo shots in his four frames. Let's hope he can get back on the beam and be an effective starter real soon. Today the lineup scored a quick two in the 1st, mostly due to two walks from Pirates starter Mitch Keller, but couldn't do much else. Keller put up zeroes through six and reliever Cam Vieaux pitched a scoreless 7th. Closer David Bednar handled the 8th but gave up a game-tying homer to Thairo Estrada in the top of the 9th before Suwinski's game-winner in the bottom half. Giants had four hits total, hit into three double plays, and left seven men on base (1-for-6 with RISP). They'll have to do better than that in Atlanta.

Logan Webb starts tomorrow at 4:20 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

1 comment:

nomisnala said...

The guy obviously had a hot sport for his home run swing. After the first two letter high inside corner home runs, you would think that Roger's and Casali would stay away from that spot. But right back in the same spot with the same result. Interestingly how on get away day the giants often start the game on fire. Find a way to fizzle out, and look for the most part as if they do not want to be there. For a team built on analytics, I could not understand that last pitch. Was it a mistake, or was it thrown in that spot intentionally. In close games other teams seem more willing to go against the shift, while the giants seem to be trying to yank the ball out of the park. Tonight they will have their work cut out against Fried. Some days he looks as good as Koufax, but other days he seems quite hittable. He does have 9 quality starts this year, and I am hoping that we get him on an off day. Duval who started the season ice cold and has always hit well against the giants seems to be heating up this last week. This turns out to be a big series and as far as I am concerned the giants must minimally split the series if not take it. After yesterday's game the braves have taken over the giants spot in giving up the least home runs. The Braves this year are a home run happy team on offense, but they do strike out a lot. If Fried seems to have his good stuff, it behooves the team to try to make him throw a lot of pitches.