Sunday, July 3, 2022

Bumbling Giants Swept Away

The Chicago White Sox feasted on the Giants this weekend and almost got themselves back to a .500 record. Meanwhile the Giants are watching their season slip slowly away. That is if they don't get their act together soon.

A taut 1-0 loss on Friday night was just more frustration at a weakened-to-the-point-of-ineffectiveness lineup. At least Alex Cobb had a decent start. A 5-3 loss on Saturday was a waste of an effective Logan Webb. The fielding could be blamed for at least three and maybe all of the runs allowed. Webb's pitching is a highlight in a season with few individual standouts.Today it was almost as if the Giants didn't show up at all. (Sorry, Ron!) A 13-4 pasting completed the sweep. It was a bad look on a Sunday, don't you think?

It's a patchwork club. Too many guys are out (Anthony DeSclafani is having surgery) and the ones back in just aren't performing well enough. And the depth guys aren't picking up the slack, something we didn't see last season. Every single spot had a competent major-leaguer in 2021 and it looks like that's not true in 2022.

This team needs a spark. The half-way point--game 81--is on Thursday and of course the All-Star Break is nigh (July 18). Someone needs to step up. Make that someones. They need to to get their mojo back.

Tomorrow's game is in Arizona and starts at 3:10 Pacific. Carlos Rodón faces off with our old friend Madison Bumgarner. Rodón has pitched really well overall and has been in a good place lately so let's hope that continues.

Go Giants! Happy Fourth!

--M.C.

3 comments:

Ron said...

Putrid display by a Team in crisis. Made another guy w/ an ERA of >5.00 look like Cy Young. Donny Walton is really bad, but we have multiple other problem, too.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Game tomorrow at 3:10 Pacific. I reported the wrong time in the post but it's fixed now.

nomisnala said...

In the Atlanta series some untimely bad plays and some wickedly bad calls helped to seal their fate. That series could have easily gone the other way. But since then, for the most part the games have been called fairly well, with very few questionable calls, or at least the calls not seemingly one sided, and yet in these series against some below 500 teams the giants fumble around like a low A minor league team. I know they have a lot of injuries, but the mistakes at the most inopportune times have literally cost them multiple games. Despite the fact, that during this stretch, Yaz may have played his best defense since coming to the giants. Also teams seem to be hitting against the giants shift, especially when they get men on base. I see our guys swinging for the fences, and this year the ball is not going out with the same frequency as last year. I see other teams in scoring opportunities, sticking the bat out vs. the giants and hitting against the shift. Also our infield defense must be setting records for giving up infield hits. It is not as if the pitching staff (hopefully not speaking to soon) is not giving up a lot of homers, but they are being dinged to death. When you have a bunch of sinker ball pitchers, you need a competent infield. Even Crawford this year is making a lot more errors, and his hitting is significantly down from last year. On July 5, we find the giants 9.5 games back, and losing ground rapidly despite playing below 500 teams. The question is: On what date will the giants become a below 500 team? We really could use a full rotation. These bullpen games are killing the giants.