The Giants got a walk-off hit from Late-Inning LaMonte last night to beat the Guardians 5-4 in the 10th. That was the team's 144th game, the end of the eighth seasonal inning. There are 18 games left to play--a mere 1/9 of the 162 we started with. The 74-70 Giants (.514) are in third place in the NL West, 1-1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks who happen to have the third Wild Card spot by the same margin. Here's how we got here:
This last stretch of games featured six straight losses. If you prefer a monthly breakdown it's Mar/Apr 11-15, May 17-12, June 18-8, July 12-13, August 12-15, and September 4-6.
Since the All-Star Break their record is 25-29 (.463). They can't afford to do that (8-10) as 82 wins will likely not be enough. A 10-8 record and 84 wins seems like an absolute minimum. Maybe they can really turn it around and pop off another 12-6 stretch. After all they've done it twice already.
Sean Manaea and Cal Quantrill square off tonight at 6:45 in the battle of the big ERAs (5.00 vs. 5.70). Go Giants!
--M.C.
4 comments:
One might say that 9 - 9 is an improvement, but I'm not biting. They won last night against a team that is in some ways (mainly, failure to take any sort of command in the later part of the season so as to be able to determine their own fate) similar. But the 3 wins before that was against the Rockies, a team that went into the season using the Oakland model of being uninterested in winning, then punted most of their decent players at the trade deadline. Let's see a couple wins against LA before I swallow any more Giants hype. If you think I'm a cynical asshole, take a few moments to scroll through Andrew Baggarly's mailbag from the last couple days.
The flaws of this team are plain enough to see. I'm hoping for a strong finish, long odds or not.
There's a lot to root for with this rookie crop: Harrison, Winn, Matos, Sabol, Walker, etc. Getting Bailey back on the field will be exciting, too.
And there's Logan Webb. He'll get four more starts.
Tonight's game was a dud. Botched double plays by the Giants defense. Going 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. An error by LaMonte Wade in the 6th opened the door to two runs for the Guardians which ultimately won them the game. The Giants lead the Majors with 100 errors. After four wins in a row with double digit hits, this was a stinker. Let's hope they just forget it and move on. The defense really needs to tighten up, cuz they can't give teams extra outs or they'll continue to regret it, especially if they continue to have issues with getting timely hits and driving in runs. C'mon gents, get your act together and just win!
And a decent start by Manaea goes to waste as well.
Harrison goes today (12:45).
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