The Giants had a real shot to win the game this afternoon in San Francisco. Taking a 5-3 lead into the 9th closer Camilo Doval had an epic meltdown and the Yankees emerged as winners. It was a shame because after two consecutive pastings (6-2 Friday and 7-3 yesterday) the home squad came out fighting and got some huge hits from the youngsters. Heliot Ramos homered and drove in another run with a single. Casey Schmitt had a run-scoring single and a homer. It was almost enough. Doval has not been the same this season. He walked two more batters in his disastrous outing and that makes 17 in 23-1/3 IP. Blake Snell started and looked better but then he couldn't make it out of the 5th. It seems he has another groin injury.
It's off to Arizona for three against the Diamondbacks. Tomorrow's game starts at 6:40 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
2 comments:
Beyond the walks Doval is getting hit harder. He's allowed 3 HR in 2024 in 23-1/3 IP after allowing 3 HR last year and 4 HR the year before (both in almost 3x the IP, 67-2/3).
Statcast says a ball hit over 95 mph is "hard hit" and Doval has allowed 62 batted balls this year of which 31 were Hard Hit. Last year he allowed 66 Hard Hits (out of 160 events) and 63 (out of 173 events) the year before.
MLB has a stat called "barrels" and it means a batted ball at least 98 mph and a 26-30 degree launch angle. (The angle range expands as the mph increases). Doval has allowed 7 Barrels this season. Last year it was 8 total, and 8 total the year before.
Doval's average exit velocity on those batted balls is 91.0 mph which in the bottom 8% of MLB. Two years ago he was at 85.9, or the top 6% of MLB (all of this is from Statcast). Last year he was 88.9 mph.
It matches the eye test. He's been getting hit harder.
Interestingly, he's been generating more groundballs than ever (throwing the slider more?) and fewer flyballs but the flyballs are leaving the yard more frequently. He has been the victim of some poor defense. He still strikes people out at an excellent rate.
He may be tipping off his pitches once and a while. He also really needs to work on holding runners on. The yankees seemed to know what pitches are coming. It is not easy to barrel up his pitches if you don't know what it coming. Melvin seems to just shirk this off, as unfortunately sometimes this stuff just happens. But it was very disappointing. I did think earlier in the game the giants got screwed. The first batter Miller faced, I thought he clearly got the strike out, and it was called a ball. Then like the giants do so often, when the minimal break goes against them, they choke. In a similar spot, but off the plate instead of over the plate, twice Ramos was called for strikes including once on a full count, when the ball was clearly off the plate. Did the giants get a few calls, yes. Interestingly Doval got a couple of questionable calls, but the Yankees did not fold. Just don't pitch to Soto and Judge and take your chances. Of course, Snell down again. Unreal. Which giants will be coming back from rehab today, and which giants will be sent down?
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