There's been quite a lot of bad baseball lately. We don't have to dwell on things like "historically worst" homestands and whatnot. After seven losses in a row fans could be forgiven for tuning out. When the Giants did their face plant after the Break and Buster decided the team would "sell" the team's losing ways spiraled out of control and they fell two spots in the standings. Now they are duking it out with Arizona for fourth place!
Fortunately they won a ballgame today. Logan Webb pitched like an ace. He's had a rough patch lately and it was good to see him back in form (13 groundballs!). The lineup produced 11 hits including two doubles and two homers. FNG Drew Gilbert had two hits and one of the home runs. Jung Hoo Lee hit his 28th double. Webb (11-9, 3.19 ERA) went seven scoreless with three hits, seven whiffs, and no walks on 86 pitches. Beck and Winn finished up.
I realize that PoBO Posey picked up BoMel's option for 2026. It was widely covered as a "vote of confidence." That's nice. Any other manager would be on the chopping block for a team-wide collapse like this one. I'm not voting for dumping Melvin by any means. He hasn't yet finished his second season at the helm! Changing the deck chairs on the Titanic never helps. But I'm not a fan, really. I'm not sure what Bob brings to the team other than he's a local boy and has that "old school" vibe. He's quite the un-Kapler, that's for sure. But maybe it's time for the Giants to look for young managerial talent (BoMel is 63) to groom for the future. First-base coach Mark Hallberg for example, is only 39. Maybe there are some other young bucks in the system that deserve a look.
The Giants go on the road for seven games against San Diego (4) and Milwaukee (3). The Brewers have the best record in MLB. Tomorrow night it is Robbie Ray at 6:40 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
3 comments:
Jung Hoo Lee's between-the-knees circus catch is pretty damn cool.
Here's the link.
https://www.mlb.com/giants/news/jung-hoo-lee-makes-catch-with-his-knees
The umps probably caused Webb about 10 extra pitches he was that good. He had at least 3 pitches with 2 strikes, that were over the plate, but taken and called balls. 2 of those ab's he still got the strike out. Even with that he was still efficient with his pitch count. Don't know what it is about Smith's stance, but he must have had at least 5 pitches in the series outside the strike zone called strikes. He still had a decent series. He was getting frustrated. One pitch like that Saturday to a Tampa player and their manager got kicked out of the game, at the same time breaking the rhythm of our pitcher, in a move that possibly helped Tampa get the Saturday win. Our starters, Verlander, and Webb tossed 14 innings, gave up 5 hits, and had 15 K's, while giving up zero runs. Not too shabby. I have to agree that Lee's catch was a very unusual catch. He must have played some soccer.
Verlander, Webb and now Ray pitched 20 and 2/3 innings with no earned runs. Not too shabby. We took 2 of those 3 games.
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