Sunday, September 1, 2013

Diamondbacks Better At Math, Win By One

The Giants were 75-20 last season when they scored four or more runs in a game. This year they are 39-11. Last year, when they allowed three or fewer runs, they were 70-12. This year, 39-15. Last night, they didn't get the memo on the three/four run thing, or maybe they forgot. Hey, I'm a math teacher, people forget math all the time. The 2013 Giants are a long way from 70 wins total, but the point stands. You can do all the analysis you want, but it comes down to something pretty simple: score four runs or more, allow three or fewer. Ryan Vogelsong had a bad inning and gave up three runs. The Giants clawed back to tie the game, only to lose. They could not get that fourth run and take the lead and that doomed them to another loss in a season of losses. I wish I had a story to tell, but it wouldn't be much more than "other team scores more runs than Giants." Oh, there were some nice defensive plays (Brandon Crawford, Angel Pagan). That's good. The Giants have been close to the worst fielding team in the nation this year after being close to the best last year. Whoops, there's that story I was looking for: the best team in the land turns into the worst team in the land for the first time in baseball history. I don't like that story.

Yusmeiro Petit gets a shot against his old team this afternoon. Go Giants!

--M.C.


p.s. I lifted the numbers from the sidebar at Obsessive Giants Compulsive.

2 comments:

Brother Bob said...

There are currently 6 ML teams with worse records than ours. The undisputed worst team is the Astros. So do you mean worst worst or just last in our division? We have lots of games in our division so we could make a move and 3rd place is not out of the question.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Worst is perhaps an exaggeration, but when you consider that they were champs last season, it's the worst "fall," that is, the biggest drop.