Sunday, June 1, 2014

Three of Four in St. Louis

The G-Train keeps rolling with another big win against a formidable foe. Tim Hudson went seven strong, allowing only three hits and not giving up a run to the defending NL champs. The lineup stroked 14 hits and plated eight and the fielders handled everything perfectly. Speaking of the lineup, Buster Posey was back and he looked great, getting three hits. Super-sub Joaquin Arias got the start at first base and he came back from the dead with three hits, a walk, and three batted in. He's been struggling and it was nice to see him get it going. The Giants jumped on Lance Lynn in the 1st and never let up, BABIP'ing the home team with lots of well-placed grounders and sharp liners and seizing the initiative after an error by second baseman Kolten Wong. Gregor Blanco pulled one into the RF corner for an RBI triple in the 6th and that was the furthest a ball traveled today for the Giants. Looks like they can score whether they hit home runs or not! Brandon Crawford has been slumping and he got on base twice and drove in two. He also robbed rookie phenom Oscar Taveras of a hit in the 6th with one of those phantom scoops (plus a spin-and-throw move) on a hard hit ball up the middle. It's amazing how many would-be hits he turns into outs.

I'm still in a bit of shock as the Giants respond to yesterday's shutout by the Cardinals with a shutout of their own. Four games, three wins, combined score 23-11. San Francisco pitchers have allowed 190 runs in 57 games, exactly 3-1/3 per game. 190 is the third-lowest total in baseball behind only Atlanta (183) and Oakland (178). Mike Morse sat out after fouling a ball off his foot yesterday which is why Arias got the nod. He's expected to be back in the lineup after the off-day tomorrow. David Huff got in an inning of scoreless work in the 9th after his ugly effort on Friday night. I'm a member of the Church of Three Lefties in the 'Pen and I think the team is going to need him over the long haul so I was encouraged. He has good-looking stuff but seems to have some command issues so let's hope he gets those worked out.

Tim Lincecum will get the call on Tuesday in Cincinnati. The Reds are 25-29 and 7-1/2 back in the Central, but were 90-game winners last season so you have to figure they will improve.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

9 comments:

Zo said...

Huff looked pretty good. They are clearly letting him work out his issues when they can - also clearly they are not ready to demote him. He looked good today.

JC Parsons said...

I'm surprised MOC didn't mention that he and I were just discussing Mr Arias. I, of course, was commenting on how poor he was doing and that it was time to toss him. MOC heartily disagreed. Yes we were arguing over the 25 th man on the team. If that seems silly then I think you are at the wrong blog. Anyway, boy howdy was I wrong!!! Joaquin was a god yesterday. I take full credit btw.
This team is amazing at this point. What a joy. I hope I'm wrong like that all season long

Brother Bob said...

Whoda thunk the weak links on the Giants would be Lincecum and Cain?

Ron said...

Naturally, I must heartily disagree that Arias is the 25th guy on the Team (even before yesterday). With Adrianza & Perez aboard, he was clearly only the 23rd man on the Team. The guy has 2 WS titles to his name & contributed to each of them - give him some respect. Throw in Huff & Kontos, & I think that you can safely say that Arias is at least the 21st man on the Team.

Zo said...

Ron, Have you seen Kontos throw lately? He is clearly the 21st man on the team, making Arias the 22nd.

Ron said...

The key is 'lately'. Kontos looks good now, & I expect him to continue. But, about 6 MLB appearances ago (i.e. last season), he was garbage. Durante 2010 - 2014, Arias era el hombre mas macho. #21 ... arriba, Joaquin!

Ron said...

Excuse me ... I could have sworn Arias was with us in 2010. Arias era el hombre mas macho en 2012 - 2014.

nomisnala said...

They are seeing if they want to stay with Huff, or go back to Dan Runzler again. Petit says if I get to start again, please do not make it on a day that Matt Cain was scheduled to pitch, as he would like some run support.

obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

I think it is more Huff against Perez/25th man (not to get into that again :^).

The original plan had Gutierrez pitching in the minors while Huff was up here, but when Affeldt had his brain fart, and didn't use his brace, that opened the door for Gutierrez to come up and shine for us. Meanwhile, Huff was OK for a while, but lately has been giving up more runs than someone who wants to stay on a MLB roster should be doing.

Right now I think that Casilla's return will push Kontos back to AAA, even though he has pitched well enough to stay, then when Belt returns, that might be when Huff could be DFAed. If he pitches bad enough, he'll make it through waivers and in Fresno.

Though the way Kontos is pitching, who knows, maybe Huff's time is even shorter.