Saturday, July 26, 2014

Fourth Time's a Charm

When we are older and grayer we can say we saw Clayton Kershaw at his best. Of his nine career shutouts four are against the Giants with three of those in San Francisco. It seems the big southpaw from Texas likes pitching against our favorite team. The Giants never had a chance as the Dodgers got it done on both sides of the ball much like last night. They scored in four straight innings to back Kershaw and make the only drama whether or not he'd finish what he started. That's quite a one-two punch with Greinke, but it's not like we didn't know that already. What we do know is that despite the abundance of talent on the LA roster the Giants are still in a pennant race. They look bad right now, vulnerable, and the blue-clads can smell it. But there is still lots of baseball left to play, including a game tomorrow with Jake Peavy taking the hill. If you like "fresh start" stories, his is perfect. Perhaps "reunited with his old manager" or "familiar NL West settings ought to help" or "friendly confines of AT&T" are more your style. Take a look at this one:


That's Peavy's lifetime mark vs. LA. Pretty cool, eh? Maybe he's got some anti-Dodgers mojo that works like Kershaw's anti-Giants mojo. I just want the Giants to win and if it takes mojo manipulation, I'm all for it.

C'mon Giants, win a goddamn game.

--M.C.

2 comments:

Zo said...

Since I went away, Matt Cain got hurt (anyone know what his injury is?), Brandon Belt got a concussion (from Marco Scutaro), Marco Scutaro is injured (or so crappy that it amounts to the same thing), Hector Sanchez got a concussion, Joe Panik is injured, Ehire Adrianza is injured, Dan Uggla, who was good ten years ago is now starting, Dave Righetti has some issue, Jake Peavy is starting in place of our ace against the doggers (is there something wrong with Madison Bumgarner, too?) and the Giants have scored 2 runs in the last 27 innings. That about cover it? In that time period, the Giants seem to have picked up 1/2 game on the doggers.

obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

First, Cain has elbow issues, it apparently has been cranky since spring and the media makes it seems like its those dreaded bone chips floating around in there, mucking things up.

The problem is that the Giants don't know when he'll get well. It could be tomorrow, it would be during the off-season, it could require surgery. Hence the trade for Peavy, given that level of uncertainty.

Scutaro, the story seems to be this, to me. His back was never well, but he could sometimes play. With the deadline coming, the Giants decided to throw him in and see what's up. Apparently, it's been as back as it has been all season, so he's back on the DL, and we'll see if he comes back in September callups.

Uggla, while it would be great if he returned to his ten years ago form, I think the hope is really that 2014 is the fluke and that 2012-13 is his level of production. That production is low for $15M player but great for a team paying minimum prorated salary as that production was still more than they were getting so far this season from 2B.

I assume the Giants didn't want to push Bumgarner to start a day early just to face the Dodgers. Hence it was either Petit or acquire Peavy. Maybe this can be like Pence deal, we tried to get Peavy last season then got him the next.

How many teams would do much better facing Hamels, Greinke, and Kershaw in a row? Any Ryu is pretty good too. Remember, the offense was just fine winning 5 of 6 just before this.