8-5 loss to Bucs in SF
The Giants rapped out 12 hits including two doubles and two homers but gave up five runs from the 6th inning on and thus lost again. I can't fault Matt Moore too much, he'd been on a good run (8 consecutive quality starts), but the bullpen could not stop the bleeding when they had to and that was enough. Once again the Giants could not get the killer hit--the two homers were solo shots. Eleven men left on base is a familiar refrain. They should have scored multiple runs early against Pirates starter Ryan Vogelsong, another familiar refrain, but could not get it done. This team needs to start winning some goddamn games. This is a month (9-19) of shitty baseball. Time to turn it around.
Jeff Samardzija tonight. GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
7 comments:
There's a song by REM called losing my religion. Even though I've been a Giants fan all my life, I feel as though I'm losing my faith in them. I turned off last nights game to watch the Olympics. There you have it. Let loose the cannons MC. It's getting more and more painful and predictable watching Giants debacles. Somehow miraculously, they're clinging to first place, but we'll be facing the Fodgers in LA next week and that series could foretell the outcome of this season. What's it going to take? To finish on another musical note...............I need a miracle every day!
GO GIANTS!
Roberto Kelly made another mistake r/t sending or not sending Trevor Brown to the plate. Yesterday he should not have. Granted it took a good play to get him.
The base running blunder that shocked me was Pence stopping on his own between third and home. Kelly was clearly sending him and he "dropped anchor" for an easy out without even trying to score. WTF? Hunter is wonderful, the catch was crazy cool, but his detachment from the mental part of the game (I guess I mean plate discipline) is maddening. Usually his base running is stellar tho...
I, too, have lost much faith in this year' model. Especially the offense but really only our defense is surviving the test of time. ( How about Nuñez yesterday? Does Duffy make those plays? I was impressed.) I have to remind myself that we probably won't score, or the bullpen will give up a few so we need more, or that the starter can blow up at any time. Total lack of confidence at this point. Every other post season run has included a bullpen that actually shortened the game. That is the key. Other weaknesses exist but the bullpen is taking our heart and soul away.
You are very kind to basically excuse Moore but he actually was the key to our loss. He gave them 5 runs and until we got a meaningless one in the ninth, we never matched that. We gave him two early runs and he just shit it all away with walks and huge hits (including the death blow from the only lefty bat in the lineup). He MUST give us better than that. Our starters will lead us back but only if they GRIND. Moore doesn't look very grindy. Also, does he only have two pitches? WTF? Cutter, curve. That's it? Seems very lame for a big time starter and it seemed like the Pirates feasted on it. Especially from the stretch, he was WEAK. Oh well, I expected a more complete product....
What will pull us out of this? It sure doesn't seem like it will be Posey. In fact, should we be worried? Back problems linger. How soon until Buster's totally lackluster season causes the inevitable discussion of getting him away from the "squat?" He is playing like a battered, tired, CATCHER. Which is exactly what he is. Yes, he is a wonderful catcher. But the bottom line is that he is far from a wonderful hitter this year. Can he elevate his game once again? It feels like he is just trying to survive the season at this point... I'm sure he'll survive, probably quite adequately, but I expect nothing more. Certainly nothing MVP like, or even player of the week! Prove me wrong Buster. Sigh.
No need for worry ... on his way to save the day ... JOE NATHAN!
This season the home run rates are as high as they've been since the "steroid era." Giants pitchers are allowing a reasonable number--121--compared to top teams (Cubs 120, Dodgers 118, Nats 109), and are in the bottom third league-wide. But they are not hitting homers. Only the Braves have fewer. The rest of the league is hitting homers. In fact, it's not a case of a handful of guys hitting a huge number but rather an increase across-the-board (q.v. 538 article which speculates it's due to the ball being juiced). Much of the Giants run-scoring woes could be improved with some timely dingers. They put plenty of guys on base but don't hit with enough power to drive them in. The team's .398 SLG is the 5th-worst. The 2012 team did not hit many homers and slugged .397 but that was near a league-average (.405) that season. It's piss-poor in this new power environment (.417 league average).
It's not going to cure the bullpen woes, and the starting pitching needs to be more consistent, especially the 3-4-5 guys, but the lack of homers for the first time in a while is actually hurting the team. The park obviously hurts guys like Belt (for the record, I've no complaints about Belt who has been superb this year) who hit a lot of liners in the gaps, but we should be seeing more homers on the road. And teams coming to SF don't seem to have a problem jacking balls out. That's what I don't get. The Giants can't hit homers at home but every other team can. You have to have at least a league-average offense to go with superior pitching and fielding if you want to win. The Giants are still OK on the defensive side (6th fewest runs allowed) but the hitters are slipping. The run-scoring was a big part of the early-season success. Certainly Buster's drop in expected performance and the injuries to Pence and Panik among others have been culprits.
44 games to go, still lots of time. They have been really bad for a while now but are still in contention. An uptick for the rest of the month and September could be just enough. 24-20 (.545) would get them to 90, which might not be enough. 26-18 (.591) might be more like it. A month ago I would have had no problem imagining 92 wins. But it has to start soon. Like, uh, now.
Dangit. I think back (fondly) to some epic run-ups to the playoffs. In 2014, we had the G-Men setting all kinds of records: Timmy's 2nd no-no, Petit's remarkable streak... Then there was Affeldt's playoff record second only to Rivera, Bumgarner had a 0.00 ERA before facing Salvy Perez, Casilla & Romo own 0.00 ERA's in THREE World Series COMBINED, Lopez has a 0.00 ERA in both World Series he's appeared in for our Giants (and also a 0.00 ERA in his WS appearance for BOS). The unreal winning clip early in the season, average with RISP, Machi having something like a 1.00 ERA for over one-third of the season... Anybody remember Gaudin having one of the lowest ERA's at the ASB in 2012? Six playoff elimination games? Seriously? In 2010 we witnessed greatness in Posey winning almost every award on the planet. The Padres also drove off the cliff in their team bus. Cain with a 0.00 COMBINED playoff ERA. Geez.
This season seems like a single 3-3-5 explains a lot more than just that one single play. Just as much as a great defensive play occurs with our G's (like Pence or Nunez or Panik's short-CF grab last week)... Runs stolen by Cutch and Joc and others. Missed balls by Pagan and others. Ugh.
I'm also tired of hearing how AT&T is unfriendly to home runs- when opponents don't seem to have such an issue. I still recall when Choo went oppo for gawd's sake. Guys like Polanco and Schoop... Adam LaRoche never had a prollem hitting them out at AT&T... And what of that recent monster shot by Trumbo? Fact is, Giants don't prioritize bombers on their roster. We all realize that in order for OBP to function, obviously it requires MULTIPLE, SEQUENTIAL hits/walks or Runs Thrown In. Tough ask.
Bullpen. Man, do we need our bullpen arms to step up. Offense, too, yeah. Guess I was pretty wrong in thinking things could turn around beginning early on this tough homestand? Yikes. LA is practically daring us to run away with it.
Well... Dream big?
The base running was terrible. Pagan could have scored on the hit in the first, he held up and luckily he scored with a bases loaded walk, but then we could not get a bunch of runs. By the 5th inning we had a game full of base runners but could hardly score. Finally we get some dingers, of course solo shots. The base running errors were brutal. It has not been one game, we have been giving away extra outs and not scoring additional runs.
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