You had your ace on the mound and had a day off. But it didn't matter, the Giants lost again and slipped to 2 games behind LA for the division lead. Madison Bumgarner on the mound. He gave up 5 runs and every one of them was earned. Turner had a bunch of hits, new guy Segedin homered, and of course: Gonzalez. Madison lasted only 5, threw 96 pitches, struck out 7 and walked 1. 9 hits. Kenta Maeda was also chased, he only lasted 5, threw 103 pitches and gave up 3 runs. After Madison, Gearrin gave up 2 and then Lopez gave up a 2-run home run to a lefty, new guy Toles. The Giants showed a little moxie in the early innings, but that evaporated by the time the relievers came on. LA kept scoring, the Giants barely had any hits (1 in the 6th, Span a meaningless hr in the 9th). 9 - 5 final.
11 and 24 since the ASB. The doggers since then are 21 - 15. Hardly stellar, but it beats a team that can't manage to win 1/3 of their games. The dogger hitters are hot. The Giants aren't. Shit.
6 comments:
Their bullpen has been very, very good. That's allowed them to win despite no Kershaw. And as you say their hitters have been raking. I thought the Giants might 'slump' and have a stretch of .500 ball after the Break. I did not expect a collapse.
I know that it's intangible bullcrap, but I am disturbed by the Giants' body language in recent days - last night was a good example.
Where you would like to see intensity (e.g. Bumgarner 99% of the time & Pence in the good old days) or looseness (e.g. Romo & Sandoval, when things were going well), we are being served up heaping helpings of indifference & apathy (Span & Moore), resignation (e.g. Belt & Pence), & 'we bad'-style ultra-coolness (Crawford, during the period when his defense went to hell - thank God that appears to be behind us). I don't know whether this bad stretch 'hurts' enough to these guys.
Everyone (except Pagan & Bumgarner) got his fat contract, & is playing that role very well. Pagan, as my good buddy Jeff likes to repeatedly point out, is in 'salary drive mode'. This has been put to good effect on his hitting, but his outfield effectiveness is diminishing, so I'm not whether he's going to get a big windfall in the off-season.
Bumgarner is just Bumgarner - my biggest complaint about him is that he now takes his crappy at-bats out onto the mound with him. He needs to appreciate his successes at the plate, but forget about all batting, while trying to pitch.
In the body language department, the only guy who I see striking the right balance between intense & loose is Cueto. Hey ... he pitches tonight ... I hope that that bodes well.
C'mon Giants!!!!!
BCraw always looks like he just rolled out of bed. That relaxed, ho-hum manner is kind of his signature, like Pence's wild-eyed intensity. It's weird, I know, but I love players that look bored. They do this crazy amazing shit and their face says "just another day on the job!"
BCraw is supercool.
Obviously losing to LA is hard to take, but we were in the game mostly. One expects more from MadBum of course, but there's plenty of positives and I believe the overall trend is positive. It's great to see Pagan hitting well, and Posey is coming around.
Since Span is hitting .331 in the second half of the season, when Ron finds him indifferent and/or apathetic, I wish more of that species of bored nonchalance were widespread in the team. Moore, by his own account, is trying too hard, or at least I take the over-rotation he blames for his control problems to be a symptom of something quite other than apathy.
Last night was quite terrifying. Our ace was dominated by their 3,4,5 hitters. I think he got one out in nine tries AND THAT WAS A SAC FLY RBI. Seager, Turner and Gonzalez all acted like superstars and we had no one to compare. We have NO ONE that has stepped up. Certainly not MadBum. Not really Buster. No one in the bullpen. At this point we are getting what we deserve.
I'm not sure body language is much of a metric. I agree that people give off very different vibes but I figure our own filters are just as important when we start to make judgements. You would also be surprised how many ethnic and cultural issues come into play. I guess I'm super sensitive to this notion of body language because of teaching. I have to be aware of it but not let it cloud my judgement too much. Also I am often accused of body language that sends completely wrong messages. So, anyway, I doubt that really adds to the conversation...
It is impossible to predict which Giant team will show, but if we can't stop or slow down Seager, it doesn't matter. He looks like the real deal, somebody that can carry a team for a while. I thought we had some one like that...
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