Saturday, April 22, 2017

1st inning: 6-12

COL 12  SF 3
Matt Moore got clobbered in Denver tonight giving up three homers and six runs to the Rockies in his four innings. Coming on the heels of MadBum's wreck and JohnnyC's poor outing it's a cruel blow to end the first seasonal inning. The lineup couldn't get anything going for seven innings (other than a solo shot by Joe Panik) off Colorado starter Antonio Senzatela. He was also on the hill in the victory over the Giants on Sunday in San Francisco. Two more were added in the 8th off the bullpen, and Brandon Crawford came to the plate as the tying run, but that was as close as it got.

Not much to say, fortunately it's April and we've got 8/9 of the way to go, 144 more chances. It's not just that they are scoring fewer runs (69) than they are allowing (81), it's the run of rotten luck as well. Case in point, another injury, this one to Denard Span making a catch in center. It's one thing to play below par but when the gods fuck with you as well you best grit your teeth and take your beating. They'll tire of it eventually and go pick on some other club, and then maybe we'll see what's what with the 2017 Giants. Chris Stratton mopped up after Moore and looked good with three hitless innings, that's a nice bright spot.

Jeff Samardzija tomorrow. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

6 comments:

nomisnala said...

Another injury added on. The bad part about the 6 and 12 record is that the majority of it came against our own division, and against teams that we were supposed to beat. We are still playing similarly to the way we started playing after last year's all star break. And by we, I mean the giants. This is a really unfortunate start. I thought the SF and San Jose papers editorials on Bumgarner's injury are quite melodramatic. It is an injury, not the end of the bromance between the giants, and Bumgarner.

JC Parsons said...

Another charming tidbit: the RiverCats have lost EIGHT in a row. Can an entire organization have a slump?

I'm going to bring up my biggest concern AGAIN. So sorry if this is a dead horse...

The outfield continues to shrink and, yet, we don't see Brandon Belt in left. For the first time in years we have a quality backup catcher in Hundley. For the first time in years we have ALL of our starting OF injured. And , of course, we have Buster, fresh off concussion DL, behind the plate. One pitch away from being done for ... the month, year... It is time. Left field is a black hole. Belt is our offensive MVP. I say give him a chance out there. Morse and Gillespie can help Buster at first, Hundley might even give us a boost. He looks pretty solid, capable of a hot month or two. Plus he is a better receiver than I thought. A shakeup is clearly in order and already started, with Panik moved to the top of the order. I doubt they will move Buster though. He's on some pre determined career path and I guess it is his business. However it is my passion. And it saddens me that an avoidable disaster is in play like this.

nomisnala said...

on this day in 2013

The giants came from behind again to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4, with a walk off hit by Brandon Belt, who drove in none other than Andres Torres, who seems to keep scoring the winning run for the giants these days. Sergio Romo gets the win, after throwing one pitch to get an out. Who was on deck in case Belt did not drive in Torres? None other than Angel Pagan. Nice come from behind victory for the giants. An 8th inning two run home run by Posey tied the game at 4-4. Nice win for the giants against one of their key division rivals.

Would be nice if the giants could start winning again.

JC Parsons said...

Looks like I get my wish for the Sunday game. Buster at first and Belt in LF. Nuñez leads off and Panik is near the bottom so it must be a lefty on the mound. This asking a lot of Belt but I think he is the guy on this team that is the most ready to grind this challenge out with the least negative impact. That doesn't sound like a glowing review. What I mean is that Brandon is very likely to continue on his wonderfully productive if not spectacular performance even though he's being tossed into a tough spot.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I think they've always liked Belt's glove and range at first and have been reluctant to ask him to play another spot, but as you say, he's the most likely to contribute positively out there. I was hoping for Nunez, but he's an infielder. I also think they have given Buster all the rope he wants and will continue to do so. I can't fault a guy for wanting the toughest challenge. I've never thought of it as some kind of macho blindness, just a tremendous desire. Again, I can't fault that. The nicks and dings and etc will force him to move, but he's going to do it his way, and again, I can find no fault with that. It's a joy to watch a player with his passion and dedication as well as his calm professionalism and beyond-his-years wisdom. I keep seeing Senator Posey in his future, but that would be a shame, a waste of his baseball acumen, not to mention having to spend all that time "in the swamp" around all those alligators, Manager and/or GM would be much better!

Right now we need some goddamn hits.



nomisnala said...

So they still won't sign Pagan. Seems a bit stubborn. They had their minds set that signing Pagan would be a stupid idea. I think that not signing him, has turned out to be even worse. I think his actual contributions to this teams success are a bit too under rated. Oh well, the more he rots on the sidelines, the less chance he has to come back and ready to make an impact. So nomisnala is the Pagan supporter. Perhaps not if we had a real alternative.