Let's think back to that glorious day, October 1, 2016. Ty Blach drew a start against Los Angeles, one of three left handers that the Giants needed victories from on the final weekend against the doggers to scrape into the playoffs. Ty went 8 glorious innings, blanking the doggers on 3 hits and earning the W in a 3 - 1 win. Alas, this was not that day.
Ty pitched damn well, though. He gave us 7, gave up 8 hits, and 2 runs, both on Bellinger singles that scored Seager. I expect we will see more of that in the future. Ty is a keeper. He fields his position well, hits as well as any pitcher, probably better than Madbum but without the power, and keeps us consistently in games. A Hunter Pence solo home run gave the Giants their only score. 3 runs would won the game, but, sadly, the final score, like so often before, found the Giants on the losing end: LA 2, SF 1.
The Giants only had 4 hits on the day. Buster Posey deserves mention, he threw out Justin Turner trying to steal 2nd, who got at least half way there before Gearrin threw home. I guess the umpires deserve mention, too. The strike zone was tiny, except every now and then a Giant batter got a pitch called a strike that clearly wasn't. That happened to Turner, too. All in all, it was a poorly umpired strike zone. So now one of the very few 2017 bright spots, that the Giants actually had a winning record against the best team in baseball, is no more. There are 7 games left to play with LA, wonder how that will go? Madbum throws tomorrow.
6 comments:
This is the best LA club I've seen in all the years I've followed the Giants (by default that means you follow the Dodgers, too). They have to be the favorites to win the whole thing. This team is way better than everyone else (except for maybe Houston).
Blach pitched well, and that's a good sign for next year.
I object to your use of the term "the favorites." That implies that you are favoring them, with all the personal liking associated with the term. "Picking" them to win the whole thing would be acceptable, it implies an intellectual effort without personal desire. I'm not so sure I would agree with that, though. They're good, no question, but the playoffs are a crap shoot and too much can happen in a short series.
anything can happen in the playoffs. Seems like Dave Roberts has figured out how to make the right moves at the right time, and Bochy has long forgotten. Some of Bochy's moves this year are flat out maddening, not offense to Madden. The players say the right thing, but do not do the right thing. Toronto scored 7 runs in the ninth today to beat the Angels. Do not see the giants doing that this year. As an aside, I noticed that Big Al Pujols, has only 16 triples over his entire career. That is extremely low. I wonder how many of those he hit against the giants. If there is a new way to lose a game this year the giants will find it. On another thought, It seems to me this year that home plate umping has been stacked against the giants, and things do not even out. I would like to see the number of balls called strikes against giants hitters, and strikes called balls, both on offense and defense. I would venture to say that the giants have been the recipients of negative calls this year at a record pace, just from my observations watching many games, and having a large super high def. TV. with ability to replay in slo mo. Also looking at internet sites where they follow the pitches and their trajectory. It would seem to me that errors made at random would even out for the most part. Which makes me wonder as to the randomness of some of these calls. They have lost quite a bit of their ability to modify games in other areas due to the replay option, which gives umps their most power behind the plate. Overall even if 90 to 95 percent of calls are really good, it is what is done with the rest of the calls. Especially in key situations. That is where a bad call can have its most impact, and they seem to continually go against the giants. I would love to see a study with someone who has the technology and the time, to at least prove my conjecture wrong, and put my mind at ease.
'Favorite' simply means 'best odds.' I'd say the Dodgers are 4-1 at this point, Astros 5-1, and all the rest 10-1 or worse. That's what I mean by favorite. Love them or hate them they are clearly the best team in baseball (.702!!). Giants have a new standard to compete against now. This will be five straight NL West titles for LA. That's the best they've done since the advent of division play!
While I agree that it seems the umpiring has really screwed the Giants I suspect we notice these things more when the team is losing. This is a really, really bad season. Consequently we--I think--magnify things that probably are not as important as they seem. We do this, quite naturally, to make sense of something (the Giants being below .400) that we think should not be happening.
today is really a typical example of the bad calls at the plate. This game was on ESPN (not over yet) and the whole game they had their electronic strike zone showing. So one can replay the game and see all the balls pitched by the dodgers out of the zone called strikes, vs. the same for the giants. The dodgers had a lot more, and not only that that low outside off the plate strike that the dodgers got so many times, the giants hardly got at all. Also the number of strikes the giants put in the zone that they did not get, vs the same for the dodgers. I would say that the differential in favor of the bums has to be in double figures just for this game alone. Also how does a 95 year old like Utley beat out an infield hit, and then steal second. Gillaspie gave us the lead and he gave it back, with that double clutch allowing Utley to be safe at first. The Bums were rotated to one more batter, because the giants did not ask for a replay when the bums hernandez was out at first. Did replay that several times, and Belt's foot remained on the bag when he caught the ball. Do not know who is in the giants video room, but they made a mistake not to replay that. Game not over yet, going to extra's but if our giants can find a way to lose this game they will. They hit into 5 double plays so far, and Sandoval is not even on the team.
six double plays. Six. Top of eleventh, giants with a run in, men on first and second, Posey hitting 327 coming into the AB, hits into a DP. bottom of the inning one out, runners on first and second, rookie up for the first time, hits a double and dodgers win, having runner score all the way from first on a poorly executed relay by the giants. This may not be the worst giants team on paper, but it is the worst executing giants team, I have seen, ever. Some of this has to be placed on the manager. Or, is it just other teams that do that?
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