Thursday, August 31, 2017

.167 Road Trip

1 win in 6 games.  The Giants went to Arizona and San Diego, two NL West division rivals and they had to throw a complete game shutout to get a win.  The final loss, in San Diego, assured them of a losing record for the season.  It was their 83rd loss of the year.  They could sweep September and still not crack .500.

Ty Blach threw the rubber match in San Diego yesterday.  He threw 5 2/3 innings, 99 pitches, and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks.  2 of those hits were home runs, including 1 to Travis Wood, San Diego's pitcher.  The Giants lost 5 - 0.  Kyle Crick allowed an inherited runner to score and Josh Osich allowed an unearned run in the 8th.

Although I have argued and will still argue that the Giants biggest pressing need is relief pitching, this road trip highlights their second biggest need, one that is harder to fix, offense.  Buster Posey has been out a couple games, and was clearly injured before that, and Brandon Belt has been out, but:  1 for 10 yesterday with runners in scoring position.  The Giants got 6 hits and 6 walks.  Ty Blach got 2 of those hits.  No one scored.  3 for 21 on the series, and 4 for 33 on the road trip.  4 for 33.  That's not good.  The Giants got shut out 3 times in 6 games.  They scored only 10 runs in 6 games.

Buster Posey and Brandon Belt notwithstanding, the Giants have to do better than that to compete in the major leagues.  Plenty of time to discuss particulars once the blessed offseason finally gets here.    At this point, I don't even know why it upsets me so much to have this kind of performance out of this team.  I should expect it, or at least be numb to it by now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring up Chris Shaw from the minors.......isn't he tearing it up ??

M.C. O'Connor said...

The percentage of runs scored via the homer in baseball is way higher these days. The Giants don't hit homers, so they don't score.