SF 8 SD 0
The Giants break out at home behind Chris Stratton and shut out the Padres for their 63rd win. The worst the team can do now is lose 99 games. They won't repeat the ignominy of 1985's 100-loss season. It's a small comfort in a wretched campaign but it is something. I'm happy. It's the one thing I was clinging to, and it came to pass. The Giants get their fifth team shutout. The nice thing about tonight's win is that is takes the pressure off Matt Cain tomorrow. He'll likely be on a short leash anyway so now the only thing that matters is the fans getting their sentimental send-off.
Nick Hundley was this year's Willie Mac Award recipient. He seems to have made a great impression on the organization and I expect they will push hard to re-sign him. I thought Jeff Samardzija deserved consideration--he never missed his turn in the rotation and was one of only eight pitchers in baseball to log 200 innings. But Hundley, despite a .272 OBA, was a worthy awardee with his timely slugging (23 doubles, 9 homers) and solid work backing up Buster.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
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From MLBTR:
Sources close to Giants manager Bruce Bochy believe he’ll certainly stay on until his contract is up after the 2019 season, CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic writes. Despite the Giants’ dreadful season, there is no danger of Bochy being fired, and though the manager has undergone some health issues in recent years, Bochy is intent on righting the ship next year. “I want to leave the Giants organization better than when I came here and I want to get this team back on track. This is my passion,” Bochy said.
Assuming he manages two more years (324 games) and then retires (at age 64) he'd pass Sparky Anderson for 7th on the all-time list with 4032 games managed. LaRussa pulled the plug at 66, Torre and Cox at 69. Still managing are Dusty Baker (68) and Joe Maddon (63) and Buck Showalter (61). So, who knows what will happen with the Skipper? Personally, I think he should stay at the helm. Jose Alguacil will be 48 in 2020, by the way.
From the ESPN game preview:
Cain will take a 104-118 record into his finale, a mark that does not fully represent the quality of his starts.
Only Seattle Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez (132) has received two or fewer runs of offensive support more often than Cain (120) since the Alabama native debuted in the majors in 2005. Eighty-one of Cain's 118 losses came in those games.
While 35 pitchers have won more games since 2005, only 19 of them have recorded an ERA better than Cain's 3.69.
Matt Cain goes into today's game with 1690 strikeouts, fifth on the all time Giants list behind Tim Lincecum, with 1704 (although, Tim struck out a few more as an Angel). As much as I would have liked to see Matt have a couple of chances to pass Tim, whatever that does nothing to diminish his greatness as a Giant.
The others:
Christy Matthewson 2499
Juan Marichal 2281
Amos Rusie 1835
You may be thinking, wait, didn't Christy Matthewson pitch more than 4000 innings? Indeed he did, 4771.6. Here are the top 5 pitchers in terms of K/9 IP: It may shed some light on the Giants recent success, 2017 notwithstanding.
Jonathan Sanchez 9.36
Tim Lincecum 9.33
Jason Schmidt 8.96
Madison Bumgarner 8.94
Matt Cain 7.31
It's also a reflection of changes in the game. Back in the day strikeouts were bad. Batters were expected to put the ball in play. In today's game the homer is king, and whiffing does not have the negative connotation that it once did. Modern pitchers strike out more batters than their predecessors. Koufax was the first to top 10K/9 as a league leader. Take a look at the list, it's very revealing about the cycles the game has gone through.
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