Friday, July 6, 2018

5th inning: 11-7

1st inning: 7-11
2nd inning: 12-6
3rd inning: 6-12
4th inning: 10-8
5th inning: 11-7

The Giants bounced back tonight with a clutch 3-2 win after an ugly four-game stretch of losses. It's hard to see the good when the bad comes in clusters like that, but the reality is that the team has now had back-to-back winning innings. That's something. Now we have to hope for back-to-back winning months: June was 18-10, they've got some time to turn around July's 2-4. Rookie Dereck Rodriguez had another fine start (6-1/3 IP, 2 R) to lead the way. A dramatic late homer from Pablo Sandoval along with a big hit from Andrew McCutchen backed that up. Once again some fine relief work (Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson, Will Smith) sealed the deal. The bullpen has not only been the most improved part of the club but the most valuable as well (with apologies to the Brandons).

After 90 games the 46-44 (.511) Giants are still in the hunt in the wide-open West. I like that Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner are back in the fold, the team will need all its weapons after The Break. The Dodgers I must admit are scaring me a bit, they survived all their injuries and now have the last year's pennant-winning band back together. The Diamondbacks are also showing some resilience after their big plunge. Those two teams aren't going away. The Giants will have to play some kick-ass baseball to keep up with them.

Jeff Samardzija, the other starter who went on the DL, gets the start tomorrow. He's yet to be effective this year after a spring injury. Let's hope he can get his game back together real soon. And that the lineup can start hitting and scoring with more authority again.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

6 comments:

Zo said...

Two back-to-back winning "innings." That is something. Yet, even with last night's offensive explosion, the Giants have gone from scoring 18 in 3 games to scoring 8 in 5 games. That's not enough.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Yeah I thought the lineup would be more consistent. But however the wins come is OK by me. This season they look like two different teams rather than one team having its ups and downs. I want to believe this 21-15 team (.583) of the last 36 games is more of what we will see going forward.

nomisnala said...

Interesting that St.Louis had 3 triples all season, and 2 in one game against the giants now raising their total to 5.

nomisnala said...

Reynolds gets 10 RBI in one game vs. the Marlins. Giants as a team found it hard to muster up the runs vs. the fish.

Ron said...

We just traded Austin Jackson, Gearrin,& some minor league (Bahr) for PTBNL. Weird that we didn't something immediate.

Ron said...

Making a little more sense: We've called up Duggar & Ray Black. That's exciting!