AZ 18 SF 2
AZ 10 SF 4
AZ 6 SF 2 (today)
Does that count as improvement? Only losing by four runs instead of six or sixteen?
Nice to see Mike Yastrzemski get his first hit. In fact he had a good day today and got three of them. My earliest baseball memories are the 1967 "Impossible Dream" Red Sox. Carl Yastrzemski, grandfather of young Mike, had arguably the greatest individual season ever, and led the Sawx to the Series where they lost to the extraordinary Bob Gibson-led Cardinals in an epic seven game contest. My mom is from Mission Hill in Roxbury. Her mom, my Nana, came to Boston from the west of Ireland and adopted baseball as her favorite sport and the Red Sox as her favorite team. Even though I grew up in the Bay Area and mom always had KSFO (Lon Simmons doing both the Giants and the 49ers) on the radio, we followed the Red Sox. When we went to see the A's play in the Coliseum it was usually because Boston was coming to town.
That's all there is to write about. I note that Sam Coonrod got called up. Hey, the guys in AAA and AA have at least as good a chance of getting outs as the other guys.
--M.C.
2 comments:
Based on existing data, the dbacks are scoring in a regression relationship that is defined by score = x/2 - 1 where x = previous day's score. The Giants seem to be in an oscillating relationship where they score 2 or 4 intermittently. So, were the series to continue, the next score would be 4 - 4 (or, extra innings) and the following one would be another Ariz victory, 3 - 2. So no, the Giants are not improving.
Advanced metrics!
ps. In the Chron, Bochy said it was the "worst series of the year." Given how bad the defense was, I'd have to agree.
The only thing keeping the team together was the pitching. The starters weren't asked to do much, what with how well the 'pen was doing, but they could not keep the team in games, even for only five innings. The 'pen got overtaxed, as we could see would happen if the starters couldn't get it done.
The frustrating thing is as I said--they weren't asked to do that much. Five innings, if you get lucky, six, and no blow-ups. But other than Bumgarner (and a bit of Samardzija) it just hasn't happened. Holland is a bust and Pomeranz is worse. D-Rod had to get sent back down, but that's not entirely a shock, his emergence last season was a surprise. I was hoping for better, but that's how it goes.
I thought the Pomeranz Project had a reasonable chance of success--I wasn't expecting All-Star, just a reasonable impersonation of an average starter. Same for Holland, and the Giants obviously felt the same way and gave him a contract. I knew Shark's innings-eating days were behind him, and I thought he could hold his own with a shorter leash and narrower focus. But they all have dinger problems and walk problems. It's like they aren't ready when the game starts.
We'll see what--if anything-- they can do about it.
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