SF 6 CIN 5
Madison Bumgarner has thrown 18 innings in his last three starts, six innings in each. He's walked only three and whiffed 23, but has allowed 20 hits including three homers. It all tallies to eight runs allowed but more importantly three wins for the team. Today his catcher Erik Kratz didn't help him out (first batter reached on catcher's interference and was PB'd to second) and he put the team in a 2-0 hole after a two-out hit. Pablo Sandoval tied it up in the bottom half with a two-run homer, but Bum gave up another two-out hit which led to a run in the 2nd inning. After three scoreless Bum batted for himself in the 5th, striking out, and then gave up a homer to the first batter of the 6th (Yasiel Puig). That was enough to doom the Giants, normally, but they rallied late and got a big pinch-hit homer from Brandon Belt (driving in Brandon Crawford, who had walked) to tie it 4-4 in the 7th. Reyes Moronta loaded the bases in the 8th and that led to a run, but the Giants rallied again to take a 6-5 lead in the bottom half. Big hits from Evan Longoria, Panda again, and Kevin Pillar gave Will Smith a chance to save it and he did so. The Giants snapped a three-game losing streak.
It was a good start, overall, in a string of terrible starts. Bumgarner and the 'pen held the Dodgers to one run on May 1st and won that game (and the series). Here's the tally since then by the starters (IP/R): 2.1/8, 5/8, 5/4, 1.2/7, 6/3 (MadBum), 2.2/7, 5/4, and 4/3. Not pretty. Oh, that included 18 HR. That's right: eighteen homers. Dereck Rodriguez was sent back to AAA, Drew Pomeranz was put on the IL, and Derek Holland was moved to the bullpen. I can't argue with any of that. Tyler Beede will get the start on Tuesday and then it is TBD. Perhaps they'll call up a youngster like Shaun Anderson or Andrew Suarez. I don't know! It's an uncertain time out there for anyone not named Madison Bumgarner.
Apparently Derek Holland caused a bit of a local kerfuffle complaining to the media about his demotion and claiming his IL stay was "fake." Buddy, EVERY TEAM uses the IL creatively! A hangnail is almost good enough. If his ERA was other than 6.75 it would not have happened. Everyone also knows you go to your coaches and/or manager first if you have a beef, and you don't rip "the front office" (i.e., your bosses) in public without at least doing it in private first. But that's OK. If a player is happy after a demotion I think he's in the wrong profession. Pitch well, and the problems will go away. Winning clubhouses are happy clubhouses. I have to give Boch a lot of credit for keeping stuff like this under wraps these last few seasons when the team has played so poorly. You have to figure folks get grumpy when week after week they perform below expectations. With the regime change everyone also knows things are going to be different and there is some uncertainty ahead for many of the players. That has to weigh on their minds. FZ made a point to say that if he has not made it comfortable for players to come to him with problems then "that is on him" and he will do more to improve communication. He's the new sheriff in town and there's bound to be some growing pains but I remain convinced he's the right person. I particularly like that he is relentlessly positive and looks for solutions. He doesn't pass the buck or cast blame.
Off-day tomorrow and again on Thursday with two against the Blue Jays in between.
--M.C.
7 comments:
This piece by Tim Dierkes on MLBTR summarizes the Giants outfield story. It is not a pretty read, but scrambling for a breakout player among the fringes of the 40-man rosters around the league is not a pretty story.
At least they are auditioning a lot of ballplayers. Some are bound to stick.
Erik Kratz DFA'd and Aaron Altherr (pronounced "all-TAIR") added to the 25-man. Aramis Garcia will back up Stephen Vogt behind the plate.
It has become almost impossible to keep up with the roster changes. I don't recall ever seeing so many players being moved one after the other. Not that I disagree with the moves, but still it makes me dizzy.
I find it odd to see D-Rod in the promotions now that they have sent him down. I suspect he will be back before very long. How much worse could he be than the others? I think they were just trying to keep him from losing his mojo altogether. Going from being the rising star to being just another dude who can't find his control... must be very hard on the psyche.
Indeed, and I think most of these guys know when they axe is going to fall. It's an outcome-oriented game, you don't get credit for trying, and when you aren't getting the results you know changes will be coming. D-Rod has options remaining and that's why he can go back down to AAA and work on stuff--the Giants don't have to risk losing him.
I use Roster Resource (https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-san-francisco-giants/) all the time. Here's a link. They update things pretty fast and you can see what's happening. Also if you follow the tweets (from Amy Gutierrez, Andrew Baggarly, MLB Trade Rumors, SF Giants, etc.) in the sidebar on the left of the blog page you can get updates on what's happening. I will usually comment on the transactions or say something in the blog posts so people can stay current.
RHP Nick Vincent gets the "start" tomorrow against the Blue Jays. Vincent is normally a reliever: he's had 24 IP in 14 appearances, 7 of those games involved at least 2 innings and 2 of them were 3-inning stints.
Vincent was used as an "opener" last season for the Mariners against the Astros (Aug 21). He went two scoreless and Ross Detweiler came in to pitch the next six (he gave up 3 and the M's lost 3-2).
He's a good choice to experiment with the opener strategy. He's faced 100 batter so far in 2019 with 25 K and only 6 BB, with 21 H (2 HR) and 7 runs allowed.
Good luck, Nick!! The Giants can use all the help they can get in the 1st inning!!
Are we going with an opener?
Yes.
Post a Comment