SF 1 STL 0
The Cardinals promising young righty Jack Flaherty dazzled the Giants for six no-hit innings in San Francisco this afternoon, dominating what had been a hot-hitting club. Fortunately Jeff Samardzija matched him with six zeroes himself, and Kevin Pillar bailed out The Shark in the 7th with two big catches to keep the shutout intact. In the bottom half Evan Longoria launched a no-doubter and the Giants had a 1-0 lead in the final game before the All-Star Break. Sam Dyson whiffed three in the 8th and Will Smith made it 23-for-23 with only seven pitches in the 9th and the win was in the books. That's six victories in their last seven games, and a 5-1 record for July. Game 90 (end of the 5th seasonal inning) is the first game back, Friday night in Milwaukee.
Seems fitting that we get a soccer score today as the USWNT completed their World Cup quest with a convincing shutout win in France over The Netherlands. Good show, ladies!
The Giants are playing better quality, more entertaining baseball. Let's hope they keep it up when they come back.
--M.C.
6 comments:
That was an exciting game! We're now 12 - 10 vs the NL West since June 7; 19 - 14 for June and July (so far), and 5 - 1 in July. The team is watchable! And what's with Longoria? He hasn't hit like this since he became a Giant.
All Star breaks make me nervous. We had a good team 3 years ago, until the break and we've been shit ever since. This year we finally seem to be getting good and now... cross your fingers. I'm especially pleased Buster has been reinvigorated. I maintain he just needs to be respectable for a few more years to be in range for the HOF. Dickerson is exciting. Looks like the real deal to me. If only he stays healthy.
I'm hoping for Dickerson to be a keeper. I like that he has only 10 strikeouts to go with his 10 XBH (4 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR). Let's hope he stays healthy, as you say. I think he might be a pretty good hitter overall.
Belt surely is a master at warning track power and it looks as if Yaz, is starting to demonstrate some of the same. But for Yaz who is 5ft. 11 inches at most, and 180lb. he seems to have some nice power. I keep thinking all year if only Pillar could get some plate discipline he could get more good pitches to hit. Longoria seems at least for now to have accepted the concept of plate discipline at least a little bit. If he could accept around 60 walks this year, he could also see more good pitches to hit. Waiting for Belt to have a hot streak, and I just do not know if Posey has it in him this year to go on a tare with some power. He continues to be a top defender, yet a disappointment on offense, from the standards that he had previously set for himself. I know injuries have their toll. It seems that finally Pablo's injuries that hindered his hitting from the right side, have gotten better. Being that 2/3 of the team had below par first half's, I am hoping that we get those same 2/3 of players to have above par second half's to kind of average out and make it toward their norms. I big spark from Posey could help this team make a serious run at the wildcard. I would love to see that happen. When he came up in the ninth in the one run game, I was hoping so much for an extra base hit, instead we got a DP. Maybe things will change for him in the second half. A 250 average (approx.) in the first half, would nicely be evened out to career norms with a 350 average the second half with a whole bunch of homers. Wishful fandom thinking.
Yeah Posey does not seem to have lost anything with the glove, other than just normal aging. The hip surgery has probably robbed much of his hitting stroke, but it may be something that he can work through, grow into so to speak, and develop some new techniques. He's a bright guy and probably easy to teach. That hitting guru that helped Hunter Pence ought to be the club's first target!
I'm convinced Belt's knee is a serious impediment. He is still showing his usual plate discipline and getting a lot of walks, and when he is rested he gets in a few good hacks and produces some XBH. But he can only really play first now, he can't move enough for left field. Like Posey and BCraw he needs platoon partners.
Pence is a truly great athlete with tremendous bat speed. He hindered his own hitting over the years with way to much motion with the bat in the batters box. He needed to calm down his swing. He did so to a great extent. He still has room to do so even more. Posey already has a nice swing. My guess is if he played at a slightly slower speed of the game, he would hit over 350 at Sacramento. Interesting that against the dodgers in the last series, in the ninth inning against their closer, his at bat looked different, and he came close to hitting one out which was caught at the fence on a line drive. He seemed to get to the ball quicker and with better bat speed. If you watch that AB, compared to many other of his AB's, he looked ready to hit and in balance. Much of the time he seems to be about a millisecond too slow, or off balance. The same is true with Panik. His BABIP is terrible. He hits the ball on line drives right to the fielders, and also grounds out hard to second base a lot. I remember when his bat speed was good enough to hit the ball in the gaps. It is not always about bat speed, but often about balance. Bill Mueller a very good giants third baseman, was a good hitter, and never had elite bat speed, but often made contact and frequently had the ability to hit the ball where the fielders could not easily get to the ball. That in itself is a skill. Posey and Goldschmidt have rather similar swings, and it is interesting that both of their averages have fallen off. However, Goldschmidt still seems to wield his power stroke, and for Posey his power stroke is still missing. I also think that Belt's swing is a bit too loopy even if his bat speed is good. I think he needs to make a quicker path to the ball. I do not think he will lose any power, and may even gain some.
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