Tuesday, August 20, 2019

7th inning: 8-10

CHC 5  SF 3
The Giants got beat tonight in Chicago and that dropped their record back to .500 at 63-63. You can see that we've reached Game 126 or the end of the 7th seasonal inning. Here's the story so far:

1st inning: 8-10
2nd inning: 8-10
3rd inning: 5-13
4th inning: 10-8
5th inning: 11-7 
6th inning: 13-5
7th inning: 8-10

Reversion to form? An 8-10 record is 2019's most popular choice for an 18-game seasonal inning. Tonight young Tyler Beede continued to struggle but the Giants tied it up against Cole Hamels and it was a close game, mostly. The 'pen couldn't keep the tie and the lineup had nothing over the last five frames. Mike Yastrzemski missed a two-run homer by a few feet in the 7th, a favorable gust might have given us a different outcome. Hamels, as I'm sure you recall, faced Matt Cain in Game 3 of the 2010 NLCS when he was with Philadelphia. He's 35 and still effective (3.72 FIP, 122 ERA+).

The slash line for Major League Baseball is .254/.324/.437 for a .761 OPS.

The Giants run out a .242/.307/.405 line for a .712 OPS. That puts them 26th out of the 30 teams, with the White Sox, Royals, Tigers, and Marlins below them.

On the pitching side the Giants are 12th-best overall with a 4.41 ERA. FanGraphs gives the Giants a 4.55 FIP, good for 15th, the middle of the pack. If you look at OPS-against their .752 puts them 13th-best.

It's been a tough August for the orange-and-black, but it seems this team is playing closer to its true talent level. I figure, overall, they are a +/-.500 club and by golly that's right where they are. I'd sure like to see 10-8 become the new popular 18-game seasonal inning record. I'm trying not to jinx it but I'd really like to see them win 19 more games and finish with 82 wins.

Dereck Rodriguez goes tomorrow at 5:05 p.m. PDT.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

2 comments:

Zo said...

Q: Can anyone on this fucking team pitch?
A: Yes, Gustave.

M.C. O'Connor said...

It is frustrating. That was a winnable game last night, a great effort by the team to keep fighting back, they just couldn't stop the scoring.

FanGraphs has a lengthy look a bullpens. The Giants rate the best (lowest FIP) in high-leverage and medium leverage situations (through 8/20). Obviously they blew some high leverage situations last night. They are in the bottom third in low leverage situations. Overall they are 9th-best in bullpen FIP.

If you rate 'pens by WAR, which accounts for park effects and leverage situations, the Giants are 10th, at 2-WAR. The Yankees and Rays are nearly 6-WAR, with the other teams ahead of the Giants (Min, Cle, Oak, Bos, StL, SD, Hou) are all about 4-WAR.