The Giants reached .500 again behind the pitching of Madison Bumgarner, now 8 - 7 on the year. They beat the Oakland Athletics in a tense, exciting squeaker, 3 - 2.
Oakland, like the Giants, is also fighting for a playoff spot, and, also like the Giants, are in a division with a dominant division leader. Oakland has a much better track record this year, 15 games over .500 even with tonight's loss. They have 10 guys on their team with 10 or more home runs.
This was a San Francisco type game, though. Pitching, pitching and pitching and a modicum of small ball. Madison Bumgarner threw a fantastic game. He threw 100 pitches to get through 7 full innings. He gave up only 2 hits and walked none. 1 of those hits was a home run to Steven Piscotty. That was the only run he allowed. He struck out 9. He has been pitching about as well as he ever has in his last 2 starts. You remember he threw 7 and blanked Philadelphia on 1 hit last week.
The game was scoreless until the Piscotty home run in the 5th. The Giants scored off of Brett Anderson, who was tagged for the loss, with 3 consecutive doubles in the 6th and then a Gennett sac fly to score Aramis Garcia playing first base tonight in the 7th. That run was important because, after a hitless 8th from Reyes Moronta, Will Smith had no functional slider in the 9th. Will gave up 3 hits, walked in the A's 2nd run, and threw 37 pitches. But he also got 3 strikeouts for the save. Beede tomorrow. He gave us 5 innings last time, but really, we need a little more from our young starters. The 1 2/3 and 3 inning starts will catch up to us. We have a strong bullpen (and a few more days off coming up soon), but still, Madbum and Smardjy and pray for (?) doesn't cut it. But for the moment, we are 60 - 60 and I thought .500 was a long shot not too long ago.
8 comments:
Pillar attempted a steal on 2-0 count to slater. If he was actually touched by the tag, he was out. Pillar seemed to think he was not touched. Cannot tell on the replay, and the giants replay booth thought that there was no chance the call would be overturned. Luckily for the pitchers the strike zone for the most part was pretty large, and for a change it was so for both teams. If the first batter of the game had his popup caught, Bumgarner again would have gone quite deep into the game with a no hitter. I would love to see him throw one. We have had lesser talents do so. I hope Beede can keep his head on straight tomorrow. Would be nice to sweep the A's. Although the A's are fighting for a wild card spot themselves.
A's are a good club. That was a big win. Bumgarner was outstanding.
60-60 with 42 games to play. Yeah this team is counting on a lot from the rookie pitchers. Let's hope they can deliver!
Pablo goes to IL with elbow inflammation; Dickerson returns, will start Friday.
Thursday's game was kind of a blowout. Our young pitchers are just not all ready for the big time. Beede a guy with great stuff, can only put guys away occasionally. Too many 2 strike hits, and extra base hits. The giants made a valiant attempt at a comeback, as no one other than Yaz, went deep. Although the giants were down 4 runs in the 9th, with one on, two out and Belt up, and Belt looked overmatched swinging and missing two pitches, he was called out on a bad pitch. Would like to run a video of just how many times Belt has been punched out on a call, that could only come as the ump's wife threatened him to end the game, or she would leave him. Two out comebacks, as rare as they are, need to at least come when the team behind is getting good calls. Less important than in a one run game, but lets get some folks back there calling strikes who can at least see.
Belt was called out on a bad pitch. How many times?
15th time this year according to a post at MCC.
And Belt never, never adjusts for what the umpire is going to call a strike. He may be right, but he's still out.
I don't know, man. That's a weird criticism for a batter, any batter, but especially for a batter with a good eye. A pitcher-catcher battery has multiple--dozens--of chances to tweak a target to get it called a strike. A hitter has two PAs, maybe three, before a pitching change. And he might have one or possibly two pitches in any PA to do the "hold-or-swing" dance.
Players bring all kinds of different skills (and deficiencies) to the ballpark. I like to appreciate the strengths. Belt gets on base--he always has. That's one of his strengths as a player. Yeah, he is going to get burned on called strikes, but because he has good plate discipline it will pay off over time. It's kind of like the OF who plays shallow to take away hits but sometimes gets burned when they knock it over his head.
When what he does stops paying off for Belt, that's when he hangs it up, or maybe starts channeling HacMan instead of JT Snow.
When I watch Kevin Pillar, I think "I wish he had Belt's patience." But then he wouldn't be Kevin Pillar, who has a knack for big hits and big plays. The cost is his rally-killing one-pitch outs. It remains to be seen whether his strengths outweigh his deficiencies. He has two arb-years left, and it will be interesting to see how they value what he does. Is his OF defense worth the 91 OPS+? Maybe. He's certainly an interesting player and fun to watch.
Belt must be like Posey and need some kind of major surgery, like knee or hip or whatnot. Or he's just over the hill at 31, which is not impossible. He's had a lot of injuries over the years. He can still pick it at first base, that's for sure. But he looks like he can't swing with full power. And he really can't move enough for LF.
When the Giants were able to move Mark Melancon and his contract it made me realize that guys like Belt, Crawford, Samardzija, Longoria, etc. aren't always stuck. After all Longo was moved from TB to SF along with the contract. Some AL team might see a guy like Belt as a DH/platoon hitter (as well as a defensive replacement) in a more hitter-friendly park as a real veteran asset with post-season experience and all that. Not that I want that to happen, but the Melancon deal made me realize things aren't always impossible.
I hope Belt is hurt. Then we at least have a reason for the decline--much like Posey. He is certainly better than last season, but a long way from his prime.
Sounds extremely reasonable. Zo, as far as I can tell, Belt has been called out on a bad pitch late in a game, that is often worse than a pitch that had previously been called a ball on him earlier in the game. One would think at this time, that MLB would have umpires review their strike zone consistency. I think players can, and do adjust to the strike zone offered, but I see too many umpires with roving strike zones, and/or different strike zone during the same game for different pitchers, and or different teams.
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