It's not often the Giants get the better of Clayton Kershaw but they did just that in LA tonight. In the 3rd inning Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski hit homers off the big lefty to make it 2-0 Giants. In the 5th, Slater hit another bomb and doubles by Donovan Solano and Yaz made it 4-0 and that was it for Kershaw. Meanwhile Johnny Cueto no-hit the Dodgers through five. In the top of the 6th, Hunter Pence got a hit (only his second of the season!) and came around to score later on a sacrifice fly by Mauricio Dubon. That would be a crucial run. Pence blew a routine fly ball (lost in the lights?) to open the bottom of the 6th. It turned into a triple and the next batter drove in the run with a ground out. Cueto then lost it, walking the next two batters. He probably should have come out then (his pitch count was up to 90) but with a 5-1 lead and an over-worked bullpen Kap let him pitch to Justin Turner. A 400-foot 3-run homer ended Cueto's night but Tony Watson got the last out of the inning and the bullpen did the rest. Tyler Rogers got the next six outs and Trevor Gott held his nerve against the heart of the order in the 9th to get the save.
The Giants have had really poor starting pitching so far this year and it looked like JohnnyC was going to fix that problem. He did just that for five innings but the "third time through the lineup penalty" bit him on the ass. The unfortunate misplay by Pence that ended the no-hit bid was a gut punch and certainly did not help. But the walks have been an issue so far for Cueto (9 in 18-1/3 IP) and they hurt him tonight. He does appear to be getting stronger and starting to look more like his old self and that is certainly good news. Slater's emergence as a hitter is also good news. He's slashing .310/.394/.586 so far!
Kevin Gausman tomorrow afternoon (1:10 PDT).
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
6 comments:
The giants were good enough to win this game despite once again being snake bitten. It almost looked like one of those games that was going to turn into a heartbreaking loss. But, the resilient giants this time were able to hold on. For the first 5 innings the game seemed to be called quite nicely. But the umps need to tell us, how a very high pitch is not high enough to be a ball on 5 foot 8 inch Tromp, but it is too high to be a strike on 6 ft. 5 inch Bellinger. I played back Dubon's down the line shot with runners on second and third, and it sure looked like a fair ball everytime I replayed it, but not for the giants. Looks like the schedule for this short season has the giants playing in LA, 7 times, but LA only playing in SF 3 times. Perhaps I have missed a 4 game stint on the schedule.
Yeah the scheduled is unbalanced, home/away. Giants get 7-3 advantage over AZ and 6-4 over SD but are 4-6 vs. COL and as you point out 3-7 v. LA.
I was sure the whole thing was going to collapse. Rogers really stepped up--he needed to--and Gott has been very cool in the tense spots so far this year.
Giants pick up a speedy switch-hitting CF from the White Sox for "cash considerations." His name is Luis Basabe and he turns 24 this month. Has not played above AA but has been in pro ball since he was 16. He's from Venezuela.
RHP Jordan Humphreys (Billy Hamilton trade) was placed on the "restricted list" to make room for Basabe. I suspect Duggar is going to get some competition. Yaz really should be a corner OF, but I get that they don't want to mess with him too much as he is playing so damn well.
Johnny Cueto is a classy professional. And about as entertaining a pitcher as you can find!
So much for Andrew Suarez. They bumped him for Trevor Cahill. Cahill has started over 200 G in his career and also has over 100 G as a reliever. So, I suspect Kap will ask him to do both.
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