Wow! A win! The Giants prove that the world has not yet ended by winning a baseball game. I've talked about it before--when your team is on a losing streak it can feel like it might never stop. That they'll never win again. Mostly, it is an irrational thought. Not with this team, though. After the last few games I think any Giants fan who thought they might finish the season stuck at eight wins (with 52 losses!) was at least semi-rational.
That notion was buried today by a superb team effort. I like to say it's not how bad you get knocked on your ass, it's how well you pick yourself up off the canvas and answer the bell for the next round. The Giants did that today. There were a lot of good things this afternoon: a Yaz leadoff homer, a Panda blast in the next inning that put the Giants up for good, a big two-out, two-run hit from BCraw, a four-inning hit-less, scoreless bullpen beast (Baragar/Selman/Peralta/Garcia), three straight doubles (Belt, Longo, Panda) for two runs in the top of the 9th, and best of all a bottom of the 9th inning that featured all three outs.
Shaun Anderson got the call in the 9th with an 8-1 lead. He walked Mike Trout. Anthony Rendon got a hit. A wild pitch moved up the runners. Shohei Ohtani drove in a run with a ground out. Brian Goodwin popped out and Jo Adell struck out to end it. If you freaked out a bit after the first run scored it's OK.
Anderson had a couple of wayward pitches buzz Trout who gave the kid a WTF look after the second one. Angels manager Joe Maddon didn't see intent and instead said "that's just a young man not ready to be here." Ouch. Yes, the Giants have some young and inexperienced pitchers! The Angels fall to 8-16 which shows that even a talented club with an accomplished veteran manager can fall flat on its face.
Good work today, Giants. It was especially gratifying to beat Dylan Bundy who came into the game arguably the hottest pitcher in baseball.
Johnny Cueto gets the ball at home tomorrow night at 6:45 p.m. against these same Angels.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
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Sandoval's HR was off a pitch that was four feet (according to the pitch tracking 4.01 feet, or a little less than 1/8 inch over four feet) off the ground! Of course we know he can hit any pitch for a homer. Since they've kept track of such things, since 2008 believe it or not, only Hunter Pence has hit higher pitches (twice in 2014) for homers. We certainly know that passes the eye-test.
The high outside pitch had been a ball all game. Even some pitches high within the strike zone were called balls. Pablo was called out on strikes on a pitch high and outside. The giants starter must be pissed when he sees the change in the zone. It would be nice to see, both Brandon's Pablo, Pence, all get hot at the same time. Heck they were all cold as could be for a while. Would like to see Dickerson get his stroke back as well. One has to wonder why a team like Baltimore kept Yaz in the minors for so long. Either the giants do not know how to check their swings, or they seem to go just a little but further on those check swings so that these situations end up with more strikes for giants hitters. I think with Belt's long looping swing, and his hip swivel, he often becomes a victim of such calls. I would love to see a video of all the balls against Belt that have been called strikes. It would be a long video. Enough complaining by me about this issue. I guess when the technology gets better for automated strike zone calls it will be implemented. If they can implement a runner on second to start the 10th inning they can do almost anything.If the giants had a decent bullpen this year, they might actually have a winning record.
Bullpens are tricky. Will Smith has pitched 3-2/3 IP this season and has allowed 2 HR. Sam Dyson has pitched 11-1/3 IP this season and has allowed 9 R and 3 HR.
Mark Melancon has pitched very well, but I think the Giants are happy to be off the hook for his $14M.
Of the guys they let go from last year only Burch Smith seems to be a mistake--he's doing very well in Oakland although he just hit the IL.
Tony Watson seems fine this season although I don't think he's the workhorse he once was, and of course we really miss Reyes Moronta (rehabbing from shoulder surgery). He would likely have been the closer. I suppose the Drew Pomeranz deal could be re-looked at but they did at least get Dubon.
Gott, Selman, S. Anderson, Rogers, Peralta, Gustave, Coonrod, Menez, were all around last season and I'm sure some reliable arms will emerge from that bunch. They added J. Garcia and Baragar to the mix but I think the injuries to the starters (Smardj and Smyly) really put a hurt on the staff. At least they had T. Anderson and Cahill to fill in. D-Rod has been a real bust, I thought he might make it as a long reliever.
The Padres have better pitching and better hitting than the Giants and are barely over .500 (13-12). I doubt the Giants would be even if the result of a few blown saves were flipped.
The first outing of DRod he looked much sharper and threw the ball harder than his second outing. He seemed to have lack of velocity and control in outing number 2. Not sure what is wrong with Gott. But I do disagree with those who think it is easy to put together a good bullpen, and gathering a bunch of good arms who can pitch in short stints is easy. Saw a stat that says the giants lead in blown saves. The leads are even being blown when guys come in with big enough leads for it not to be a save situation. Not sure why Gott is having such poor results lately. Is it control, or is he tipping off his pitches. He seems to have decent velocity and movement on his pitches. The Dodgers may have a good lineup but their relief crew keeps them in games. When people say that the giants WS victories in 2010,2012,& 2014, they underrate the importance of the bullpen, and over rate the importance of the lineup. For the most part our starters and bullpen were key components of the giants victories.
I think Gott was tipping his pitches.
The Giants had an amazing run with Casilla, Romo, Affeldt, and Lopez all being so good for so long. That was really an exceptional thing. It is hard to find relievers who can string together a bunch of good seasons in a row, so to find four guys who could do it together? Wow!
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