Johnny Cueto had to work hard this afternoon, throwing 109 pitches to 26 batters to get through 5-2/3 innings. He gave up two runs right away in the top of the 1st but kept the Arizona hitters off the board into the 6th. He left with the bases loaded but Caleb Baragar got the final out. The Giants got two in the bottom half of the 6th on a homer by Donovan Solano to take the lead and the bullpen did the rest. Jarlin Garcia loaded the bases in the 7th but struck out two to escape unscathed. Tony Watson (8th) and Tyler Rogers (9th) each struck out two in their brisk, dominant frames to finish off the Diamondbacks. Chadwick Tromp hit a solo shot in the 3rd but otherwise lefty Alex Young frustrated the Giants until Solano's big hit. Brandon Belt, pinch-hitting for Tromp in the 7th, added a solo shot off Yoan Lopez to make it 4-2 and that's how it finished.
The Giants get their 20th victory in their 41st game with some excellent defense, timely bombs, and superb relief work. Cueto deserves a nod for his veteran savvy clutchness, getting some big strikeouts (he had seven overall) against a patient lineup, and keeping the lid on things when it seemed ready to fly off.
Kevin Gausman takes the hill tomorrow against Zac Gallen at 5:05 p.m. PDT.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
2 comments:
Lou Brock dead at 81. He was another one of those guys from my youth that seemed larger than life. My first World Series memories were the Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox against the juggernaut Cardinals. My parents are from Boston so the Sawx have always been my second team even though I'm a California boy. I remember coming home from school and my Mom telling me that "Lonborg didn't have it" and that St. Louis had won. Baseball was an afternoon game then and Game Seven was at Fenway.
Lonborg won the Cy that year. Yaz was MVP and had one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. Orlando Cepeda was NL MVP. Bob Gibson was 3-0 in the Series with 3 CG including a shutout and only 14 hits, 5 walks, and 3 runs allowed against 26 strikeouts. Brock had 12 hits in the Series.
RIP.
Jim Abert looks at home run rates, and here's two notes from his blog:
(1) In-play home run rates remain very high in 2020, so home runs continue to be a major component of baseball offense.
(2) The ball effects on home run hitting have shown some interesting up and down patterns during the Statcast data. But the 2020 ball appears not to be as lively as the 2017 or 2019 balls. So the ball effect is clearly not driving the current high home run rates.
Abert (who wrote my favorite book on baseball statistics, "Curve Ball") attributes the 2020 homer surge to players hitting the ball better. MLB keeps track of "barrels" and "barrel percentage" as a way to describe a well-struck ball. Here's the definition of that term. Basically it has to have an exit velocity over 98 mph and fall within a launch angle range and that range gets bigger as the exit velocity increases. Again, think if it as a way to quantify hard-hit balls. Abert says:
. . . players continue to hit balls hard and the the rate of “good” or “barrel” batted balls has shown a consistent rise over the Statcast period . . . The home run rate in 2020 is almost as high as the 2019 rate since the increasing barrel effect is compensating for the less lively baseball.
Interesting analysis.
Hat tip, Baseball Musings.
Post a Comment