The Giants combined a superb start from Kevin Gausman with a spectacular late-inning collapse to create a dramatic extra-inning opener in Seattle. Maybe "ugly" is a better word than "dramatic." Perhaps you might accept "weird." It looked like the Giants were cruising, up 6-1 in the 8th, but a whole bunch of bad stuff happened in the bottom half and it was suddenly 7-6 Mariners. Let's rewind a bit.
Kevin Gausman had a fine debut, shutting down the Mariners on two hits and one run over 6-2/3 innings. He had excellent command of his fastball and threw his splitter for strikes. He walked two and struck out six and induced a lot of weak contact. He threw 90 pitches to 24 batters.
The lineup delivered impressively as well, racking up ten hits (six for extra bases) and working four walks. Evan Longoria belted a solo homer off Seattle starter Marco Gonzalez in the 2nd, and Buster Posey added his own in the same frame. Wilmer Flores doubled home Donovan Solano in the 4th, Austin Slater popped a solo shot in the 5th, and Brandon Belt added an RBI single three batters later, driving in Solano. Flores scored an unearned run in the 8th after his second double and it was a five-run lead for the visitors.
Back to the horrid debacle. Matt Wisler opened the 8th with a walk. After two hits and a run scored he was out, and in came Jarlin Garcia. He made a mess of it with two more walks sandwiched around a strikeout. In came Tyler Rogers who gave up a double to the first man he faced and it was suddenly a 6-5 nail-biter. He then hit the next batter which loaded the bases. On the next play Brandon Belt made a throwing error on a ground ball that could have been an inning-ending DP. The Mariners, impossibly, had a 7-6 lead.
But, the Giants have a deep bench. Alex Dickerson, pinch-hitting for Slater, bopped a homer in the 9th to rescue the evening and make it 7-7. At least it gave us all hope. Jake McGee put up a zero but the Giants, despite the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, failed to break the tie. That gave the Mariners a shot against Jose Alvarez with their automatic runner and they pushed across the winner without swinging the bat. Alvarez walked the three batters he faced! Seven walks and a hit batsmen for the bullpen tonight, not to mention seven runs allowed. My goodness, that's as bad as it gets. I'm going to focus on the good stuff, like the start by Gausman and the strong attack by the hitters. Tomorrow is another day.
Johnny Cueto at 7:10 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
6 comments:
I have said this in the past. Relief pitching is not over-rated, it is under-rated. Teams think that they can spend in a bunch of different areas and just put together a relief core almost out of thin air. Not the case. Rarely ever the case. Lets hope that this first game is just the first game, and not a harbinger for things to come. But the giants had better figure this out. Finally a team that seems to be able to hit, and now, no one to finish up the late innings. I am one, and maybe in the minority, that hate the man on second extra inning rule.
I've been expecting the bullpen to be a strength of the team. I was happy with all the selections. They made a real effort to go out and get some quality arms (McGee, Wisler, Alavarez, etc.). That was an area they really targeted along with starting depth. They didn't get their jobs done last night, unfortunately. Well, McGee was sharp.
The automatic runner rule is a COVID thing. It's not all that popular with fans but some kind of time limit will emerge, I think, and become permanent. Extra inning games really ding up pitching staffs and travel times. They are using the 7-inning double-header this year, too, which is actually something fans seem to like. I suspect they will do something to limit regular season games to 12 innings in the future, like they do in KBO and NPB.
I'm just happy we have a real shot at a full season of baseball. I don't want to see any more ugly losses like last night's, but it beats no baseball at all!
Wow. Wow. Just watched the highlights. Wow. That is a loss for the ages. I think they did some of the worst really bad baseball moves I can think of... huge error by your best fielder, hit batter for a run, walked in the walkoff, and a few other things I can’t bear to remember. Wow.
I guess you could say they got it out of their system....not that harbinger thing, no please.
Gausman is a beast, so there is that.
They also got bit by the 3-batter minimum rule. Any other season and there would have been a couple of quicker hooks. Neither Garcia nor Alvarez could find the plate and Wisler was bad, too. Not much Kap could do about that. At some point, pitchers gotta pitch. They were the right guys in the right spots but they had no command. Maybe if Rogers had gotten the ground ball on the first batter (instead of giving up a double and a HBP) they might have squeaked out of it.
Garcia, Wisler, and Alvarez are veteran guys. They weren't asking some rookie to get it done. They have some exciting young arms in the system but I think they wanted to ease them in this year. That's why they went out and got the free agent relievers, to provide a little security for the development process. Didn't pay off last night, except for McGee, who will likely be the main closer.
I can't fault management for that one. Kap pushed the right buttons. FZ gave him the pieces to work with. The players didn't perform. (Belt's bad throw was a shocker. He admitted that he makes that play "99 times out of 100" and he had no excuses, just made a poor throw.)
Actually I'm surprised BCraw didn't rescue Belt with one of his signature impossible grabs. The E is on Belt of course, but BCraw often saves errant throws. Anyway, I think of The Brandons as being the ones you can count on for the big defensive plays. Fielding could be an issue with this team so those guys (and Posey and Longo) really have to deliver.
Hey, it's one game. Professionals have to "shake it off" and move forward. Well, I'm a professional fan, so let's go forward and watch 'em win tonight!
I thought Belt's throw should have and could have been handled by Crawford. It was not a good throw, but Crawford gets bailed out on some bad throws to first on a regular basis by Belt. Yes the error should be Belt's but it was not that bad a throw. Certainly one that would have precluded the double play, but still could have been caught. Except for one or two batters, Seattle showed excellent plate discipline.
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