Kevin Gausman pitched his best game of the young season, going eight full innings and allowing only two hits and a walk while striking out eleven. Unfortunately the Marlins countered with an excellent start by Pablo Lopez and scoreless bullpen work from Anthony Bass and Dylan Floro. Gausman and the Giants were up 1-0 after six but a solo shot from Jon Berti tied it in the top of the 7th. He was done after eight having thrown 101 pitches, 72 for strikes. Rookie reliever Gregory Santos came in for the 9th and gave up the big hit, a two-run homer from Jesus Aguilar. Welcome to the big leagues, kid. That swung the game to the Marlins. Aguilar was the one who hit the homer in the 9th against Jake McGee last night. Wandy Peralta finished the frame but the four-run outburst put the Giants in a 5-1 hole. Mike Yastrzemski, 0-for-3 with three whiffs, hit a solo shot off closer Yimi Garcia in the bottom half but that was it.
Gausman delivered the goods tonight but a lack of offense and poor relief work wasted the superb effort. It's a tough loss--something the Giants have endured too many times already in these first few weeks! The flip side is that Gausman is doing everything the Giants hoped when they made him a Qualifying Offer. He's thrown 33-2/3 innings over his five starts with 19 hits, 10 walks, 8 runs, and 34 strikeouts. He has a 1-0 record and the team is 3-2 in those games.
It's a day game tomorrow with Logan Webb taking the hill at 1:05 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
7 comments:
RH reliever Jarlin Garcia goes to the IL. Lefty-hitting infielder Jason Vosler gets the call-up.
So I’m afraid that I do have to point out that the “worry about tomorrow “ idea bit Kapler in the ass today. Using his two best relievers with a 4 run lead yesterday, left him with a very questionable choice of a rookie in a super close game. If I were Gausman I would be a little bit pissed. I think you should always try to have your closer ready on days when your ace pitches, sometimes you can’t, but this was not one of those cases.
I think if your ace pitches you have a better chance to win, especially if you score runs.
It was a tie game. That's not a "save" situation, either! If you stick to the "save" book you don't use your closer there. Not to mention McGee gave up a late HR to the SAME GUY in his outing the day before.
I won't ever fault a manager for going for broke to nail down a win. Yes, sometimes that means you are short-handed later. That just means other guys have to step up. They brought up those rookies because some of the vets weren't delivering in those very same spots. It's a team game. You have to trust your guys. I think Kap deserves some credit for the improved play this year. His willingness to give the young guys a chance in tough spots is a good thing, not a bad one. It will pay off in the long run as the Giants will be drawing more heavily on their youth brigade going forward.
From Grant Brisbee (he now writes for The Athletic):
When the Giants score exactly two runs in the Oracle Park Era, they’re 131-315, which is a .293 winning percentage.
Yeah. I suspect most teams have a similar winning percentage when they score two runs.
Gausman continues to be jinxed by the bullpen. If not for the Flores error the day before, our closer would have gotten out of the game with very few pitches. I think he threw more pitches after the error than before. But I do question the choice of reliever in this game. And I agree that it was basically unfair to the closer. Guasman could easily be 4-1 this season. He has basically been Jason Schmidt. The starting 5, or should I say the starting 6, look darn good. relievers have been erratic. Some days they look like a championship teams relief core, and other days they look quite bad. Many teams seem to be struggling in the pen. The giants hitting is among the worst in the league except for the long ball. It seems as if more and more giants in the starting lineup are going down to injury. Hopefully we can get a healthy giants team back.
No hitter for Madison Bumgarner today in a 7 inning game. He got a strike zone that was very friendly, something I never saw when he was pitching for the giants.
Post a Comment