Giants lose a wild one in extras in Miami. It seemed like they had no chance early as Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, the hardest thrower in the bigs, had a no-hitter through six. But that "third time through the lineup" penalty bit him hard in the 7th with Brandon Belt belting a leadoff homer. An Evan Longoria double, Brandon Crawford single, and Buster Posey HBP later and Alcantara was out of the game. The Giants, down 3-0, crept back to within a run. Pinch-hitter Austin Slater then jacked a home run off reliever Richard Bleier, scoring three to take the lead 5-3. That was Bleier's fourth homer allowed this year (7 IP).
Caleb Baragar ran into trouble but Tyler Rogers bailed him out with 1-2/3 of superb relief work. The 9th went to "lights-out" closer Jake McGee, and you had to like the Giants chances. Alas, McGee looked mortal and gave up the tying runs and was lucky it wasn't more. He had a chance to seal the win but could not get the third out, which happened to be Starling Marte, last night's hero. In the 10th a clutch two-out double from Belt gave the Giants a 6-5 lead, but Jarlin Garcia could not get it done. He also had a chance to seal the deal but a two-out double against the defense by Jorge Alfaro pushed the winning runs across.
The Giants finally got the bats going but the pitchers, all eight of them, gave up 15 hits, six walks, and also hit three batters. They wriggled out of a lot of messes but the sheer volume of baserunners did them in at the end. The Marlins were 5-for-17 with runners in scoring position. Seventeen. The Giants "only" had nine such chances (and got four hits). Shoulda-coulda-woulda, this one got away. One thing I've learned, the Giants are a resilient bunch. Tomorrow is a new day.
Alex Wood makes his first start of 2021 at 10:10 a.m. PDT.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
p.s. I'm concerned about Mauricio Dubon. He isn't hitting, but in that he has company. Unfortunately, he made a poor play in centerfield that led to a run, and on the bases he could not beat out a grounder that was bobbled. Those were "late-and-close" crunch-time moments and he should be able to deliver there. I hope he starts performing soon.
p.p.s. Kap "went for broke" with McGee and had used all his pinch-hitters by the 10th and Anthony DeSclafani got the call. He was asked to bunt with men on first and second and it looked like a good one but the Marlins catcher (Jorge Alfaro again) made a great play to get the runner at second. DeSclafani was unable to score on Belt's double after that. They probably would have taken a chance with a position player. Dubon followed with the grounder that he should have beat out. It was a wild one, like I said.
7 comments:
Jarlin Garcia is a little worrying, too. He and Curt Casali were out-of-sync when he came in for the 10th. It's like he didn't know the signs or something, and Casali got heated about it. Garcia had a similar issue last year, too. Let's hope he figures it out. Even so, he had a chance to win it. Giants pitchers had a hard time getting the third out tonight.
I note young Camilo Doval was in the bullpen--the last man standing. He's really raw, having not pitched above A-ball, but was impressive in the Cactus League. Most likely he'll go back down with Wood being activated.
I wonder if we're going to see more bunting. The man-on-second rule for extra innings makes it a legitimate strategy in exactly this kind of situation, with the pitcher's spot up. I assume it was supposed to be a squeeze, but DeScal didn't push it far enough.
The Posey injury doesn't bother me. His leadership & defense is good but his offense is horrendous. I know he hit 2 HR early but he's been a below average hitter for 3 years now. He is great hitter when nobody's on base though. Even in his prime he never was a big-time rbi guy. I believe he had 1 year with 100 rbi. Even his outs are weak. Soft grounders to infielders, pop-outs, & strike outs are his norm. Never thought I'd say this, but I can think of 9 players on the Giants current roster (that if we're down 1 with 2-outs & bases loaded in the 9th) that I'd rather have up than Posey. And what's with this bullpen having like 80% lefties? Leone had a great Spring & he has MLB experience. McGee has been solid but he's not a true closer. Both regimes have refused to get a dominant closer. The last dominant closer we had was Brian Wilson. Not having a dominant closer killed us in 2016 & ever since. There were so many stud closers on the market this off-season too. The best in MLB went to White Sox, Brad Hand,& a handful more. I realize the Melancon experience didn't work out, but it happens. Are they never going to spend on a closer again? Having a dominant closer is so crucial. I think they are just as important as a big bat. Besides stud SP they're the most valuable position in baseball (just my opinion). Wait, they did recently have a dominant closer...Will Smith. Then they let him walk. A dominant closer last year & SF is in the playoffs
I think Dubon's bat will get going. He's been hitting the ball hard. Just been getting bad luck. His exit velocities have shown he's hitting the ball hard. I'm more concerned with Busters bat. After the 2 early dingers, unlike Dubon, his outs are weak outs. Grounding out soft, pop ups, & strile-outs are what he's done for the last 3 years. When there's 2 outs & nobody on, his the best hitter ever. I wish he'd stop trying to hit for average & start pulling the ball more. I'd much rather see Buster hitting .255 22 bombs & 90+ rbi, than his .285 5 55 bi's. At least Kapler hits him 7th. Luv Boch, but he had Buster hit 3rd or 4th for 2 years when the back up catcher (2 years in a row doubled his HR total)
I think in DeSclafani's situation they just wanted to avoid the DP and hoped to move the runner to 2nd. I don't think they wanted to squeeze there.
You'd think there'd be more bunting with the automatic runner but it seems like a sacrifice fly (or even a grounder to the right side) would be just as good and it has the chance of being a hit and RBI. So I think teams swing away there more than they bunt. Runner on 1st instead of 2nd maybe you see more bunts.
Yeah I'm glad to see Posey hitting lower in the lineup. Boch had a thing for catchers, I think! The Braves gave Will Smith quite a raise, something like $10M/yr. The Giants weren't going to do that with all the legacy contracts on the books. McGee has pitched well, he's only blown one save chance. Smith is great but if I recall even he has lost a couple of games so far this year.
If the Giants can start hitting more like last year's team the improved pitching will make a big difference in the final standings. They aren't going to challenge the Dodgers this year, but they have a real chance to finish stronger and build for 2022.
Here's McGee from Maria Guardado's game story:
It’s unclear whether McGee will be available to pitch Sunday in the series finale after throwing 35 pitches, but he said he doesn’t expect the disappointment from Saturday to linger into his next outing.
“It’s still fairly easy to turn the page,” McGee said. “It’s always amnesia. If you can figure out and pinpoint what went wrong and why it went wrong, you’ll have something to work on. I just need to execute getting the ball up more, especially in leverage counts and against guys who you know are going to swing really early. You just kind of learn from it.”
I like the notion of "amnesia." Athletes have to be able to do that. I'm still trying to learn how to do it as a fan!!
Although to me and to others, it does seem that Posey is more likely to hit when he comes up with no one on base, and in a non-RBI situation. But ESPN stats, if they are accurate, have shown that he hits better with runners on base. It seemed odd to me, because watching the games it seems not, but the stats do defy my own eyes. Lets see how this season goes. Posey has always been an extreme streak hitter. I would think by now, he would have figured how to get out of those easy ground out to shortstop streaks. Unlike the previous poster that wants to see Posey pull the ball all the time, I think both he and Longoria hit much better when they are willing to go to all fields. Giants are overdue to start hitting. 15 games into the season so far, and only have two games where they hit half way decently. The rotation so far seems solid.
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