Anthony DeSclafani was superb tonight, and a start like that ought to be the story. But we do have to take a moment and give a nod to the hitters as they exploded for 12 runs to overwhelm Austin Gomber and the Rockies. Gomber is a good pitcher. He came to Colorado in the Nolan Arenado deal. The Giants, however, lit him up for four runs in the 1st and chased him in the 2nd when they added five more. What's cool is only the final two runs came via the homer, Buster Posey's two-run big fly in the 6th. In the 1st it was single, walk, single, double, single, groundout and in the 2nd it was single, single, groundout, double, strikeout, walk, walk, double. They added a run on a sacrifice fly in the 4th before Buster's blast.
We've all been waiting for the hitters to start hitting so it was a cathartic evening. And we've all been waiting for a lopsided win. All the previous games were decided by four runs or fewer! I'm still pinching myself. I actually relaxed during the broadcast.
But back to DeSclafani whose nickname, by the way, is "Disco." He was superb, as I mentioned. He breezed through eight innings on 85 pitches so it was only natural Kap would send him out for the 9th with a chance for a complete game and a shutout. He seized his moment: Garrett Hampson flew out to right (3 pitches), Josh Fuentes struck out (6 pitches), and Ryan McMahon struck out (6 pitches). It was a tremendous performance and he dominated from start to finish, retiring the last twelve batters. Final line was three hits and a walk, nine strikeouts, and ten groundball outs.
Who would have thought Anthony DeSclafani would be the Giants pitcher to get the first complete game of the season and the first shutout? Certainly not me. Like I said--party time!
Aaron Sanchez tomorrow night at 6:45 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
4 comments:
Great pitching but the big story for me is BUSTER! Another homer, another beautiful, crushed homer. He also got FOUR hits, something that we haven’t seen in years. As I said before, Buster can savage this whole year for me. The team is doing rather well but that’s not too likely to continue (sorry, not enough raw talent) but Buster doing something special is a development that I can really get behind. Of course, if he does an MVP thing then he might carry us to greatness. Maybe the missing raw talent will come from the rejuvenated old dudes...
I imagine it is a sure sign of age when your team is littered with young studs but you still hope the stars of yesterday will carry the day. Hmmmm. I fear I am not “baseball” aging well.
Buster has caught 8 CG shutouts in his career in which he has personally out-hit the opposition! Last night 4 for Buster and 3 for the Rockies.
Having a quality backup like Casali really helps keep Posey fresh. (Lifetime Casali is a .718 OPS hitter so I figure things will come around for him.)
Yeah, it is exciting to see Buster look good.
I would say the Giants have yet to feature a really exciting young player so it is hard to get worked up over any of the new guys. Obviously guys like Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna, and Fernando Tatis are rare talents, and there are only a few of them in the game, but it would be nice to see a player like that emerge from the Giants system.
In the meantime The Churn has produced a number of solid major leaguers and has plugged up a lot of the holes in the roster. The Giants are leveraging depth and matchups to win games. Not to mention they really do seem to have pitcher-whisperers on the coaching staff. DeScalafani mentioned post-game how much the Giants have helped him re-discover his form.
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