Thursday, September 2, 2021

Whew!

SF 5  MIL 1

Thairo Estrada had his biggest moment as a Giants player with a huge three-run homer to cap a four-run 8th that set up this afternoon's win. Darin Ruf's clutch two-out RBI double just before had broken a tense 1-1 tie. Walks to Kris Bryant and Brandon Belt had set up the late rally. Bryant was thrown out trying to steal with a 3-1 count on Belt (I was furious!), but the call was overturned. He was clearly safe. The Giants needed some cathartic hits and both Ruf (who's been superb all season) and Estrada delivered.

Logan Webb led the way with another outstanding performance. He retired the first nine guys with ridiculous ease and allowed only four hits overall, one a two-out RBI single in the 4th. Webb had ten strikeouts and walked only one guy. In the 7th lumbering Daniel Vogelbach tried to stretch a hit to right field into a double but Austin Slater gunned him down to end the inning. Slater's leadoff homer in the 1st got the Giants on the board. Tyler Rogers was perfect in the 8th with three strikeouts, and Jake McGee finished the 9th. He gave up an apparent two-run homer to Willy Adames but upon review it was overturned. It was clearly foul. Adames then hit a hard grounder to Estrada at second base and he made a nice play to end the game.

Obviously today was a massive win. The Giants have not played well and they got smacked around by a tough, first-place team. Well, guess what? The Giants are a first-place team! They have to share it right now with that other team that's also 85-49, but those things can be taken care of this weekend. Tomorrow night's game is at 6:45 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

BEAT LA!!

--M.C.

13 comments:

JC Parsons said...

I got to see most of this one today, it was the YouTube game of the week. Two very strong starters made it kinda dull, good baseball but no thrills. I remember thinking that that steal attempt is going to piss off MOC. Which I think I got right. I don’t remember ever seeing an angle that made it “clearly” safe…but I will buy overturning the original call. Kinda took too long. Maybe a time limit? I mean if it takes you five minutes of analyzing then maybe it isn’t very conclusive. Anyway that sure was the turning point as their normally stud reliever coughed blood after that.
Is this really the last games against the doggers coming up? Wow weird schedule

nomisnala said...

After about half the game on You-Tube I figured out that I could get the giants announcers instead of the You-Tube MLB announcers. Even though Sean Estes was on You-Tube it was great relief to listen to the Giants announcers. I had posted way before the giants rally that the giants were 4 for their last 42 chances with runners in scoring position and one of those was that beautiful but accident cue shot by Posey. I said the giants just keep swinging for the fences and actually said that guys like Estrada who does not have the much power would do much better if he just tried to make contact and got the key hit instead of hitting a long loopy and lazy fly out while trying to swing for the fences. I was elated that he totally proved me to be wrong and went deep. I take it back Mr. Estrada. You can be the right handed Barry Bonds when you want to be. Or, maybe I should get my Ph.D. in earnest ragging. We are tied for first with a big 3 game series against the Dodgers and the giants best starters are not available. Probably can get good odds for betting on our guys. Webb has truly emerged, and I hope this will continue for a very long time.

nomisnala said...

PS: to my last post. With Angel Hernandez being the home plate umpire the giants should get 2 wins. Actually he did not call that bad a game. The worst call was probably the called strike 3 to Dubon. The best call was seeing that the Milwaukee home-run was a foul ball.

Zo said...

Last three games against LA, but still 10 to go against San Diego.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Brewers reliever Devin Williams had not given up a homer to a RH hitter since his fourth major league game in 2019. He had never given up a home to a RH hitter off his changeup.

Then came THAIRO!!!

That was an amazing rally. They had to win. Webb had pitched too well, they could not waste that great start.

M.C. O'Connor said...

In his last 8 starts including today Logan Webb has gone six innings in five of them, seven in two of them, and 7-1/3 IP in the other.

That's 51-1/3 innings overall: 37 H, 8 R, 8 BB, 46 SO. Three homers allowed.

I don't want to jinx him, but I think it is time to get excited about Logan Webb. I should note he's 24 (25 in November), and not arb-eligible until 2023. He's a homegrown local kid (Rocklin), 4th round pick in 2014. Tyler Beede was the 1st-rounder, and Austin Slater came in round 8.

nomisnala said...

Slater a bit older then Webb. He was barely a child when drafted.

Ron said...

Dare I say it ... Webb pitching & bulldog-like persona reminds me of Matt Cain (aside from the mostly Wins this year, instead of get Cain-ed). 'Raising Logan Webb'?

M.C. O'Connor said...

Webb was 17, like Cain, when he started his pro career--straight from HS. Cain of course made it to the majors at age 20 and was an All-Star at 24. Cain was good right away. Webb is just starting to put it together.

Webb gets a lot of ground balls, over 60% this year, which is near the top of MLB. He mostly stopped throwing his 4-seamer and throws his sinker about a third of the time. He gets his whiffs with the breaking ball (slider?) and the changeup. It's a very different mix and style from Cain who relied on his fastball and threw it up in the zone and got a lot of fly balls.

Ron said...

Yeah ... but the persona!

M.C. O'Connor said...

I don't know, I don't see it. Cain was a taciturn, stoical Southern boy. Webb is a chatty, mellow NorCal dude. How often did you see Cain smile? Webb grins all the time. They're built alike, so there's that. I guess you have to be over six feet and two hundred pounds to get the "bulldog" label. Webb, like Cain, seems to keep his cool in tight spots and trusts his stuff to get outs. He's not hyper and emotional like, say, Alex Wood!

Webb actually reminds me of his namesake, Brandon Webb, another guy with a killer sinker who was a ground ball machine in his heyday. That Webb was dominant for six season but blew his arm out at age 30.

Zo said...

Webb is Gritty.

Gausman and Gritty and pray we're not shitty?

M.C. O'Connor said...

Oh, I kinda like that. My Mom's from Boston so I grew up with that "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" refrain. The Boston Braves won the NL pennant in 1948 and were in Milwaukee by 1953.