Giants starter Jordan Hicks cruised through the first three frames before running into trouble in the 4th and giving up two runs. In the 5th he had to work hard to put up a zero and manager Bob Melvin chose to replace him in the 6th. It didn't work out. Ryan Walker and Taylor Rogers gave up a three-spot and that was the game. The Giants saw their 2-2 tie become a 5-2 deficit. Both teams scored in the 7th but the damage was done. The Giants will send out rookie Keaton Winn in the rubber match/getaway game scheduled for tomorrow morning (9:10 Pacific).
It has not been the early-season start that Giants fans were hoping for. The team has struggled to score runs—only 76 in 18 games for a paltry 4.22 rpg average. That sort of near-league average production works fine if you have a dominant pitching staff. But so far the hurlers are not clicking as a group. Overall the pitchers have allowed 90 runs which comes out to exactly 5.00 per game. Last time I checked 5.00 > 4.22 and that inequality needs to go the other way. You know, RS (runs scored) needs to be >>> than RA (runs allowed). It does seem that the fielding has been improved. Matt Chapman is certainly as good as advertised and Nick Ahmed and Jung-Hoo Lee have been solid defenders as well.
I feel like all the pieces are there for this to be a good team. But the April version of the club is what I will charitably call a "work in progress." There are 144 games left. That's plenty of time for the cold bats to warm up. And plenty of time for the rotation to come together and the 'pen to sort itself out.
The high-flying Dodgers are a mere 11-8 so the Giants are only 3-1/2 games back. The Padres (10-9) and Diamondbacks (8-9) aren't lighting the world on fire, either. Nothing a ten-game winning streak wouldn't cure!
--M.C.
1 comment:
Well the Giants are now 8 - 11. If you were to exclude their outlier, that 11 run outburst against Washington from their runs per game total, they are only scoring 3.78. That's an artifact of the small sample size, but really only points out that they really need to have a more productive offense to be any kind of contenders. Also, they seem to have a big problem carrying any success over to the next game. They have, in 19 games, only won back-to-back games once, in the first series against San Diego. With today's victory against Miami, they have won their second series of the year (along with the series win at home against San Diego). On the plus side, they haven't won a series in Miami (the Marlins are 4 - 15) since 2016. 7 years! Every game they win, the announcers keep talking about how maybe it will build some momentum. But so far, it hasn't, and that includes the Rays, Nationals and Marlins. They really need to string a few wins together to prove they can. Arizona's up next, they had a pretty good team last year and just added Jordan Montgomery. They're followed by the Mets and Pirates. Friday night features the Boras holdouts, Snell against Montgomery.
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