It seems that August will be the make-or-break month for this 2024 Giants ballclub. Today's win gave them a series victory and starts the month with a winning record. There was a solid start by Robbie Ray, great bullpen work, and a superb offensive explosion (3 doubles and 3 homers) with a late-inning rally, all the ingredients for a big win. If the Giants are to make a move in the Wild Card race they'll need to do more stuff like that over the remaining 48 games.
This is a poor road team: 23-34 (.404) after today. They are 33-23 (.589) in San Francisco. There are four more away games on this trip, all against the Nationals, before they return home. Washington ought to be a team they can beat up on. The rotation looks like Webb-Birdsong-Snell-Harrison. Monday's game is 3:45 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
4 comments:
Giants do not have Birdsong listed as starting tomorrow. I wonder if something is wrong. With 2 on and two out, Schmidt who used to be a free swinger had a nice AB, and the wrong player was rewarded. On the 3-1 pitch he took ball 4 and it was called strike 2. On the 3-2 pitch he took ball 4, and it was called strike 3. Of course the next hitter, who led off the next inning got a hit. But when free swingers, like Schmidt and Estrada, decide to take some off the plate pitches, and they are called strikes anyway, it just reinforces them back into being hackers. I hope that is not the case. They sat Luciano today and had Bailey DH, as Bailey continues to slump. Of course Joc Pederson would get the 3 run homer to give Arizona the lead vs the Pirates and give Zona another victory. Joc with 17 homers, in part time play, with an OPS well over 900. It is time for the giants to get hot, and time for Arizona and San Diego to cool off.
Birdsong has yet to be recalled from the minors. The webpage says he's starting tomorrow, but I suspect MLB does not like teams to announce a starter who is not on the roster!
The Giants need to start sweeping a few series.
FanGraphs projects 89 wins for the Braves, 88 for the Padres, and 87 for the Diamondbacks. That's three Wild Cards right there. If the Giants want to win 88 games (.543) they have to go 32-17 the rest of the way! That's .653 baseball and that's a tall order. Sweeping a few series would be a good start, no doubt.
FanGraphs projects the Giants to finish .500 with 81 wins, going 25-24. I think they can do better than that. I don't know about 88 wins, but it seems like they should be able to sustain a damn winning streak at some point.
They have 24 games remaining in August, 12 at home. Say they split (6-6) on the road and do better (9-3) at home. That's 15-9 and they would be 71-66 (.518) with 25 games left in September. Then it would take another hot month (17-8) to get to 88 wins. Like I said, a tall order. Perhaps the gods will intervene and make Arizona, San Diego, and Atlanta all suck for the next two months!
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