Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Game Wrap 4/18/2012: Giants 1 Phillies 0

The Matt Cain/Cliff Lee matchup in the rubber game of the Giants 3 game series with the Phillies promised to be a pitching duel and it certainly lived up to its billing as the scoreless frames extended into extra innings. Melky Cabrera finally sent the fans away happy with a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 11'th inning. Key Lines:

Melky Cabrera- 3 for 5. BA= .314. Melky leads the way again. Walk off single for the win!

Brandon Belt- 1 for 1. BA= .211. Belt started with winning rally with a 1 out single up the middle.

Matt Cain- 9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.88. Take that, Fangraphs! Cainer has entered the realm of elite pitchers, I don't care what his xFIP says! 4 baserunners in 18 innings over 2 games. I don't think you can pitch any better than that!

Cliff Lee(Phillies)- 10 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 1.96. I don't think many Giants fans like Cliff Lee very much, so there is extra satisfaction in knowing that he knows his main accomplishment in this game was to make Cain's game all that much more awesome! You were good, Cliff. Matt Cain was better! Take that, Cliff Lee!! Take that, Phillies!! Take that, Charlie Manuel!! Hey, can you tell I'm pumped?

The NL West leading Dodgers lost another walk-off game to the BrewCrew allowing the Giants to gain another full game to 3 behind the leaders. The Rockies topped the Pathetic Padres 8-4 to also move to 3 games behind the Dodgers. The D'Backs lost for the second game in a row to the Pirates to stay 2 games off the pace while the Pathetic ones remained 6.5 games behind in the division cellar.

The Giants have a travel day tomorrow as they head to the Big Apple to take on the Mets with Barry Zito going against Jonathan Niese in game 1 Friday evening.

19 comments:

  1. What a game. I love walkoffs at 24 Willie Mays.

    Belt had a nice sprint home too. And Huff was there in the pile to congratulate him.

    Matt Cain is just straight dealing. I don't like Cliff Lee much, but I'd love to have a guy like him on our staff. He is relentless with that 91 MPH paint.

    Can the Giants work on the fundamentals? The lack of bunts in the 9th/10th and the subsequent double plays, this could have been a really bad beat if the pen doesn't come up big.

    Great great game. Matt Cain facing 4 over the minimum over 18? Just wow. Gunning for the CY.

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    1. Yeah, I'm not big on sac bunts, but there are times where they are necessary and if you are going to try them, you better be able to execute. Is it just me or has the average team out there gotten a lot better at defending sac bunts?

      The Giants have always been very good at preventing the other team from executing them, but now it looks like almost all the teams out there are using the Giants defensive techniques- wheel play, busting fastballs up and in, etc.

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    2. Shankbone, we do have a pitcher like Cliff Lee and his name is MadBum! Lee has sharper break on his curve and maybe a bit better control of his change but they both seem to get very similar results. Not a ton of K's but efficient and effective gets the job done!

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    3. Ooh! Do I detect some genuine optimism and enthusiasm from our Pato?

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    4. I'm not big on sac bunts either, but with a chance to win the game, you have to execute them. I'm glad Bochy doesn't waste outs early, but in that particular case the GIDP were killers. A ground ball with one out and a runner on 2nd is a pressure play for the defense, and then you might have the runner on third with 2 out, wild pitch chance.

      The Giants need to get better at playing for one run. Tighten up the defense and execute small ball when required. I'd rather play Weaver ball and wait for the 3 run HR, but in the late innings...

      Pato coming correct with our very own Cliff Lee. Nice. Prep lefty Hunter Virant from Camarillo HS models his delivery on Lee. Might not be up to the mental task, but I'd like the Giants to find out in June. Great athlete, hitting low 90s already with plenty of frame to fill in.

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  2. This is the way players should do things: when you get the big payday, you find a way to live up to the contract.

    Nice AB for Belt, hope that gives him some confidence for his next AB.

    Melky! Looks like all the worry that 2011 was a fluke is for naught, though there is still a lot of season to go and he just came off an oh-fer-12 stint. Still, I like what we have seen so far, and if he continues, hopefully we can get him signed to an extension.

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  3. would love it if melky would sign an extension...my gut says he is gonna try fa...not too many guys can work 2-6, hit for avg with pop, show speed on the bases and play every of position....he can get 5 at 12 ez

    and this was a great trade....durty is still durty...today going 5 on 97 pitches...only gave up 2...but made the pen work...and the royals lost

    cain is cain

    eff lee...hope he cried in his hotel room

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    1. I'm expecting to see a Fangraphs article tomorrow about how Lee actually pitched better than Cain or that Cain is bound to regress any day now. Well $&@# it, Fangraphs!

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  4. Hey team! I wonder what the record for the fewest baserunners allowed in two consecutive 9 inning complete games is? Yeah I know, this wasn't a complete game because it went into extra innings, but I'm thinking Cainer has to have at least come very close to setting a record here.

    In Johnny Van Der Meer's two consecutive no-hitters, he allowed a total of 11 baserunners.

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  5. Last night was the reason why the Giants just signed Cain for over 100 million. Locking up MadBum was another great move that is making it really hard for me to be critical of Sabes and management. One thing I am starting to get a little concerned about is the fact that I don't think Posey is a cleanup hitter. I would be fine with him as a 3 hole hitter but he isn't driving the ball consistently (mostly bloops and opposite field slap hits) and isn't coming through with guys in scoring position. Panda is driving the ball almost every at bat so it may be time to switch the order and put Panda at cleanup.

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    1. I'd like to see Buster elevate the ball better, but it's probably too early to write him off as a cleanup. He's stlll getting his sea legs under him after an almost 1 year layoff. Also, he didn't get a chance to work through his sophomore slump last year so he's still readjusting to the pitchers adjusting to him.

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    2. Agree DocB. Posey has been just laying the bat out there, and getting hits. Hey it's better than not getting hits. His stroke seems pure, but he is not consistently driving the ball yet. I agree it's in the legs and the readjustments. Unless you drop Melky back to #4, I don't see another cleanup hitter for the Giants right now.

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    3. Panda is smoking the ball almost every at bat. He gets a little giddy with runners in scoring position but he is our best bet at a real cleanup hitter. I think Melky or Posey would be good protection in the 5th hole but not sure who you stick in the 2 hole then. I really like Posey but he does need to start driving the ball with more authority instead of the dink hits with nobody on base which eventually will turn into outs more often then not. Lineups are sensitive and I don't see Bochy messing with this one any time soon but maybe in a month or so they could try dropping Melky down to 5th and I would like to see maybe Nate get a shot at the 2 hole? Otherwise maybe if he is slumping or if Blanco gets his shot and runs with it, we could see him in the 2 hole or leadoff.

      Pagan
      Nate
      Posey
      Panda
      Melky
      Huff
      Craw
      Manny

      Something eventually may have to be done about 2B but I don't really see any other realistic options. It would be interesting if they ran Pill out there or tried to see if Posey could play the position and let Hector catch. It seems like every game no matter who is playing, there are still holes in the lineup at the bottom so maybe they try something off the wall to try and spark the offense. I can't really complain about anything right now though, I love the signings of MadBum and Cain and think this team is heading in the right direction. I am even optimistic that we can win the division. Need to see how they play on the road a few more games but if we keep winning all series at home we will be in good shape!

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    4. Shark, Posey was just laying the bat out there in 2011. I said something about that here on Doc's site at the time (early last May). It's just a real contrast going from Panda attacking the pitches, to Posey's more controlled approach. I would really like Posey to hack a bit more. Poor choice of words, but, you get the idea. Get aggressive. Maybe sacrifice a little contact for power early in the count.

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    5. Get you a pitch to hit and wack the piss out of it...

      I agree pato, Panda is our best bet. Posey to the 3. Melky to the 5. push Pagan to 2 or 6. Leadoff...

      I'm crazy. I'd put Belt there. 3 weeks, 18 games, see what he can do. Success? Genius. Failure? Fresno.

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    6. Yeah, I just checked. Buster went on a run of 15 games last year (May 1st to May 19th) without having an X-Base hit.

      He has 2 this year. I'm not sure what all that adds up to. But you have to wonder about him in clean-up.

      Yep, I'd swap Panda and Posey. Seems to make the most sense. Shank, fun notion with the Belt plan. Give it to him and let him rise to the occasion or crash and burn.

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  6. Now that was a pitching poetry...

    Walk'n off on the Phillies after 10 shut down - I wanted to run on the field and jump on the pile. Little hard to do thru the TV but maybe they will invent the MLB Livo some day.

    First time I have seen Melky really bust a smile. He has earned it. 3/$30MM sign him.

    Lee and Cain made it look ridiculously easy. They were competing on how few pitches they could throw each inning. Amazing control. Amazing pitch selection.

    The Giants offense actually was pretty good. They had chances. They need to work on productive outs. I counted four times where simply moving the runner along, they would have scored as the next hitter got a hit. I know it was against Lee, but still. Come on Pagan.

    Where have I seen this before...watching Lopez get ahead and then drop down and throw three straight from his shoe tops - you just knew Thome was going to swing and miss and look bad doing it. Phillies late inning kryptonite.

    Fleming breaking out his white boy Spanish in the post game interview with Melky was priceless.

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  7. I watched the game with mlb.com's gameday open and both Lee and Cain were doing the same thing that explains their success with relatively low strikeout totals.

    I first noticed Lee would paint the outside with a low 90's fastball, if it was fouled or swung through, he would immediately throw a changeup in the exact same place. He did that for at least 5 outs last night. Cain did the same exact thing. He kept throwing fastball/changeup in the same location on the outside, then going up in the zone in a pitcher's count. These two guys have an unbelievable ability to keep hitters off balance.

    MadBum isn't in the Cliff Lee area code just yet. I think MadBum has more strikeout potential, but his ability to locate isn't quite the same.

    Remember this about Cliff Lee though - His first legitimately great year was when he was 25 years old, but then regressed until he was 28/29 years old in Cleveland (2008). Before that, he was very hittable. For my money, I think Madison Bumgarner will have a better career than Cliff Lee if he stays healthy.

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    1. Nice observations on the pitching from last night Anon, and about the MadBum-Lee comparisons.

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