Friday, May 9, 2014

Game Wrap 5/9/2014: Giants 3 Dodgers 1

The Giants won for the second time in 2 days by the same score over the Dodgers as Brandon Crawford hit a 2 run HR to back the dominant pitching of Madison Bumgarner.   Oh, and the Giants lost Brandon Belt to the DL for an extended period due to a fractured thumb from a HBP.   Key Lines:

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, HR(4).  BA= .266.  Crawford comes through with the big hit once again.  Dude is having a sensational year so far!

Madison Bumgarner- 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 2.83.  Dominant start that he took all the way to the 9'th inning.  Never let the Dodgers off the mat.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(12).  ERA= 1.65.  Romo faced Puig, who had homered off Bumgarner, Hanley Ramirez and AGone.  On Gameday it looked like the home plate ump was squeezing him pretty severely.  He got away with what looked like some hung pitches as the Dodger sluggers hit balls right at fielders for the last 3 outs.

Brandon Belt- The pitch that hit his thumb looked like either a curve or slider than did not break and kept riding up seeking heat.  Belt did kind of a funny looking lean back, but his top hand thumb was right in line with the space his front shoulder vacated.  Probably should have just stayed put or turned into it a bit and taken the HBP on the shoulder, but that's a lot easier said than done.  As it is, he will probably miss at least 2 months including rehab time.  There is no shortage of possible replacements.  Personally, I like the idea of putting Posey at 1B, starting Hector at C and bringing up Susac to be the backup C.

The Win increased the Giants lead in the NL West to 2 games over the Rockies who lost to the Reds 4-3.  The 3'rd place Dodgers dropped to 4.5 games off the pace.  The Padres pounded the Marlins 10-1 to stay 7.5 games behind while the last place D'Backs lost to the ChiSox 9-3 to drop 11 games off the pace.  The Win also guarantees the Giants a winning record for the 10 game road trip and a split of the 4 game series in LA.

Matt Cain faces Zach Greinke in game 3 of the series tomorrow afternoon.

10 comments:

  1. doc

    would you really want to have susac sit on the bench for 2 months and lose daily playing time and at bats?

    duvall is an option at first

    they might decide to go short on the bench for a week while they decide and just bring up huff to fill out pen

    feel really bad for belt....pulls self out of slump, and then this happens

    its deja vu all over again

    oh well, thats the game

    no doubt in my mind that if dodgers dont get into and go far into post, donnie is gone

    great strategy trying to intimidate a aaa replacement ump all game long...from the dugout....

    and neither he nor any of the coaches have any control over puig

    no, a player who pouts about an opposing player making a great defensive play and robbing you of a hit is not entertaining

    no, a bat flip and galavanting around the base paths after a homer when your team is still down, is not entertaining

    btw, i think little did a great job behind the plate and dealing with donnie...he could teach most of the vets a thing or two

    here is a nice article about craw that his wife found and posted a link to

    http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/2014/05/05/san-francisco-giants-brandon-crawford-is-mlbs-most-underrated-shortstop/

    im out

    bacci



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    1. Hector Sanchez has developed as a MLB bench player just fine. No reason why it wouldn't work for Susac.

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    2. Oh yeah, both Duvall and Chris Dominguez are definitely options to try at 1B in Belt's absence.

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    3. There is Travis Ishikawa too.

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    4. Oops! Travis is on the DL. That was fast!

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    5. ya, thumb

      they could also move morse to first p/t and give blanco more reps in lft

      lose power, but maybe blanco comes out of slump and hits for avg

      bacci

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  2. The Good Guys Win Again!!! Just saw the highlights on MLBTV. Bummer for Belt. 2 months. Wow. Agree with the Buster at 1B and Hanchez & Susac (when he gets healthy) fill in behind the plate. Get well soon stretch...

    I think the Bleacher Bums were on to something when they anointed BC as "The Messiah". Nice hitting from the bottom of the lineup indeed.

    SoCal must be angry right now: no water (wish we could send you all some), Carson City Council fining 5 yr olds for bullying (obviously I don't condone bullying, but seriously, Kindergarten?!!!), and Puig & Donny Baseball lose their cool. Not sure I would want to tangle with Maddy on the mound. Perhaps Castro didn't allow video of Nolan Ryan punishing Robin Ventura back in the Reagan-Bush days, so Yasiel may not realize that those guys with the big throwing arms can do more than pitch. Thankfully, order was restored at the Ravine.

    As always, thanks for your informative posts. They make it easy & fun to stay abreast of the entire Giants enterprise.

    NWGiantsFan
    DtF!!!

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  3. Tough break. I'm glad Bochy was rational for 2 things last night that Donnie Baseball would have had his guys throw at a Gigante for: the Belt break, obvious that Maholm didn't mean to, and then the Puig jawing. Both would have elicited a HBP from old school Donnie Two Times.

    Bochy is a great manager. Go get the win, don't sweat the payback. Also, he recently said BA is overrated, which might elicit heart attacks in certain sections of the Gints interwebz. Nah, most likely it'll just get ignored like everything else that doesn't fit in the story line.

    So what happens now? My bet is Morse to 1B, they play with Blanco in LF, try to get him going. Duvall might be an option because the HRs are getting the Skip's attention. If Gary Brown was doing a bit better he might have had an opportunity. I don't think Brown realizes he has to kick, fight and scrap to get on the MLB roster though. All the talent in the world won't get you to the show, you have to get lucky, you have to work and those two line up, you can stick. Somebody send Brown that memo!

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  4. Another option is to put Panda at first base and bring up Abreu for third base. The switch might help Panda and we can see if Abreu might be able to fill in at third if we have to trade Panda.

    I don't like the feeling now with Romo in the 9th. He's been getting the job done but I think it is just a matter of time before he starts to lose his luck. He doesn't appear to be the same pitcher as in the past and I hope the Giants don't sign him to a big contract. I think he is on borrowed time.

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    1. Not sure I agree on Romo. He's improved his 2 seam FB and changeup to the point where they are out pitches and he is less dependent on the slider and throwing it less. The result is fewer strikeouts but also fewer pitches and more GB outs. Yes, there will be a game, probably sooner than later, where he gets lit up and you will say "I told you so", but in the long run, I think he's taken his game up a notch.

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