Saturday, May 2, 2015

Game Wrap 5/2/2015: Giants 5 Angels 4

This game had one of the strangest endings I have ever seen.  A 9'th inning rally by the Angels fell short when a batted ball off the bat of Matt Joyce hit PR Taylor Featherston in the leg for the final out of the game.  The ball might have been the final out of the game anyway as Joe Panik was shifted into shallow RF and seemed to be in good position to make a play, but I'm sure the Angels would have preferred to see it play out.  If you haven't seen the video, be sure to look it up on sfgiants.com.   Key Lines:

Norichika Aoki- 2 for 5.  BA= .306.  Standard Aoki game.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(3).  BA= .273.  At the time, Buster's HR looked like just another add-on run making the score 5-2, but it ended up being the difference in the game.

Casey McGehee- 3 for 4.  BA= .200.  McGehee looked much better in this game.  He was moving well, did not appear to be in pain, perhaps has lost a lb or two.  He made several nifty plays at 3B to boot and got down the line to 1B fairly fast.  The Giants need Casey to be healthy and productive, so this is good to see.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, HR(5).  BA= .240.  Still a long way to go, but Brian Sabean predicted a breakout season for Crawford and he is on a pace to hit about 25 HR's on the season.  The BA of .240 would suggest it's sustainable.  I have been convinced since late last season that Crawford is the best 8-hole hitter in all of baseball by a fairly wide margin.

Tim Hudson- 8 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 13/4.  ERA= 3.74.  This was a vintage Huddy start and does he ever look like he is in great shape!  Maybe the Giants can convince him to delay his retirement for a year or two next offseason?

The Dodgers are leading the D'Backs 5-4 in the 8'th inning.  If that holds, the Giants will remain 4.5 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers but will climb over the D'Backs into 4'th place.

Tim Lincecum tries for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon facing Jared Weaver.

5 comments:

  1. Now 8-4 in the last 12. Too bad the Bums are keeping pace.

    Anyway, happy for the win. Happy that the Giants are playing like the Giants I expected. And especially happy that McGehee looked like the McGehee we traded for, like the guy whose highlights I watched on YouTube (not a lot of them, but they were there). He struck the ball with authority. Made some good plays in defense showing he had some range there.

    FWIW, the weird ending was quite a fluke though I think Panik fields the ball and gets a force at 1B. What makes it more interesting is that in a bit of 'who'd-a-thought-it,' apparently the Dodgers game also ended on the base runner getting struck by the batted ball. Two interference last outs in one day. Last time a game ended with an interference call, it was five years ago. We had two in a span of five hours yesterday.

    http://m.mlb.com/news/article/122037594/giants-dodgers-net-victories-on-interference

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  2. OK, Dr. B., this is one of the few times I've ever disagreed with you, but extending Huddy strikes me as pretty foolish. I could change my mind if he's still looking strong in late September, but I doubt it. As anyone who's passed the age of 40 will tell you (at great length, if you ask them), the body just doesn't recover as fast anymore.
    Huddy pitched a great game, and his experience and guile will (hopefully) be a big help to the team this year. But there aren't many miles left on him, and he seems to know that. Let's let him go out with class and victories, rather than risk the embarassment of hanging on for too long.

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    1. Well, if he collapses in the second half again, then I might agree with you. Let's say he doesn't. What if you could get him for 1 year/$10 M with an option/buyout for 2017?

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    2. Assuming that he wants to do it, and all is going well, then yeah I'd do that kinda deal (heck, even more money if everything looked good). But I do have serious doubts; yesterday looked good, but some of his other starts looked like a pitcher ready to retire.

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    3. It was more than just his performance yesterday. Huddy just looked to me like he is literally in the best shape of his life. I just thought to myself, "now, he doesn't look like a guy who is on your standard farewell tour!"

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