Monday, September 4, 2017

Game Wrap 9/4/2017: Rockies 4 Giants 3

Denard Span and Joe Panik accounted for all the Giants runs.  Chris Stratton and a parade of relievers kept the Giants in the game, but they could not overcome the wind and Joe West in the bottom of the 9'th inning for a tough luck loss.  Key Lines:

Denard Span CF- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(10).  BA= .267.  Span's dinger in the 3'rd inning drove in the Giants 2'nd run.  His double in the 6'th set up the 3'rd as he scored on Joe Panik's single.  His 10'th HR leaves him 1 short of his career high set last season.

Joe Panik 2B- 3 for 4, HR(10).  BA= .272.  Panik seems to be doing a better job of looking for inside pitches and turning on them.  That approach has given him 4 HR's in his last 14 games.  10 ties his career high.

Pablo Sandoval 3B- 0 for 4.  BA= .204.  Not sure how much longer you keep the Pablo audition going.  I guess the only other candidate is Ryder Jones and he's getting all the AB's he can handle at 1B, so it's not like Pabs is blocking anyone right now, but the Giants can't be thinking there is any possibility of him starting 2018 as their 3B, they just can't!  His current 0 for 33 skid is 4 short of Johnny Lemaster's 37 consecutive outs.  Yeah, Johnny Lemaster!

Chris Stratton RHP- 4 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 5/1.  ERA= 4.10.  Not much of a line, but I thought Stratton showed a lot of heart hanging in there and not letting himself and his team get blown out early.  His ability to put the ball on the ground and get a key K kept it close.

Mark Melancon RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.99.  It was reported before the game by Baggs that Melancon will definitely undergo a surgical procedure to relieve something called Exertional Compartment Syndrome, but he wants to keep pitching and have it done early in the offseason.  Recovery time is projected to be 2-3 months.  OK, I understand that he's not going to further injure himself by continuing to pitch and I understand that timetable gives him plenty of time to get ready for next season.  My problem is recoveries do not always follow the schedule.  Why not give yourself an extra month's margin of error?  It's not like he's pitching for anything at this point.

Joe West Umpire- I've never liked Joe West's strike zones, or much of anything about Joe West for that matter.  Today he was the latest poster boy for electronic strike zones.  Early in the game, he was calling pitches 4 inches off the plate strikes.  In the deciding bottom of the ninth, 3 of the 4 pitches Steven Okert threw to Gerardo Parra were well within the PitchFx strike zone.  I won't even argue that PitchFx is the ultimate authority as Shawn Estes was.  West would have called at least 2 of those pitches strikes earlier in the game.  Even Duane Kuiper, who defended West, admitted his strike zone shrunk late in the game.  My problem is I am not sure it shrunk equally for both teams.

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Ty Blach faces Giants Killer Tyler Chatwood tomorrow evening in game 2 of the series.

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Matt Cain reportedly did not make the trip to Denver to attend to a personal matter.  

Austin Slater will get a callup now that the minor league season is over.  Reyes Maronta may also get a call.

8 comments:

  1. do you maybe move belt to the 60-day dl to clear a spot for gillaspie or have a combo of kelby/ryder at third and have buster play first while rotating fedex/hundley behind the plate?

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    Replies
    1. IDK if there is a limit on 60 day DL slots.

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    2. The Giants only have one player on the 60 right now...

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  2. Pablo Today:
    AVG OBP SLG OPS
    .196 .259 .311 .571

    Range - Nope
    Arm- Erratic
    BR - Cover Your Eyes

    The last position player on every ML team has at least one useful baseball skill - Pinch hit, Pinch run, Def replacement, Something!

    Not Pablo!

    Some have said his signing was like getting a Free Lottery Ticket.

    Anyone paying attention could see that ticket was from 2014.

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  3. How about a Thank You night for Pab San when the Giants get back to town?
    Thank You for Everything, especially signing with the Red Sox!

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  4. Not sure how a fly Mac got completely in his glove in the 9th and then dropped could be called a double!
    Perhaps the official scorer was getting his cues from Joe West!

    That said, Span should have gotten it in the first place.

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  5. Well I was going to say drop Sandoval from the 40-man roster, add CJ Hinojosa who projects to 3B and bring him up. But he went on disabled list (for the third time this season) yesterday. And I'm not thinking he's the next Matt Williams or some such. But I figure, how could it be worse unless he took a bat to somebody heckling him in the stands...?

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  6. Hey, this is cool:

    "After pitching 16 innings and surrendering just one run in that span, Jeff Samardzija has been named the National League Player of the Week.

    Last Monday against the Padres, the right-hander three his fourth-ever complete game shutout in a 3-0 win. He didn't walk anyone and struck out five. "

    ReplyDelete