Wednesday, September 9, 2020

	W-L	GB
Miami	19-18		Wow- Braves better watch out
GIANTS	22-21		A little daylight opens up…
Colorado	20-22	1 1/2	… between SF and the rest
Milwaukee	18-22	2 1/2	Three straight losses
New York	19-24	3	Loss column not their friend
Cincinnati	18-24	3 1/2	Cardinals are liking this

Yesterday

Giants defeated Seattle, 6-5, rallying from a early 5-1 deficit to win.

Miami continued to bedevil Atlanta with a 8-0 shutout.

The rest of the field all lost; all of them are on two- or three-game losing streaks. 

Today

Giants finish up with Seattle at the O; 6:45 PDT. Tyler Anderson gets the nod; lefty Nick Margevicius starts for the Mariners.

Miami is at Atlanta again. Colorado's at San Diego, Milwaukee at Detroit, New York hosts Baltimore, and Cincinnati is at Chicago against the first-place Cubs. 

Last Night's Game

Logan Webb's third straight difficult start was overcome by a Giants lineup that lately has been absolutely relentless. The young righty surrendered five runs in the first three innings, but manager Gabe Kapler gave him a visible boost of confidence by sending him out for the fourth, and he pitched two scoreless while his teammates bailed him out. In the third Alex Dickerson homered with two out; Donovan Solano and Brandon Belt followed with a double and RBI single to cut a 5-1 lead to 5-3. The turning point came in the fourth, again with two out. Joey Bart singled and Mauricio Dubon battled Brady Lail to a 3-2 count, then crushed a towering drive down the left-field line to tie it up. At that point it seemed inevitable the Giants would score again, and in the seventh Darren Ruf, pinch-hitting for Dickerson in a lefty-righty switch, obliged by belting one into the empty bleachers below the big Coke bottle. The only question was whether the on-again, off-again bullpen would hold up, and the same four guys from Monday did-- Caleb Baragar, Tyler Rogers (who got the win), Jarlin Garcia, and Tony Watson (who got the save). The Giants have now held on to a postseason berth for the second day in a row and are certain to do so for at least one more day.

Note: Twice in the last three days, Kapler has sent up a pinch-hitter for a guy who homered earlier in the game. Both times that pinch-hitter has belted a home run himself!  Yes, there remain questions about how he handles his bullpen, but let's give the manager some credit for getting the most out of this lineup.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

	W-L	GB
GIANTS	21-21		Whoa, Nellie-- look at THIS!
Miami	18-18		Held on to beat Braves in 10
Colorado	20-21	1/2	Pomeranz shuts 'em out
Milwaukee	18-21	1 1/2	Off to Detroit after day off
New York	19-23	2	Took a tough loss in 10
Cincinnati	18-23	2 1/2	Rare to be idle on Labor Day

Yesterday

Giants defeated Arizona, 4-2, taking 3 of 4 to complete a 13-5 climb from dead last into the lead at-large wild-card position. 

Miami defeated Atlanta in ten innings to reclaim a playoff spot for now. Colorado was shut out by our old friend, Drew Pomeranz, dropping back half a game. New York lost a tough one to Philadelphia in 10. Milwaukee and Cincinnati were idle.

Today

Giants host the AL Seattle Mariners, a 6:45 PM PDT start. Logan Webb faces the entertainingly-named Ljay Newsome, like Webb a 23-year-old right-hander. 

Miami, Colorado, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati are all on the road, at Atlanta, San Diego, Detroit, and Chicago respectively, while New York's at home against the Baltimore Orioles, who amazingly are just barely in contention for a AL wild-card spot.   

Last Night's Game

The Giants finally figured out Zac Gallen in the bottom of the sixth, after the young righty had baffled them for two games and five innings of a third. Six straight Giants reached base on four singles and two walks, one with the bases loaded to Brandon Belt, which capped the four-run outburst. Kevin Gausman's start (6 innings, 2 hits, 9 K, Game Score 70) may have been the best effort by a Giants starter all year, considering the context. Sam Coonrod, who has closer "stuff", gave up a solo homer in the ninth but earned his second save.

And so the Giants, who on August 17 were 8-16 after three catastrophic late-inning collapses in four days, have won 13 of 18 to reach .500, and they head into the final three weeks as the hottest team in the league. Marginal characters like Pablo Sandoval, who started yesterday's rally with a most uncharacteristic walk, are starting to make contributions at critical times. The big wheels on offense-- Yaz, Solano, Belt, Dickerson, Longoria, Slater when healthy-- have not fizzled out; they've stayed strong and kept a barely-adequate pitching staff afloat. And though little has been said about it, the return of Belt and Longoria from the early-season injured list has stabilized the defense. Remember all those errors in July? It's been a non-story of late; the Giants are still second in the league in errors, but the numbers are starting to normalize. We haven't been on social media much lately, but we trust the "Fire Kapler!" contingent have moved on to healthier pursuits, such as losing all their money on FanDuel.  

Seattle (19-22 as they hit town) are not exactly bottom-feeders, but the AL race is a little tighter than the NL. The Mariners are two games behind Houston for second place in their division, and also two games behind Houston and the Yankees for the last at-large wild-card spot. Out of 11 teams with a reasonable shot at the postseason, they rank tenth. 

By the time this two-game set concludes, the Giants will have played 25 of their 44 games against teams with losing records. And that will then change. There will be two more up in Seattle next week, but between now and season's end they have seven against San Diego, a huge four-game set at home against Colorado, and three over in Oakland. That's ten games against two strong teams, and four against a team they have to beat. Their 6-13 mark against clubs with winning records will have to improve if "GIANTS" is to remain at the top of our little leaderboard three weeks from now. 

Monday, September 7, 2020

	W-L	GB
Colorado	20-20		Can Padres slow them down?
GIANTS	20-21		7-2 against Arizona so far
Miami	17-18		2 percentage points behind SF
New York	19-22	1	Can they beat Philly a 3rd time?
Milwaukee	18-21	1	2 games up on Pythagoras
Cincinnati	18-23	2	Now face first-place Cubs

Yesterday

Giants defeated Arizona, 4-2.

Colorado defeated LA again, the Mets beat Philadelphia again, while Miami, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati lost. Miami's loss moves the Giants into the second wild-card spot by .488 to .486. 

Today

Giants finish up the four-game series with Arizona at the O; 5:15 PDT. Kevin Gausman against righthander Zac Gallen, who has pitched very well in two recent starts against the Giants. It's the last time these teams will face each other in the mini-season. 

Colorado moves on to play at San Diego. Miami and the Mets finish up with Atlanta and Philly. Milwaukee is at Detroit, Cincinnati's at Wrigley Field. 

Yesterday's Game

Johnny Cueto gave up two runs in the first, battled out of a bases-loaded pickle in the fifth, and was relieved with the sacks clogged again in the sixth. Caleb Baragar got out of it and earned his 5th win in the bottom of the frame when Austin "Welcome Back" Slater singled and Donovan Solano belted a home run for a 3-2 lead. One inning later, Brandon Belt pinch-hit for catcher Chadwick Tromp, who had homered in the third, and launched one into McCovey Cove for a big insurance run. Jarlin Garcia, Tony (0.69) Watson, and Tyler (gulp) Rogers made it hold up with three scoreless innings in relief. 

Krukow on "Donnie Barrels" Solano: "His home runs always seem to give 'em the lead-- or give 'em a walk-off!" 

Sunday, September 6, 2020

	W-L	GB
Miami	17-17		Beat Rays in interstate battle
Colorado	19-20		It's awkward to root for LA
GIANTS	19-21	1/2	Weird: "SF beats Bumgarner"
Milwaukee	18-20	1/2	One loss and two Cardinal wins
Cincinnati	18-22	1 1/2	Beating up on last-place Bucs
New York	18-22	1 1/2	3 1/2 behind 2nd-place Phillies

Yesterday

Giants beat Arizona and Madison Bumgarner, 4-3.

Miami, Colorado, Cincinnati and New York won. St Louis beat the Cubs twice, one a makeup game, and moved into NL Central second position ahead of Milwaukee, who lost.

Today

Giants host Arizona at 1:15 PM PDT. Johnny Cueto faces lefty Alex Young. A win plus a loss by either Colorado or Miami moves the Giants into wild-card position.

Last Night's Game

"Bum" gave up a lot of homers last year, and he's giving up a lot this year. Two more flew out of the "O" in the early innings, courtesy of Evan Longoria and Darin Ruf.  The real excitement came in the sixth against Artie Lewicki when Mauricio Dubon and Joey Bart belted back to back triples off the right- and left-center field walls. Trevor Cahill was relieved early, and his seven successors held the fort, especially Caleb Baragar, Sam Coonrod, Jarlin Garcia, Sam Selman, and Tony Watson, who got his first save.

Bumgarner is now 0-4 with a 8.44 ERA.  Impossible to tell if this would have happened had he stayed in SF, but right now Farhan Zaidi has to feel like he dodged a bullet over the winter...  Good to see Austin Slater back in there, even as DH, even though he went 0-for-5 leading off... Trevor Gott and Tyler Rogers continue to inspire trepidation every time they take the mound... Ain't it nice to see three Giants regulars with OPS over a thousand?

The 6-4-2 Plan

That title will resonate in a special way for a few of you who recognize the acronym "IBO." Now, forget about it. In this business model, we have six teams competing for two wild-card playoff spots, and heavens to Betsy, one of them is our very own San Francisco Giants! 

With 21 games left to play, the Giants are on the outside looking in on the expanded eight-team postseason field.  Twelve of the 15 National League clubs are in contention for something, but only five have winning records. One, the LA Dodgers, are playing .750 ball and will easily win the West. The Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs are both at .600 and leading the East and Central, respectively. And the San Diego Padres have, at long last, risen from the cellar and are perking along comfortably at .600 in second place. At this point, it's reasonable to say that those four are likely to qualify. Then we have baseball's hottest team, the Philadelphia Phillies, who have won 9 of 10 and leaped past surprising Miami into second place in the East at 19-15. 

Meanwhile, second place in the Central is a virtual tie between the Milwaukee Brewers and St Louis Cardinals, with Milwaukee (18-19) ahead by three percentage points, mostly because they have played eight more games than have the COVID-handicapped Cards. So, while the names may change from day to day, we're left with six teams in third or fourth place in their divisions who are all within two games of one another. Theirs is a battle for the bottom two at-large wild-card berths, which seem likely to go to one or more teams that finish with a losing record. It's a SJW's participation-trophy dream! 

 

The actual postseason will be another story altogether.

Let's get there first, OK?   Here we go...

	W-L	GB
Miami	16-17		22 road games, 11 at home
St Louis	14-15		Fewest games, runs, wins in NL
Colorado	18-20	1/2	Minus 39 runs, thanks to Giants
GIANTS	18-21	1	Can't afford baserunning gaffes
Cincinnati	17-22	2	Haven't made playoffs since '13
New York	17-22	2	Lead NL in grounding into DPs

Yesterday

Giants lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-5.

All the rivals lost as well. Status quo. 

Today

Giants at home against Arizona; 6:15 PDT.  Trevor Cahill, who gimped off the field at Arizona a week ago, and who used to pitch for the 'Snakes, will take the hill. Opposing is our old beloved postseason warrior, Madison Bumgarner, who hasn't pitched in a month himself. Can't we have 'em switch uniforms, just for one day?

Last Night's Game

Everyone, including himself, is blaming Mauricio Dubon for running the Giants out of a bases-loaded no-out situation in the eighth. Anticipating Steven Duggar, on third, would take off for the plate on a fly ball out, Dubon took off for third. Good hustle, but bad situational awareness. The fly ball was a short one, and Duggar's move was a deke. He retreated to third and Dubon was caught dead to rights. Bang-bang double play, the inning fizzled, and it's another one-run loss. 

But before we get too exercised about this, keep in mind the Giants put on 18 baserunners last night via 12 hits, 6 walks, and an error, and stranded 11 of them. They grounded into three double plays for a total of 4 on the night, and were 2-for-12 with RISP.  Bright moments: Brandon Belt, batting .341  with a 1.088 OPS, going 2-for-4 with a walk, 2 RBI, and a homer into McCovey Cove; resurgent Alex Dickerson on base thrice and scoring twice; Joey Bart 2-for-4 and up to .250; and four scoreless innings of relief from our shaky bullpen.  

Believe it!

No question, the best game of the year so far.

We're on our third round of highlights, and we encourage you all to do the same.  Get outta here and go see the Giants' most stirring win in-- oh, we don't know when. Two years?

Seven straight. "Beat L.A.," and all that.  Enjoy it!