Winning the Hard Way
April 21st was the last time the Giants won a game flag-fall-2-that’s-all. After a come from behind victory on April 22nd, they lost 5 in a row before *closing escrow* on 3 straight vs The Snakes. This was easy to see coming, right? Get swept by the pitiful Padres and then storm Chase Field with 3 late inning miracle wins?
I said this last week and I’ll say it again. I love every hitter in this line up. I wish there was a *Rowand* to call out but there isn’t. The line up is stacked with competence and on any given night a new hero will likely emerge. And getting swept in your home park after leading all three games is not exactly the way to generate team chemistry.
The Giants are sending out notice to every team in the league: If you want to beat them, build up an insurmountable lead. Right now, the definition of *insurmountable* is fluid.
Anna’s winning streak just hit 11.
And another fantastic call by both Kuip and Miller:
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
No doubt about it. These Giants are going to fight until the last out. All I can say is, don’t touch that dial.
Kuip’s call of Belt’s homer last night was great.
Sweet seeing Belt pull the ball. All night he looked late, fouling off pitches to the 3rd base side. Hopefully this carries over to the Bums. He’s been terrific against Arizona this yr, about .190 against everyone else.
Shocked to see LA has scored just 91 runs, ranking them ahead of just Miami. Would be helpful if the starters could.pitch deep into games on this home stand and give the pen a breather.
Kuiper said in the post game wrap that he was shocked to have to switch to the HR call on Belt’s jack because he was expecting to call a strikeout, the way Belt had been going. Nice that the home team announcer has such confidence in a player and lets everybody know that on 50,000 watts. I’ve never heard that kind of backhanded, semi-laugh rip on a home team SF player before. Seriously, I don’t get why Belt has gotten the treatment by the Giants he’s gotten, including by the announcing crew, which obviously still continues. Zito was crap on a stick for half a decade, they never made fun of the guy. But, Belt, he’s had a “hit me” sign on his back since day one for some reason. One minute they praise the kid, the next they’re belittling him, and think it’s funny. I’m sure he hears about it, and if I were him, I’d be pissed off…
Right. Seeing how they constantly stroked Rowand’s meat through his suckiness is galling to say the least.
He does look pissed these days- hitting behind Noonan and Blanco will do that.
Agree with you Snarkk. I don’t get it either. Maybe they’re jealous that he earned his WS ring on the field or something.
Bochy blasts him in the media too. I haven’t noticed him treat another player the way he treats Belt during his tenure in SF. I guess he’s the scapegoat for other players they don’t want to critisize or something. Belt is a good player. Yes he can improve but not everyone arrives at the big league level fully formed.
Pence’s opposite field HR was pretty impressive, too. He’s a leading candidate now to be the first RH splash hitter. But these comeback wins, as much fun as they are in the end, can’t be SOP all season. Cain and Vogelsong and Lincecum need to start pitching some shutdown games. The late-inning offensive fusillades won’t happen often enough in the long run to make up for mediocre pitching.
In my mind, that’s POTD. I agree with ya Xoot – it’s not a formula for long term success. I enjoy the comebacks (don’t get me wrong), I just don’t think it’s sustainable long term. Hard to do and were quite fortunate to have a team that doesn’t give in until the last out.
Yeah. That willlingness to fight to the end is a big part of their success, I agree. Gotta figure the same spirit will motivate the slacking starters to improve. Terrific photos of the Uffizi Museum pieces, btw. I’m glad no guardia grabbed your camera.
Every big leaugue hitter can hit the fastball if it’s in his “wheelhouse”. Look, everyone knows I love Belt, he’s my latest attempt to make “The Ort-Rod Prophecy” a reality. But 0-2 last night, I was already marking a K in the scorecard between my ears ( I told you there was something there )- there is no way he touches a backfoot slider. The thing is- a bad backfoot slider is a ball . A bad location fastball is 7-6 Giants… love it, but there’s some serious brain issues in AZ- no way that Putz, Bell, and Hernandez are that bad. Especially Hernandez- the guy is a stud. There *are* times to nibble, to go out of the zone- and 0-2 against a guy who can hit out and who has big K rate is a time to do it…
Thanks for not doing so- and go Warriors !!!!
Didn’t see Snarkk’s comment. I understand what Kuip was saying. McCarthy got Brandon out on breaking stuff and he didn’t look good going down.So Hernandez throws him 3 fastballs…
There’s a difference between you figuring Belt will probably K and Kuiper saying that after the fact over the entire Western US (that he thought Belt was going to K), and then had to quickly switch to his HR call. You’re allowed to do that, Kuiper needs to watch what he says when he thinks he’s just joking around on that post game gabfest. I never heard K&K say they had the HR call ready when Zito was 3-2 on some stud hitter, then had to switch quickly and unexpectedly to the strikeout call. The way K&K have treated Belt since Day One has always flamed my ass. It’s like he pulled a Charles Haley on their car tires in the Scottsdale parking lot, and they’ve never forgiven him…
I didn’t intend to infer that Kuip should have said it, only that I understood the thinking. You and I were among many who have disagreed with Belt’s handling by Bochy and the media. His “hole swing” became as famous as the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Kuip did still manage one his better HR calls, although it was a funny one- it did sound like the blast made him look up from *his* scorecard as he marked the K..
If I heard correctly last night, 9 of their 16 wins have been of the comeback variety. It may be hard to keep that pace up, but we just got to roll wth it
Shit, Flav, yer getting closer and closer to a million posts. Or views. Or hits. Or whatever that thing is tracking.
Crazy. You’ve got to be one of WordPress’s highest traffic sites.
yeah. but those aren’t unique visitors, those are visits/hits. you’d have to divide it by about 5.5 to get the unique visitors.
Another HR late.
Another Romo save.
Another Giant victory.
Not sustainable? Maybe, but I’m rolling with it right now. (Thank you Anna!)
Tomorrow night – Kershaw against Zito. HanRam is back for Los Bumbinos. And as Mills Lane says: Let’s Get It On!
BEAT LA!
The “mistake” pitch and its inevitably damaging fate is an even bigger fiction than the clutch hitter. The pitch Hernandez threw to Belt was no more a mistake than the half dozen other up fastballs Belt hadn’t hit. The sheer number of “mistakes” pitchers make every game for which they do not “pay” is visible to anyone who cares to pay attention to the fouls, taken strikes, and hard hit balls that are turned into outs. Last night, Goldschmidt took strike 3 from Timmy on a breaking ball that was exactly like one of the mistakes KandK blabbered on about in the reel of PG HRS off Lincecum.
Baby Giraffe is a victim of the sway perception and intuition still have over metrics. Would anybody ever call Belt a clutch hitter, even though he has knocked in most of his runs in the late innings this year? Of course, it is purely random that he has performed well in the 8th and 9th.
Baseball performance is about skill and luck. The rest is bullshit.
The mistake pitch was significantly different in that it wasn’t in and it wasn’t up.
And it was 0-2. I don’t know the odds of Belt hitting a fastball out but I do know the odds of him hitting a breaking ball at his backfoot out- 0 in 1,000,000…it was a stupid pitch call at 0-2. Next..
Still and all, there must be upwards of 40 ‘mistake’ pitches per game per pitcher where a guy throws it and misses his spot. Most are fouled off, are balls, are hit for outs, or are base hits, and not crushed for home runs. Cain used to be notorious for getting an 0-2 count and getting too much plate.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for the gift.
I understand- we hear Kruk say “he just missed it” over and over. But, again, at 0-2 the guy has to think about what might beat him. He threw the pitch most likely to beat him- even he’d hit the target. IMO.
Twin i basically agree. Why they ever throw Pence a hit me fastball when hes such a sucker for the slider away is a mystery to me.
Then again, Romo threw one down Broadway and caught Cabrerra looking after a dozen sliders. Maybe they are thinking Belt was looking breaking ball and would take the FB. Looks stupid when it fails, smart when he stands there looking dazed and confused.
Forgetting everything else- it’s just a cardinal pitching sin to give that up at 0-2. As to the point about many mistake pitches being fouled off, missed, whatever… I don’t think that means that the “mistake pitch” is one of the pitch options. ” Kuip, I think MadBum just shook off the ‘mistake pitch’ from Buster “…
Twin, there is an interesting article on AMD vs. Intel. However, I can’t link to it for some reason via my android tablet. It’s located at CNN Money, under stock ticker INTC, just click on the article about AMD’s battle against Intel. I think you will enjoy reading it. I found it fascinating.
Never mind the “mistake” pitch: I was more than grateful to Hernandez for his 4-pitch walk to Blanco that gave Belt a chance to smash a go-ahead HR into the RF seats. And what’s up with the Arizona relievers losin’ it when Pagan gets on base? First Putz on Tuesday that led to Pablo’s HR and then Bell last night that led to a couple insurance runs.
Apparently their pen has been very good this year at losing it.
Hernandez: “I threw the first two exactly where I wanted to and threw the third one exactly where he wanted me to.” Hmmm…
Quite observant and not too many options either Salty. Hernandez has been fucking up as much as Putz and you know who (Ol’ Heath Bell) hasn’t been exemplarary since playing for the Padres two seasons ago, albeit, he has been better in the handcuff roll lately (despite blowing a save on the 27th against the Swiss Mountaineering team).
New post on my blog.
Actually a pretty humorous way for Hernandez to say he fucked up. When throwing the “elevator fastball”, elevating it is pretty much key to it’s success..
You are exactly right. At 0-2, the catcher called for going up the ladder on Belt, even stood up as the pitch was about to be thrown. The problem was Hernandez threw it to about the 3rd step, not the 5th…
What happens when a pitcher throws a “mistake pitch” and the batter swings through it, fouls it off, or watches it fly by and gets a called strike three on it? Is that a “mistake swing” or “mistake non-swing” for the batter? Because there are plenty of those every game…
Belt swings just under the 94 mph belt high fastball — which has been an elevated location for him — Hernandez is congratulated for not nibbling (after walking a batter earlier) and going after a guy who had in fact missed that same pitch a couple of times earlier in the game. It is a more likely outcome than the HR . . . Hernandez feels like a badass, Belt is proven to be the faint hearted sissy that all of the real men like KandK know he truly is, and there is no after the fact mistake narrative.
None of the above is at odds with the notion that a back foot slider would have been a much better call or that a pitch above the belt would have been a better location for the FB. Of course, if he had missed with that slider, and Belt was guessing breaking ball and he hits it out, the announcers castigate Hernandez for not going with heat, since Belt was not getting around all night long. Or Belt watches the “mistake” location of the slider for strike 3 or . . . .
Baggs says Peguero is a likely call up in the near future. He’s hit .415 since he went down. I love that shit. Lots of times when guys on the cusp of making the opening day roster get sent down they start slow in Fresno, probably getting deflated a little bit at coming so close but still ending up in AAA.
But Peguero just went down there and kept bangin’ it, that’s awesome. Arias did the same thing last year. You want guys like that on your team……..
Makes sense if they play him. Doesn’t if they don’t…
He was my original pick for the last spot but they kept 3 catchers. He’s had that “toolsy” label for years. I think he’ll get a chance to take Vungo’s spot but I’m not sure it will be just given to him. Tomorrow? Torres is 2 for 25 against Kershaw, might as well give Pegs a try…
Interesting set of posts today. James- I heard something on the radio the other day that reminded me one of your takes. They were saying that in basketball the numbers don’t back up the notion that a “hot” player who has made 4 or 5 in a row is any more likely than usual to make his next shot. I think they were basically saying that a 48% shooter generally has a 48% chance of making a shot whether he has made a bunch in a row or missed several in a row leading up to that shot.
I also agree the Kuip comment was out of line. As I used to post often, Kruk and Kuip are not my favorites. Kuip generally comes across as winging it, in my opinion. The other day he kept referring to the Padres first basemen as “Alonzo Yonder” until someone obviously got in his ear and set him straight. Maybe I’m being hard on the guy, but I tend to think a Giants announcer should know the names of the other starters in the division.
The idea that Belt is suddenly Mr. Clutch is as silly is it was when Nate was driving in winners in 2011. Belt is swinging better and the late inning heroics are a by product.
Sounds like Peguero is back in the mix, this weekend.
http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/andrew-baggarly/giants-looking-hard-promoting-peguero
Wow they are saying David Lee could play tonight…
Blade, your boy JJ lands on the DL. I’m shocked. Shocked!!! 🙂
The good news is that I have Zimmerman coming off the DL Friday, so I wont have to drop anyone. Yeah, I am shocked (insert gay ass smiley face) about JJ’s face plant to the DL too.
Bogut is “bogacious” tonight…
Draymond Green having a helluva game, too.
Well, he was….wtf?
what a game.
In spite of their own incompetence…
Still.
Both teams played clean ball and it was well officiated. Not *well* played but exciting.Green and Bogut were the diff..IMO
Pawlie, I responded to your comment about Paris.
The officiating was atrocious in the 1st half. It got better. As great as the Dubs played in the 3rd quarter, they played that much worse in the 4th. They gave away 10 points on lazy stupid shit. .. Young and crazy I guess.
As much as I didn’t think Mark Jackson deserved the coaching job. he’s got the Dubs playing defense like they haven’t in 35 years.
The officiating was fine and the big fix never materialized. If anything the W’s had the best of the calls. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the crew had punished the team for Jackson’s innappropriate comments.
Uh, no. The crew did punish Jackson in the 1st quarter. The officiating was terrible early. Most of the screen calls were bullshit. Mainly because they only went against the Warriors. About 5 to 1 anyway They stopped calling them so tight by the end of the 2nd quarter,.
Watch the last LA GS game. Tell me there wasn’t at leas a hint of favoritism.
That doesn’t have shit to do with tonight. And I did watch it. Look- if the refs were going to give this to Denver as Snarrk warned they might, they had chance after chance in the last minutes. It was a fairly officated game.
The refs didn’t have to hand the game to Denver. The Dubs were doing it for them…
The refs could have made sure Denver won it .
Wrongo, but whatever. Funny how Jackson just tried to walk back his dirty play comments.
Face it, the Dubs are young and they choked when they tried to ice the game with 1/2 the 4th quarter left. Luckily they were up by enough to survive the choke job. There is no explanation for 10 turnovers in the 4th quarter other than a choke job. Steph is a great offensive player, but as a 4th year pro, he routinely does stupid things like high risk passes and behind the back passes that go for turnovers, when that shit is definitely not called for in the situation at hand. Still and all, a great win for a franchise in need of an injection of success. Dubs WERE the better team. Onward to the Spurs, let’s see what happens…
Curry had 7 TO, Denver had 7… He had a big 3rd quarter but this game was Bogut and Green.
Congrats to the Warriors. But that 4th quarter, yikes!
Curry’s a great scorer, but I’ll say they don’t win this series without Bogut. The guy is nasty, which is what the Dubs have missed for years and years. A big nasty dude in the middle that takes no stuff from anybody is good to have around…
He’s Snarkk’s kind of guy!
Lets consider the DH for the NL. Now breakfast.