Monday, August 1, 2011

Ugliest

The Diamondbacks have decided to make it a race. The Giants are now officially in a funk with a four-game losing streak. The sixth inning inning of the season (Sunday's loss in Cincinnati was game 108) saw the Giants toss away the mo' they had so brilliantly seized in Philadelphia. Inning number seven in San Francisco kept the ugliness alive as Matt Cain surrendered five runs. Giants pitchers allowed twenty runs in three games against the Reds. Cain had some bad luck on ground balls and got squeezed at home plate a few times, but he also made some poor pitches. The one to Ryan Roberts that drove in the second run was particularly frustrating with two strikes. An out there could have kept the wheels on the damn wagon. Arizona got a great start from Ian Kennedy--he allowed only six hits. It all started so well with Cain striking out Justin Upton to end the first and leadoff hitter Cody Ross belting a home run to open the bottom of the inning.  I was enjoying a bit of a "Bruce Bochy is a lineup genius" moment and thought maybe Matty could give the team seven strong with at least a shot to win. It was the fifth time in 23 starts that the big fella has given up five or more runs. Rotten timing for the club. Arizona won for only the third time in 10 games against the Giants this season. The 2010 Giants went 13-15 in August after a sizzling 20-8 July and before an historic 18-8 September in which they allowed only 50 runs. The 2011 team has been steady but not spectacular. The innings go 10-8, 10-8, 9-9, 10-8, 11-7, 11-7 (and 0-1). The months, after an 0-1 March, go 13-12, 16-12, 17-11, 15-11. After the loss tonight they are only one game up (61-48) on Arizona (60-49).

Let's see what Big Time Timmy Jim has going tomorrow because there's no joy in Mudville tonight.

--M.C.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cain started to lose it in the 5th, but he weaseled his way out of it. In the sixth he neither had good control or movement. He hit a wall. Had Bochy taken him out with the job the pen did, maybe the giants win 2-0 assuming Wilson could throw a shutdown inning. Bochy trusted Cain, but he left a tired Cain out their to fry. Now our pen will be tired for tomorrow. Giants need to take the next two. Lets hope the timmy shows up with good stuff, and good control. The walks are killing us. Beltran has become a typical giant, instead of becoming the key hitter in the lineup. Lets hope this reverses fast. So far he has done no better than any other giants outfielder.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Cain made some mistakes but didn't pitch that badly. The walks hurt--he didn't adjust to the flaky zone very well, but all the hits were singles and only one a line drive. You have to give AZ credit for making the most of their opportunities (4-9 RISP) and for Kennedy pitching well. A little luck, maybe Parra's ball getting caught at 2nd and turned into a DP, and it's a different game. I'm not trying to excuse a Game Score of 35, just that I thought Cain looked mostly like Cain, I don't think he was tired or hit a wall. His stuff may not have been as crisp as it was in Philly, but it wasn't Barry Zito cheese. The Snakes worked the counts and had good PAs. They looked at borderline pitches and didn't bite on great pitches just out of the zone that most teams would make outs on. They are loose and confident and playing well right now. I think it was a case of them simply beating the Giants by playing a better game.

Zo said...

On a team dependent on pitching, we have weakened our defense up the middle with the acquisition of Cabrera. Not because he replaces Tejada, but because he replaces Crawford. That weakness was overwhelmingly evident last night and is the reason that we were 4 runs behind (before Huff's ubiquitously solo home run) instead of two runs behind.

Here is some simple math: Runs Created is a statistic that is OBP x total bases. Cabrera, in 344 plate appearances has a .270 OBP and 105 total bases = 28.39 runs created. Crawford, in 172 plate appearances, has a .275 OBP and 40 total bases, = 11 runs created. If he were to have had as many plate appearances as Cabrera, and played consistently, he would have 77 total bases, for a 21.18 runs created (I used a simple ratio of plate appearances). Now, the season is 2/3 over, and Tejada will probably get 1/3 of the playing time, so the runs created for the remainder of the season would logically be 18.93 (Cabrera) to 14.12 (Crawford). So 19 runs (note: this is not Win Shares, simply runs) instead of 14. He gave back two of those last night. Any bets on how long it will take him to cough up the other three, making his value solely to impede the major league development of a young shortstop?

Zo said...

Mark, that is right, "making the most of opportunities." They made the most of their opportunities and we ran away from our opportunities as fast as possible. Beltran on third - choke! Beltran at the plate with bases loaded - double play choke! Not to pick on Beltran here, there is plenty of opportunity-avoidance on the rest of the team.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Beltran will get his hits. Small sample size.

Zo said...

Again, not meaning to pick on Beltran because of last night, it was just the examples that came to mind as U was furiously typing.

Zo said...

"I" not "U". That would be poor grammar.

Zo said...

Oops. Math error - I forgot to incorporate my statement that the season is 2/3 over, so each result should be multiplied by .333 as well as by .667 to account for Tejada's playing time (which I did incorporate). That means that, for the remainder of the season, Cabrera creates 6.33 runs while Crawford creates 4.72. Two and a half runs more for the rest of the season.

Jon Miller, "Line drive up the middle, off of Cabrera's glove and both runners will score."

See, this has gotten me so upset that I can't post without making mistakes.