Monday, April 9, 2018

Game Wrap 4/9/2018: D'Backs 2 Giants 1

The D'Backs scored twice in the first inning off Giants starter Derek Holland on an RBI triple by Paul Goldschmidt who then scored himself on a Sac Fly.  Zack Godley and a couple of relievers made it stand up to edge out the Giants.  Key Lines:

Derek Holland LHP- 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 4.09.  An elevated fastball to Paul Goldschmidt was the difference in this game as Holland matched D'Backs starter Zack Godley in WHIP and K's through 6 innings. It looks like Holland earned a longer look in the Giants rotation with this effort.

Roberto Gomez RHP- 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 11.25.  Gomez kept it close with 2 solid innings against a very good D'Backs lineup.

Sam Dyson RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.70.  Not sure I am yet ready to trust Dyson in a high leverage situation, but he looked great tonight.

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The Loss dropped the Giants below .500 to 4-5 3.5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs.  The Rockies lost to the Padres 7-6 but took sole possession of 2'nd place by percentage points at 5-6.  The Dodgers were idle and remained in 4'th place, 4.5 games off the pace while the Padres continue to bring up the rear, 5.5 games back.

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Johnny Cueto tries to cool off the red-hot D'Backs and get the Giants back to .500 tomorrow night facing Patrick Corbin.

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I learn something new every day.  The beat writers and Amy G are reporting that Tyler Beede is on the "Taxi Squad" which apparently is a thing in MLB.  He is allowed to practice with the team but not allowed to dress for the game.  He is expected to make his MLB debut as the starting pitcher for Game 3 of the series on Wednesday afternoon.

12 comments:

  1. Talk last night was Beede might go today and Cueto tomorrow. Not sure why they’d do that. It would force Beede to take two turns before going back down with Shark joining for the next turn.

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    1. I was wondering that too. I think The Athletic noted that perhaps it relates to wanting to give Cueto another day of rest in order for his tweaked ankle to recover.

      Plus, he likely would have seen starts last season if not for his injury, so one start or two, if you don't believe in him enough for two starts, why even give him one start?

      And, this way, Samardzija is not rushed to get back to the rotation. For all we know, he could have had some sort of setback, or did not progress as far forward as he hoped physically.

      Not that I'm not wondering too like you, but the above are possible reasons for the flop, and the Cueto one looks the most probable to me.

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    2. I thought about this more today. It could also have to do with limits on how long a player has to stay down before coming back up. This way they give cueto an extra day of rest this week and next. They can’t pull up Gomez for 10 days anyway.

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  2. I'm the biggest Belt supporter, but man he better get the bat off his shoulder in the 9th inning. Don't care if it's a bad call, he can't keep taking stuff that close with 2 strikes.

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    1. Yeah, ditto, I love Belt, but in that situation, you foul off the pitch, just to be safe (like McCutchen demonstrated a Masters Class in the day before), until you get a pitch you want. He was right that it wasn't a strike, but in baseball, that don't matter, he's still out, the sooner he deals with that reality, the sooner he can be the great hitter many of us think he can be.

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    2. I have to say I agree, Kruk and Kuip frequently talk about Belt's ability to take a count of 0 and 2 and make it 3 and 2. He has a good eye but his unwillingness to swing on close pitches out of the zone can come at a steep cost as it has the past two games. There is a reason they say with two strikes, swing if it is close. Ninth inning at bats should emphasize this point.

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  3. Football had taxi-squads in the 1950s, but like you, I had no idea baseball had them.

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    1. Yeah, me too, seems like everyone is surprised by this too.

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  4. Beede, on the squad, Gomez optioned!

    Richard In Winnipeg

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  5. Beede to start tonight. I guess I'll be staying up late.

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  6. if belt doesn't change his approach soon, he may be riding the pine a bit more and panda or posey could become a platoon partner for belt

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  7. And Cueto is on the DL. Sprained ankle.

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