by
Greek Giant
Put this in your morning coffee and sip it: “Pablo Sandoval batted clean-up for the Giants in last night’s game.” In theory, Bruce Bochy still makes the line up and quite frankly, as much talk as there is of the President’s mental acuity, one could easily begin an impartial Congressional investigation of this little line up tidbit.
When Pablo Sandoval, a player nobody in MLB except the Giants wanted, a player the Red Sox cut and pay so he Will Not play for them, is on your team and in the starting line up and then batting fourth, you really have to take stock of your organization, its braintrust and its philosophy of baseball going forward.
Bruce Bochy has lost his mind.
There is no justification for this decision. Batting Sandoval ahead of Crawford or Panik is simply a head-scratcher and perhaps a sign that the Giants skipper is playing with us.
Matt Moore was awful. He was on the ropes all night. He gave up two home runs in the fourth inning that are still on their way to South America, cruising over Baja California around this time and expected to land somewhere in the Pacific Ocean near Easter Island.
The Giants did have a ton of hard luck with many scorched baseballs finding Padre gloves but the story of this game was Matt Moore’s pitching.
His inability to limit damage, counter adversity and protect leads has become a thing, like Chuck Knoblauch throwing to second base or John Lester holding runners on at first base. If the Giants are serious about wanting to contend then they will simply have to cut bait on Moore, eat his contract or dump him for prospects. Hoping he turns things around at this point in his career is no way to run a baseball team. Forget his contract. Forget his stuff. His command and chronic loss of focus are too much and a change of scenery may be what the doctor ordered.
Joe Panik looks great at the plate, hitting another homer and other balls very hard while collecting two hits. He also made a terrific play in the field. That’s about all the good news I have for you folks.
