by
Greek Giant
6-17, that’s the Giants record against the Dodgers and Padres this season. Our boys in orange and black are just not up to the task against the top two teams and top division rivals this season and last night’s 2-1 excruciating loss in Los Angeles shows why. Let’s begin with the fact the Giants were gifted TEN WALKS by Dodger pitching in the nine innings. The San Franciscans managed one measly run that was walked-in on a borderline call. During that top of the seventh inning when the Giants were issued four straight walks by Kopech (two walks) and Blake Treinen (two walks) there was no point where I felt the Giants were ready to get the big hit. After the Devers walk, on a fine at bat, that scored a run, Willy Adames took a perfect strike three on the outside corner on a 3-2 count. The pitch, as they say, was simply too close to take. The batter has to be ready for anything near the zone in that situation. Adames was not. The next batter, Matt Chapman struck out and looked bad in the process.
Rally over!
Prior to that inning Logan Webb and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were engaged in a weird pitcher’s duel. Webb pitched seven innings allowing only one earned run of the two Los Angelinos that scored. On the other hand, the Dodgers’s starter, Yamamoto made the Giants hitters look like high schoolers when he was not issuing one of his six free passes in his 5 1/3 innings of work. The way and the form of how things happen baseball matter and if you want to see how badly the Giants hitters were over-matched last night just watch Bryce Eldridge’s at bats. In one case he struck out on three straight splitters/changes by Yamamoto and missed the ball by a foot. It was sad and hopeless. Think I am picking on a rookie? How about Rafael Devers getting over-powered on a 97 MPH fastball right down the middle that had “hit me into the bleachers” written all over it in the top of the first inning? He hit into a soft pop fly that landed into Mookie Bett’s glove at shortstop instead. There were many others and Yamamoto was not the only Los Angeles pitcher who took it to the Giants on this night. Want more evidence? The Giants had one hit in the game and struck out fourteen times! Beginning with the third inning Tuesday in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks, the Giants have been no-hit in 23 of their last 26 innings. In last night’s game Devers, Chapman, Schmitt and the aforementioned rookie each had two strikeouts. Pinch-hitter Jerar Encarnacion also k’ed in his only at bat. It was ugly.
Yes, Yamamoto is good. Yes the Dodger bullpen has some great arms and yes, it’s a tough rivalry game but the saddest thing about this loss was not the score, it was how weak the Giants looked at the plate. The Dodgers could have scattered 20 walks and it would not have changed the score. I don’t know what else to say other than Logan Webb was very good and Patrick Bailey needs to lear to catch throws from the infield and the outfield.
Once again his drop of a routine play cost the Giants a run, the first run of the game and turned the game around. It lead to the two runs being scored in the sixth inning and it simply should never happen. This time it happened in the bottom of the sixth inning with runners on second and third with one out when Mookie Betts hit a grounder to Willy Adames who was playing in and fielded the ball cleanly. His perfect throw would have nailed the runner by at least two feet. Instead it was dropped and the Dodgers scored the first run of the game. It got worse from there with another run scoring Were it not for a sensational diving play and tremendous throw from the hole by Willy Adames to end the inning the game would have ended 4-1 or 5-1.
I can hear all the rejoinders and rebuttals now:
“Bailey is the best defensive catcher in the League”
“Bailey is a gold-glove catcher.”
“Bailey prevents so many runs in other ways.”
All of these things are true and not one of them changes the fact that our gold glove catcher, a smart player, a player I enjoy watching most of the time cannot make that mistake. What good is your gold or platinum glove catcher if he cannot catch throws from infielders that prevent runs from scoring?
It has been happening too frequently with Bailey and the Giants need to deal with it either by making him practice fielding more (Speaking of fielding, I consider it a strategic mistake and a travesty for fans that teams do not take fielding practice before games anymore. I am sure it negatively impacts defensive play.)Â or making him use a mitt that is broken in properly, which is the reason I suspect he is having difficulty with throws not from his pitcher. It was reported earlier this week that, incredibly, Bailey uses five mitts or more per season and likes them hard, barley broken in, going against all of Baseball history and wisdom that tells you a glove or catcher’s first baseman’s mitt needs to be broken in, soft and conform to your hand after hundreds of catches to be at its most effective.
But, What do I know? I am only a baseball blogger.
I am sure somewhere somehow there is a smartest guy in the room working on stats that say catcher’s mitts that are brand new and stiff as a brick give you more called strikes. Just wait for it. It will be part of the “statcast era.”
By no means am I blaming this loss on Patrick Bailey however. I only want to point out that when you pay an opponent with superior talent, on the road in a scoreless game, your defensive play has to be airtight perfect. On this night, for the Giants, it was not. I will conclude today’s post this way; What last night’s game showed is what nearly all the games between the Giants and Dodgers showed: There is a gigantic gap in offensive and pitching talent between the two teams and for the Giants, being on the lesser side of the equation, perfect play in the field and some form of offensive execution when opportunities arise are essential if they want to win any of the games and do better than 6-17.
Playoffs??!! Don’t talk about Playoffs!!! Playoffs???!!!
I just hope the Giants can win another game.
Tonight’s Game
It will be Robbie Ray (11-7, 3.50 ERA) against Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 3.53 ERA) in game two of the series tonight in the Southland. Game time is 7:10 PM. Speaking of Kershaw, last night he announced this will be his final season. Congratulations on a brilliant career to him. Even though he is a Dodger, it’s hard not to respect and like Clayton Kershaw. He was always a classy guy and one hell of a pitcher, in the regular season.
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