by
Greek Giant
The Word on the Street is The Giants Cannot Hit the Fastball
Yes, that’s where the Giants are after their 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks in Phoenix last night: in a deep dark pit of despair, a phrase uttered by one of the Arizona announcers to describe Patrick Bailey’s .529 OPS!
LOL
Yeah, that sounds about right. The pit is deep, the pit is dark and we are all despairing. There’s no other way to slice it. There’s no other way to say. There are no bright sides.
Let’s begin with Ryne Nelson, the Arizona starting pitcher who pretty much man-handled the Giants hitters, especially Rafael Devers, a player I consider to be one of the top ten hitters in baseball. After his four strikeout performance, all on fastballs up in the zone, I may have to re-consider my appraisal. Nelson threw heaters of 96-98 MPH on his first 11 pitches in the game to the Giants. It was both a statement and a dare. It was a declaration and a challenge and it helped illustrate a fact: The Giants have trouble hitting the fastball.
Make no mistake, Nelson pitched a premier game last night, going 6 2/3 innings and striking out seven and not allowing any runs. The two runs on his line are courtesy of the relief pitcher whose non Nelson fastball was hammered into right center for a two-run double by Tyler Fitzgerald. That hit was nearly caught by Arizona center fielder Alek Thomas who ran a quarter mile, full tilt and dove and just grazed the ball with the webbing of his glove. It was a spectacular effort and also an illustration as to why Nelson should not have been removed. He was mowing down the Giants and was not tiring. The runners he allowed in that inning came courtesy of a semi-hard hit double by Dominic Smith up the middle, a hustle double and a great job of base-running, and an infield single by Adames to the shortstop. However, It was not the time to pull Nelson but DBacks Manager Torey Lovullo got the jitters and did what Managers often do: react to the result not the how of the result. The Giants benefitted.
But back to the Giants and the fastball…
Gone are the days of… Long Gone are the days of the Panda, Pence and Posey squaring up 99 MPH on the barrel and punishing opposing pitchers. It seems pitchers in the Major Leagues have a book on the Giants hitters now: Hard stuff up, hard stuff down, hard stuff down the middle. It does not matter and it is a testament to the collective failure of the team and it’s coaching staff that opposing pitchers are so obvious in their attack. A large part of success in pitching, perhaps the biggest reason why pitchers ALWAYS have the advantage is the fact that the batter has to guess what pitch he will get. Pitchers know this in advance. Last night everyone in the world know what pitches were coming to Giants hitters and the result was a measly two runs.
So Sad.
Logan Webb pitched a great game. He pitched a great game, not a good game, not a decent game. He gave up a total of seven hits with maybe two of them being hit hard. He was victimized by bloopers left, right and center, and poor play by Dominic Smith at first who should have easily scooped a short-hopped throw by Patrick Bailey on a bunt in the bottom of the third inning. The play was charged an error to the catcher but was on the first baseman to make that play. That extended the inning for Arizona who scored the first run of the game later in the inning.
Webb would end up going 6 1/3 innings allowing 1 walk, seven hits three runs and no walks. The line does not tell the whole story, similarly to Ryne Nelson.
Webb had a super sinker and located his fastball beautifully and with some better luck he wins that game.
Once the Giants tied the game dramatically in the top of the seventh inning the DBacks came right back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning on a Perdomo single. It was that kind of game and two of those hits were clunkers into No Man’s land. Suarez later added a solo homer and that was all she wrote. If ever there was a player built for a certain park it is Eugenio Suarez in Phoenix.
There was drama later as well when Christian Koss hit what appeared to be a home run to left field that was caught by a fan whose glove was extended to just beyond or at the top of the wall when he corralled the hit. The Umps incorrectly ruled it fan interference at first but with Bob Melvin’s challenge the play was overturned and ruled a double. It should have been a homer and the Giants got screwed. To make matters worse Koss hurt his hamstrung on the play and was lifted for Brett Wisely
“It’s not great. He’s definitely not going to play tomorrow.”
-Bob Melvin
Bob Melvin was later ejected arguing balls and strikes on pitches to Ramos after the top of the 8th inning. He was right to argue but Ramos was caught looking in a critical situation on a pitch by Shelby Miller that was just too close to take in a 3-2 count with the game on the line. It has to be fouled off or swung at, end of story. The pitch was maybe a centimeter off the zone.
Tyler Fitzgerald went 2-3 and had two RBIs. He was promoted to compensate for Casey Schmitt’s injury.
The Giants are now 45-40, eight games behind you-know-who…
Schmitt to IL
In bad news, Casey Schmitt was sent to the 10-Day IL retroactive to June 27 for a sprained right wrist.
Tonight’s Game
Game two of the series in Phoenix with the Diamondbacks takes place tonight at 6:40 PM. The pitching matchup will be Birdsong versus Gallen. It should be a good one.
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