Confortable

May 16, 2023 | 2023 Season, Latest Post

by
Greek Giant

The Big Inning

The Giants snapped their three-game skid with a 6-3 win over the Phillies last night at Willie Mays Field. The big hit was a three-run homer run down the left field line by Michael Conforto. It was a beautiful display of hitting and power.

That long ball was his eighth of the season and it leads the team. The homer came on a fastball about belt high and down the middle but with a trajectory towards the outside corner as it was thrown with a cut or a sharp angle by left-handed Phillie pitcher Bailey Falter (yes, that’s his real name, I swear!). Falter was pitching after the Phillies used a starting pitcher, Conor Brogdon for two thirds of an inning in the bottom of the first.

The Giants would score six runs total in that inning and hold on after the Philadelphians took a two-zero lead in the top of the second off Alex Wood, who was making his first start, not first appearance, since coming of the Injured List.

The big Giants inning went like this:
Schmitt single
Bart fielder’s choice, Bart at first
Johnson single to center, Bart at second

That made two on and one out for San Francisco and set the stage for the big play: Thairo Estrada hit a routine grounder to Trea Turner at short. It might have been two but Phillies second baseman Stott dropped the throw for an error. It’s now bases loaded and one out. Wilmer Flores hit a sac fly to score Bart. That’s when Conforto hit his three-run slicing home run to give the 12,349 fans in attendance something to jump up and down about.

If you look at the replays you will see a ton of empty seats. My oh my how fall the Giants have fallen!

That made the score 4-2 Giants but the boys were not done. J. D. Davis followed Conforto with a two-out double to right and was driven in by a Haniger single. It’s 5-2 and the inning is not over. Because of the play at the plate Haniger moved to second base. That was important because Brandon Crawford then hit a single to drive in Mitch. Just like that it’s 6-2 Giants, all because the Philly second baseman dropped a throw on a routine play.

DEFENSE. MATTERS!

Michael Conforto Is on a Hot Streak

Michael Conforto had 17 consecutive homer-less games before starting his run of four dingers in his last six games. His swing has always been solid. He has always been a streak hitter. He gets my vote for the Giant to lead the team in home runs this year, assuming he is not traded.

Casey Schmitt Watch

Casey Schmitt went 2-4 and started the second inning rally. That was his fifth multi-hit game in the first seven of his career. Not too shabby, young man.

Phillies Pitching Experiment Goes Badly

Phillies pitcher Conor Brogdon was starting because the Phillies tried an Opener experiment and did not want Falter to pitch in the first inning since he had so given up so many runs in the opening frame. It was a failure. When will these people ever learn!? You cannot keep messing with the roles and positions of Major League Baseball players. Sometimes common sense is a Manager’s most valuable asset.

Alex Wood’s Return

In his 4 2/3 innings of work to start the game Wood allowed two runs on four hits and gave up one walk while striking out four. The home run he gave up to Alec Bohm was his only blemish. It came with a man on in the second inning. Wood was pulled one out shy of pitching the minimum number of innings to get the win. Manager Gabe Kapler pulled him after recording the first two outs of the inning so Jakob Junis could face Trea Turner. Turner would be retired on a strike out.

Junis would give up one run in the sixth in his inning of work. But the rest of the Giants bullpen shut out the Phillies attack with Alexander, Taylor Rogers and Doval all putting up zeroes. Camilo Doval recorded his ninth save and pitched 1 1/3 innings in a display of aggressive managing by Giant skipper Kapler since he was brought in with two outs in the top of the 8th inning.

Pederson to the IL, Yaz Returns

ESPN reports  that Joc Pederson was placed on the 10-day injured list for the second time this season. If you recall he missed nine games in April with a right wrist injury and now the same hand is bruised after being hit by a pitch in Arizona on Friday night.

Yaz was reinstated from the 10-Day IL.

MLB Wins Record

With the win last night the Giants earned their 11,500th victory in the Major Leagues, the most all-time!

Tonight’s Game

The second game of the series takes place at 6:45 PM at Willie Mays Field. The pitching matchup is listed as Alex Cobb, leading the NL with an ERA of 1.70 against Zach Wheeler.

The Future of Disqus and Advertisements on TWG

You may have noticed that yesterday’s post by Johnny Black had advertisements above the comments. These were not added with my consent and were automatically placed by the Disqus comment system without warning or permission. When I added Disqus to this blog it was with the option of no advertisements. I will look into why this happened and see if it is possible to go back to ad-free commenting. I do not want ads on this site, for the time being and I reserve the right to change my mind as this blog costs resources and money to operate and publish. Considering the issues the Disqus algorithms have had with wrongly deleting comments and now the addition of ads, I may switch to a new comment system. I will decide shortly and I thank all readers and commenters for their patience.