by
Greek Giant
The Giants visit the Phillies for three games in Philadelphia tonight. The Phillies are in a freefall at 9-19 having lost nine of their last ten games. With their roster that stat is almost inconceivable and it is a good reason why the Giants may end up playing a Phillies team that fires current Manager Rob Thomson and hires Alex Cora, the former Red Sox skipper, if rumors are any indication. Philadelphia has been terrible in all phases of the game in their current losing streak, especially in the starting pitching area. The Philadelphians are lead by Kyle Scwarber’s nine homers and Bryce Harper’s eighteen runs driven in. The team is 28th in runs scored with 102 runs so far this season. Guess who is 29th? That would be your San Francisco Giants!
The Giants have won three series in a row and while not exactly demonstrating the traits of a juggernaut, have started hitting a bit. Jung Hoo Lee is the hottest hitter in baseball and Casey Schmitt has found his power stroke with three-run homers in back-to-back games. Their record is 13-15. Who would have thought the Giants would have a better record than the Phillies at this point in the season after the Phillies took two of three from San Francisco earlier in the year? Baseball is funny.
The Pitching Matchups
Tonight at 6:40 PM
Tyler Mahle, (1-3, 5.26 ERA) versus Jose Luzardo, (1-3, 6.91 ERA)
Tomorrow at 6:40 PM
Logan Webb (2-3, 4.86 ERA) versus Christopher Sanchez (2-2, 2.94 ERA)
Thursday at 1:05 PM
Adrian Houser (0-3, 7.36 ERA) versus Andrew Painter, (1-2, 5.25 ERA)
One last thing: I want to thank Dr. Lefty for her wonderful article on Brandon Belt and his special day on Sunday. The good doctor attended the game and wrote a wonderful piece on the Baby Giraffe/Captain. I highly recommend it. Brandon Belt was a key, I mean, very important part of the Giants championships in 2012 and 2014. Forget his bat and how he worked counts, his power and so forth, his gold-glove caliber defense at first base made the Giants one of the top defensive infields in baseball for a long time. My favorite Brandon Belt memory however, is his 18th inning homer to defeat the Nationals in game two of the epic Divisional Series of 2014. Without that win I don’t think the Giants beat the Nationals that season. It was glorious.
One last, last thing: I mistakenly called Jung Hoo Lee the “Grandfather of the wind” in my post yesterday when in fact his nickname is “Grandson of the win”. The mistake has been corrected. I send my apologies to Mr. Lee.
Go Giants!
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