Chernobyl-pen

Published by on April 17, 2007 | 3 Responses

Another terrific start from Matt Cain, a bullpen meltdown, and some questionable moves all cascade into a loss. It almost sounds like the average Giants game doesn’t it? The Giants drop the final game in the 2 game series to the Rockies in dramatic fashion 5-3.

Once again Matt Cain looked awesome and received little support from the rest of the team. Cain finished the frustrating night with a line of (7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR). Cain has just been ridiculous to start this season throwing 20 innings, striking out 17, and only giving up 8 hits! While I was looking up Cain’s stats I had to laugh at ESPN’s projected season totals for Matt.

Projected – 32 G, 216 IP, 86 H, 43 R, 22 HR, 97 BB, 184 SO, 0 W, 11 L, 0.85 WHIP, .123 BAA, 1.80 ERA

Sadly, I can almost see this type of line developing over the course of a full year.

The other side of this game is a little more hard to look at. Can you tell when the bullpen came in? Watching Steve Finely hit a homer was hard, real hard. Steve Finely’s official motto should be….“Great for every other NL West team but the Giants”.

Lefty makes some solid points about some odd moves by Bochy tonight. The biggest head-scratcher that I encountered was leaving Roberts in to start off the 9th to face a tough lefty and Rockies closer Fuentes. Roberts struggles to hit lefties and Fuentes ate him up. I would have preferred to see Niekro take that AB.

Bochy also pinch hit Eliezer Alfonzo for Correia in the 9th. Wait, what? Alfonzo has zero plate discipline, he K’d by the way, and whats the point of carrying Sweeney if he can’t PH? Sweeney struggles against lefties but I would take him over Pedro-lite. Also, if you aren’t going to PH Niekro for Roberts, then why not use him right then?

A tough loss that really should have been Matt Cain’s first win of the year. Kid has pitched out of his mind for the 3rd straight game.

Other Updates

  • Another dominat outing for a one Tim Lincecum. Making his 3rd start in Fresno against Tacoma Tim looked fantastic. In a mean twist of fate, Brian Wilson blew the save in the 9th denying Lincecum of a win. He’s yet to give up a run in AAA. His final line was, (6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 SO, 0 HR)

Article written by

3 comments
  Livefyre
Newest | Oldest
fttts
fttts

I don't think they'll bring Linececum up as a RP. He has shown he is ready for the rotation, and they will wait until they can bring him up to start. They are more likely, in my opinion, to bring up Wilson, Sadler, Misch, if one of them shows they're ready - which so far they haven't done. I don't see any changes for a couple of weeks. We'll have to see what transpites over that time.

Chris
Chris

Hey Frank, I agree that Bochy doesn't know what he has in the bullpen because they've been inconsistent. I like Correia as the 8th inning guy. He had some hard luck last night with the swinging bunt for a base hit that he had to stick in his pocket. I would work Correia and Sanchez as the 8th innings guys. Chulk has good stuff but seems to have trouble producing. I think my largest fear is that they're going to bring up Lincecum and use him in the bullpen. If they are going to call him up, I think he should be starting.

fttts
fttts

I think the failing starter much earlier. We know the rockies closer, Fuentes, is LH. So, we want some RH pinch hitters on the bench. One way of doing that, is to start your LH hitting position players, then, voila, there are your better hitting RH hitters to choose from. I understand the holding back of Niekro in the 9th inning. Hitting him for Roberts does nothing, as roberts/Niekro would be followed by Omar. Bochy needs someone to get on ahead of Niekro, so Niekro has a chance to tie the game if he hits it out. It looks to me like Bochy doesn't yet know what he has in the pen, what the roles are. I mean, can you say who the 8th inning guys are? I thought Chulk was the 7th inning guy, Correia/Kline (maybe even Sanchez) the 8th inning tandem. So, why is Chulk starting the 8th? Unless there is some health issue we con't know about, I think he should start the inning with Correia, and have Kline or Sanchez ready for the LH hitter.