Monthly Archives: October 2010

October 31, 2010

Giants Win the Must Win Game

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Madison Bumgarner out-pitches Tommy Hunter as the Giants win game four 4-0. According to the broadcast, this is the first time a team was shutout twice in a World Series since 1966 when the Orioles shutout the Dodgers three times. Hunter didn’t pitch that poorly, but the Giants hitters worked him hard, and Tommy left after four innings having thrown 83 pitchers. Meanwhile, Bumgarner stayed efficient, throwing 106 pitcher over eight innings giving up three hits and two walks as he struck out six.

On offense, Andres Torres and Edgar Renteria each knocked out three hits, while Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey each homered. Five of the six runs the Giants scored in the two Texas games came on home runs.

San Francisco needs just one win from Lincecum, Cain or Sanchez to win the series. Tim gets the first chance as they face Cliff Lee Monday night. Both clubs are trying to bring World Series championships to their cities for the first time, but Texas is down to a 1 in 8 chance of getting there.

October 31, 2010

Bottom of the Ninth

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The Rangers come up in the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-0. They’ll send up the top of the order, Elvis Andrus, Michael Young and Josh Hamilton to face the closer Brian Wilson.

Update: Andrus hits a 1-1 pitch to the rightfielder for the first out.

Update: Hamilton falls behind 0-2. Josh can’t check his swing on the next pitch, and the Giants win 4-0 as Wilson strikes out two. The Giants lead the series 3-1 and are now in control.

Update: Young gets ahead 2-1. Wilson comes back to strike him out on five pitches. Two down.

October 31, 2010

Holland Still Wild

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Derek Holland comes into the game in the top of the ninth and walks the first batter he faces. That’s four walks in four batters for the Texas reliever in the series.

Update: Holland strikes out Edgar Renteria looking to end Derek’s walk streak.

Update: Holland gets the next two batters, and the Rangers go to the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-0.

October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010

Uribe Err

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With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Juan Uribe boots a Josh Hamilton grounder to third. We’ll see if Texas can take advantage of the miscue trailing 3-0.

Update: Vladimir Guerrero strikes out for the third time in three at bats. Two down.

Update: Nelson Cruz singles to bring the tying run to the plate. The Rangers have runners on first and second with two out.

Update: Ian Kinsler breaks his bat and flies out to left to end the inning. Bumgarner keeps his shutout intact through seven innings as the Giants lead 3-0.

October 31, 2010

Torres! Torres! Torres!

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Edgar Renteria and Andres Torres each collect their third hits of the game in the top of the seventh inning. Renteria was running from first when Torres launched his second double of the game, this one into right-center. Renteria comes around to score and the Giants lead 3-0 at the stretch. Torres has scored one and driven in one run tonight.

October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010

Ogando Outs

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Alexi Ogando relieves Tommy Hunter in the top of the fifth and retires the Giants in order, striking out one. Hunter threw 83 pitches in his four innings of work, giving up five hits and a two run homer as the Giants lead 2-0 half way through a game.

Update: Ogando retires the first two batters in the sixth, then leaves with an injury with a 1-1 count on Juan Uribe.

Update: Darren Oliver comes on in relief.

Update: Uribe pops out in foul territory to end the inning. The Giants lead 2-0 in the middle of the sixth inning.

October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010

First Bag Two-Bagger

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Andres Torres hits first base with his batted ball leading off the third. That causes the ball to bounce over Mitch Moreland‘s head for a double. Torres is two for two on the night.

Update: For the second time in a row, Freddy Sanchez hits a ground ball to third, leaving Torres at second. Freddy has worked Tommy Hunter both times, however.

Aubrey Huff makes it not matter with a home run down the rightfield line for a 2-0 Giants lead.

Update: That’s all the Giants get. All the runs scored in the Texas leg of the World Series came on home runs. San Francisco leads Texas 2-0 in the middle of the third inning.

October 31, 2010

I’m Into Leather

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With two out and a man on first, Jeff Francoeur hits a 3-2 pitch hard on a line. It looks like it’s headed to right for a single, but Freddy Sanchez makes a great leaping catch to snag it. I thought the ball was going to take Freddy’s glove off. The top and bottom of the second both end with a great catch. Still no score at the end of two innings.

October 31, 2010

Ross Walks

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Cody Ross takes four pitches for a walk leading off the top of the second. So far, the lead-off man reached in all three half innings, but none have scored yet.

Update: The first base umpire blew a call on a double play ball. Travis Ishikawa was out, but his foot was over the bag. Not a horribly bad call, but the wrong call nonetheless. There are two out for Edgar Renteria with a man on first.

Update: Renteria works the count to 3-2, then lines a single to rightfield. With Ishikawa running, he gets to third on a hard hit ball.

Update: Nate Schierholtz hits a fly ball to shallow center, and Josh Hamilton comes on to make a diving catch and save a run. There’s no score going to the bottom of the second inning.

October 31, 2010

Leadoff On

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Elvis Andrus takes four pitches and walks to first leading off the bottom of the first inning for the Rangers. Both lead-off hitters reached in the opening frame.

Update: Michael Young hits a potential double play ball, but the lack of speed on the roller allowed Andrus to break up the DP at second. One down with Young at first.

Update: Josh Hamilton hits the ball hard to the second baseman, and the Giants do turn a double play to end the inning. No score after one.

October 31, 2010

World Series Game Four Underway

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Andres Torres beats out an infield hit as Ian Kinsler almost got him on a grounder up the middle leading off game four of the World Series.

Update: Torres steals second on a 1-2 count. The ball was in the dirt for ball two.

Update: Two ground balls can only move Torres to third for Buster Posey. The Giants catcher grounds to short to end the inning. That’s four batters and four ground balls for Tommy Hunter. He threw 21 pitches in the inning. The Rangers are coming up with no score in the game.

October 31, 2010 October 31, 2010

Burrell Benched

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The Giants benched Pat Burrell for game four and move Aubrey Huff to designated hitter while Travis Ishikawa plays first base.

Pat has struck out 19 times in 38 at bats. He also walked seven times and four of his six hits went for extra bases. Not that his replacement, Nate Schierholtz also has struck out in half his at bats in the post season. This does give the Giants a better defensive outfield, however.

October 31, 2010

Playoffs Today

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Game four of the World Series gets underway at 8:20 PM EDT so that football doesn’t interfere with the broadcast. I see the game as the critical one in the series as Madison Bumgarner takes the hill for the Giants against Tommy Hunter and the Rangers.

Game four is where the Giants have a clear advantage over the Rangers in terms of the pitching match-up. Both pitchers are control artists, keeping walks to a minimum. Bumgarner, however, is superior in the other two legs of the pitching tripod. He strikes out batters at a rate of 7.0 per nine innings and allows 19.8 home runs per 200 innings. Hunter in 2010 struck out 4.8 batters per nine and allows 32.8 home runs per 200 innings.

On top of that, the Giants are a hacking team, that doesn’t care that much about the walks. As we saw with Cliff Lee in game one, San Francisco batters can put the ball in play well. With fewer K from Hunter, they’ll get even more opportunities for batted balls to find holes.

Both pitchers should be comfortable in their surroundings. Hunter went 7-0 at home this season with a 3.06 ERA, mostly because his strikeout rate went up at home. Bumgarner posted a 1.91 ERA on the road, with a superior strikeout and walk rate away from AT&T Park.

When I looked at this series, I thought there was a good chance the teams would split the six games among the top three starters, which made game four critical. If the Giants win this contest, they only need to get one more win from a Lincecum, Cain, or Sanchez start. If Texas wins, I would not bet against Cliff Lee in game five, meaning the Rangers would just need a split in San Francisco to win the series. I’m rooting for Texas tonight, as win in this game gives the series a very good chance of going seven games, and I would love to see a no-tomorrow game again.

October 31, 2010

Marichal Teaching Jimenez

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Juan Marichal noticed Ubaldo Jimenez‘s ability early, and the two talked this year about strategy:

Marichal thought so much of Jimenez that he reached out to the 26-year-old before spring training. Jimenez referenced the talk periodically throughout his remarkable season. Turns out, this wasn’t an idle chat. It was much more strategic than Jimenez let on.

After exchanging courtesies, Marichal questioned Jimenez on his approach against Phillies slugger Ryan Howard in the 2009 playoffs. He watched him retire the slugger in his first two at-bats by pounding him inside. Then inexplicably, Jimenez made an adjustment.

“Ubaldo started throwing the ball away from him and he hit a double to the opposite field. Then same thing in his next at-bat. I reminded Ubaldo of this occasion,” said Marichal, known as “The Dominican Dandy” after winning 243 games from 1960-75.

“I told him, ‘When you get somebody out pitching inside, that’s the spot you have to keep the ball. You know he has a hard time hitting that ball.” Ubaldo agreed.

Marichal is a pretty good mentor for a young pitcher.

October 31, 2010 October 30, 2010

Lewis Corrals Giants

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Colby Lewis made his fourth good start for the Rangers in the post season, lasting 7 2/3 innings against the Giants as Texas prevents a sweep with a 4-2 victory over San Francisco. Lewis walked two an struck out six, and allowed just five hits. Jonathan Sanchez was a bit wild, walking three batters in 4 2/3 innings and striking out three. Both pitchers allowed two home runs, but the difference was that both shots off Lewis were solos, while the first off Sanchez was a three-run shot by Mitch Moreland. I just watched the Moreland at bat (I was out at a party tonight), and he really worked Sanchez, hitting the long ball on the ninth pitch of the at bat. Mitch ended up 1 for 3 in the game and is batting .500 for the series. He’s 14 for 41 in the playoffs with four doubles and the homer. Not bad for a #9 hitter. With Hamilton hitting the other homer, both shots off Sanchez came from lefties. He did allow five to lefties during the regular season in 138 at bats, which is close to the rate he allowed them against righties.

Cody Ross homered for the Giants, giving him 14 hits in the post-season, five double and five home runs.

My good friend Ed Vescovi sent this video of the last out:

Game Three Last Out

The Rangers win cuts the Giants lead in the series to 2-1. One more Texas win and they send the series back to San Francisco.

October 30, 2010

Burrell’s Glove

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Pat Burrell‘s defense gives Michael Young a single in the bottom of the first. Young hit a shallow, low fly ball to left, and Pat didn’t get a good jump on the ball. He ended up trapping it, but a better defender would have caught the ball.

Of course, just as I finished writing the above, he runs fast into the corner in left to snag a Vladimir Guerrero fly ball, Pat making a great play. He more than made up for the bad play with that one.

October 30, 2010

World Series Game Three Underway

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Colby Lewis gets Andrew Torres to ground out to first to start game three of the 2010 World Series.

Update: Freddy Sanchez follows with a single to rightfield. He’s 5 for 11 in the series so far.

Update: Buster Posey walks with two out, after just missing an opposite field home run. The ball was foul down the rightfield line.

Update: Pat Burrell waves at an outside pitch to end the inning with no score. Texas is coming up for their first turn at bat of the night.

October 30, 2010 October 30, 2010

Guillen Clarification

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Bruce Bochy said this about leaving Jose Guillen off post-season roster:

Speaking to reporters Saturday before Game 3 of the World Series, Bochy reiterated that Guillen was not put on the roster for the NL division series against Atlanta — or the rest of the postseason — because of his troublesome neck. Bochy didn’t believe Guillen was 100 percent and already had committed to go with Cody Ross as the starter in right field, even if Guillen had still been on the club.

“That decision was made before all this came out,” Bochy said. “I told Jose that I felt he wasn’t 100 percent. Cody Ross was going to be out there.”

I guess the neck didn’t heal in time for the World Series.

October 30, 2010

Playoffs Today

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Game three gets underway just a little before 7 PM EDT Saturday night with the Giants trying to go up 3-0 over Texas in the World Series. A 3-0 lead is almost certain victory for the leading team. Jonathan Sanchez takes on Colby Lewis in the first World Series game in the Rangers’ home park.

Sanchez improved his ERA substantially for the third year in a row. Through the 2008 season, Sanchez owned a 5.18 ERA, striking out 9.1 batters per nine, walking 4.5 per 9 and allowing 0.86 HR per 9. Since then, Jonathan increased hits rates to 9.6/4.6/1.01, but the higher Ks (and likely a better Giants defense) helped keep his hits down and lowered his ERA to 3.61.

Sanchez stand 0-1 in his three playoff starts. He’s shown decent control for him with six walks in 15 1/3 innings but hasn’t allowed a home run while striking out 19. He only lasted two innings against the Phillies in his last start, walking two and hitting a batter, and Bochy got him out of the game before his wildness could cause a real problem. Sanchez also struck out 19 in the post season.

Do to his high K rate this year, neither lefties nor righties hit him well. Left handers hit .181, righties .210. Both sides, however, did a good job drawing walks, bringing their on-base percentage over .300. If Sanchez is wild, Texas can generate enough power in their home park to score enough runs to win this game.

Lewis is also pitching well in the post-season. In three starts he allowed just three runs, and pitched brilliantly in game six of the ALCS against the Yankees, holding them on one run and three hits over eight innings.

Lewis owns a high strikeout rate, although not as high as Sanchez. Unlike Jonathan, however, Colby shows much better control. Lewis is extremely careful with left-handed batters, trying to keep everything away from them.

Colby Lewis pitch frequency 2010 against left-handed batters.

Colby Lewis pitch frequency 2010 against left-handed batters.

He’s willing to walk lefties rather than give them something to hit, and he walks them almost twice as much as right-handed batters. Colby went 3-1 against National League teams this season, posting a 2.57 ERA (Houston, Milwaukee and the Cubs). They weren’t the strongest teams to face, but the Giants offense, despite the first two games of this series, isn’t that strong either. This should be a very good matchup, and one the Rangers can win if they let Sanchez be wild.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the graph.

October 30, 2010

Power Ichiro

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The Hardball Times examines if Ichiro Suzuki should try to hit more home runs. This is based on the assumption that Ichiro has the ability to hit more home runs, which Suzuki himself believes. I’m not so sure. Ichiro would need to learn some plate discipline. Maybe Vladimir Guerrero can swing at anything and hit home home runs, but in general, players who hit 40 home runs are those willing to wait for their pitch. That would be a huge adjustment for Suzuki.

October 30, 2010 October 30, 2010

Younger and Better

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Brian Cashman talks about a youth movement:

“I would like to always get younger and better,” Cashman said. “That’s the double-edged sword. I don’t want to get younger and worse. I want to get younger, but while doing so, remain championship caliber. I think that’s what we’ve been trying to accomplish the last few year. I think we’ve done a good job. At the same time, if we have older players who can still do it for us, I don’t have any problem whatsoever in retaining older players who perform at a high level.

“It’s a combination of things. You’d love to get younger and cheaper and better, but a lot of times that’s not possible. If there are older players who can help us accomplish the team goal of winning, then so be it. We’re not going to be interested in getting players just because of future milestones. It’s about what they can do in that win column. That’s the main reason we’re in this.”

Cashman, the last few years, gets younger by replacing old players, not with young players, but younger players. He replaced Bernie Williams with Johnny Damon. He replaced Jason Giambi with Mark Teixeira and Bobby Abreu with Nick Swisher. His truly young replacements come from within the system, like Robinson Cano and Brett Gardner. He’ll replace Jorge Posada with Jesus Montero soon. Brian is able to get the Yankees younger without a youth movement.