Tagged: Bruce Bochy
It’s all about the 6th Inning
Baseball isn’t doing so well on the national stage with not many people watching and FOX putting WS post-game coverage on another channel about two hours after the game is over (which has enabled me to watch an exciting finish between USC and Utah handled by the most exciting announcer in America, Gus Johnson). It’s popularity has dropped so much, they are going to need Men in Blazers to start hyping it to replace soccer as the third most popular sport in America.
Hopefully, people watched tonight. With KC’s bullpen so good from the 7th inning on, the Giants had to get a lead early. Trailing 4-1 after a disastrous 3rd inning didn’t help. But that meant there was an incredible amount of strategizing, excitement, tension, and huge moments between innings 3 to 6 from both teams, and especially the Giants. So many different players mattered, so many different pitches, hits, and catches were absolutely critical. And the best part of it as that the Giants made more of the biggest plays.
Jonah Keri has an article repeating the new mantra about the importance of the 6th inning and the need to both pull starting pitchers and put top relievers in that spot. He criticizes Bochy’s choices in game 2 when he left in Peavy too long, and followed him with Machi and Strickland who imploded. Same thing happened in game 3 when Bochy left Hudson in too long and Javier Lopez couldn’t clean up the mess. In game 4, it was Ned Yost’s turn to be scrutinized because he didn’t go to Herrera in the 6th, the inning which the Giants scored 3 runs to take a 7-4 lead.
Long term, the statistics on starting pitchers failures for the third time through the order could really change the game. With the exception of a few elite pitchers, the rest of baseball’s starters will be going 5 innings, and guys who can pitch the 6th and 7th will go up in value. It doesn’t work so well during the season because guys are going to get tired. It also didn’t work at all for the Colorado Rockies last year who tried a version of this.
Even in this WS, it’s not so easy to employ. Herrera looked exhausted in game 3. I’m not sure he was ready for game 4. Petit starting the 6th inning of game 2, in hindsight, would probably have been genius. Here’s where Lincecum in 2012 and his potential for 2014 could have mattered, too. (I’d have liked to have seen Lincecum in the 8th inning last night instead of Romo–they are up 11-4, so save Romo and see if Lincecum has the kind of stuff to make him relevant in the way he was in 2012. I do like going to Strickland in the 9th. His stuff is electric, and he’s still a tantalizing option against a hitter here and there with the right matchup.) Also, if you manage the 6th like its the 8th or 9th, you still have to manage in the 8th and 9th. Everyone is criticizing managers for decisions in the 6th; wait until the 6th goes smoothly, and Bochy is having to turn to Machi and Strickland in the 8th.
As Keri rightly points out, Petit is an unmatched and underutilized weapon of the Giants. Going forward, hopefully Bumgarner can do his thing in game 5 and the Giants can lead the series. For game 6, Bochy should go with Peavy for 3-4 innings, and then Petit from 4-6, with Affeldt, Romo, Santiago for the final 3. Peavy is awesome first time through the order, Petit is awesome in the middle, then we go to our big 3. If there’s a game 7, I’d do the same thing, with Bumgarner taking the role of Petit. And you’ve still got multiple other guys for big outs here and there.
Don’t worry, Mark. only a few more days, and its time for basketball.
Ruh Roh
I’ve never been anything approaching a professional athlete. But I’ve played enough sports to know that when I’m playing, I’m rarely much fazed when I’m losing. If I think I’m the better player and on the better team, I have no fear that I can come back from whatever the obstacle. And I know the Giants feel that way now being down by a very manageable 2 games to 1.
As a fan, I’m in full panic mode. Why we are in trouble:
We have only one starting pitcher that we can confidently think can win a big game for us.
Our MVP, Buster Posey, is slumping. The game was lost tonight in the 6th inning with the tying run on second, one out, and Posey up. He grounded out on the first pitch.
Our lineup is not having the good at bats they were even three days ago. They are swinging into outs on the first and second pitches, not battling deep into counts the way Hosmer did tonight against Lopez.
The KC bullpen is not faltering the way the Nats and Cards provided. It, admittedly, looks pretty good. But we should be pouncing on their starting pitchers.
Why we will be ok:
We’ll start hitting. It’s all about that. We have to start hitting and getting ahead early in games. Bochy, I trust, will make the adjustments to make it happen. Can Morse not go back to playing left field? If Vogelsong makes it through the KC order twice, I’ll be very curious to see if he gives him a chance to make the same mistakes Peavy and Hudson just did. I really hope not.
We’ve been down before in the playoffs and pulled it out each time. We win on the road and we win with our back against the wall. Actually, history is the only thing that gives me any comfort tonight.
Is Hunter Strickland Bochy’s Kryptonite?
Bochy’s the best. One loss doesn’t change that. And he’s the best with relief pitchers in the playoffs. One loss doesn’t change that.
But How many times is Bochy going to let Hunter Strickland throw fastballs to fastball eating left-handed power hitters?!?!?!
Exhale.
Now that I got that off my chest. Great game. Total classic which shows why October baseball can be really really exciting.
[Addendum: The usually exceptional Jonah Keri seems a bit hit and miss today with his “numbers” analysis of managerial decisions from last night. He’s right on Machi and Strickland. Those both seemed pretty obvious without numbers, and can’t get less obvious with. I’d have like to have seen more numbers with regards to the Peavy-Carpenter decision in the 4th. It wasn’t just about Peavy-Carpenter. It was the 4th inning. Bochy has 2 lefties–Lopez and Affeldt. If he uses Lopez in the 4th, how many situations are being created for later in the game where he has to use a righty against a lefty? And in the ninth, Keri doesn’t use numbers at all with regards to Romo, but I think he’s unfair nonetheless. Romo’s numbers post-all star break have been exceptional (1.80 era, .85 whip, 23 ks in 20 innings), as has his playoff experience thus far. AND, he’s got huge playoff experience. Petit has a single great performance in long relief, which deserves all the credit in the world, but getting 6 innings out between the 12th and 18th inning is easier than getting 3 outs in the 9th. I don’t see that as a situation where Bochy is trying to get cute with a lesser pitcher.]
Too bad no one is watching. And that’s because MLB would rather make money than let anyone watch. Why the f*** is this game on Fox sports 1. I went to watch the game at a bar tonight. They didn’t have it. Went to a second bar. They didn’t have it. Found it at a cheesy corporate restaurant which was blasting the volume on a 27-0 NFL game. [Respect to Victor Cruz].
Fox sports 1 absolutely sucks. Not only can’t anyone find it on their television, their studio crew really sucks. Gabe Kapler has to drink a few less red bulls. [this is why his baseball career sucked too. while everyone else was doing PEDs, he was downing red bulls and hit like zero homeruns]. And ESPN, which has been doing it all year, doesn’t have the games, so they don’t give it much attention.
How is it that corporate America hasn’t totally ruined sports. I mean, they have. College basketball is a sewer of corruption. College football is the part of the sewer where all the rats hang out. But why haven’t Americans gotten angrier about all the ways that corporations have destroyed their sports. In the two games in Washington, D.C., there were dozens of empty seats in the first few rows behind home plate. Likely because they were going for $20,000 a seat. No one cares. Now, we can’t even watch baseball without it being on an extra charge pay channel. It’s outrageous. And MLB will get away with it just like every other corporation does. What happened to the populists? Why don’t the 99% protest the corporate takeover of sports? Can’t some of the Tea Partiers stop worrying about Latino children and focus on the evil that is FOX and cable television? [FOX sports 1 is owned by the same people that own FOX news? I’m shocked.]
Here’s a list of the most improbable things that have happened to the Giants in the playoffs since 2010.
1. Barry Zito beating Cards in game 5 2012
2. Pablo Sandoval hitting 3 home runs off Justin Verlander in 2012.
3. Cody Ross hitting 2 home runs off Roy Halladay in 2010.
4. Barry Zito beating Justin Verlander in game 1 of WS 2012.
5. Edgar Renteria hitting a 3 run homer off of Cliff Lee in WS 2010.
6. Hunter Pence’s 3 hit single against Cards in 2012.
Add from tonight:
Juan Perez getting a hit off of Trevor Rosenthal.
Matt Duffy scoring from second on a wild pitch by Trevor Rosenthal.
I look forward to Tuesday. In addition to Molina being out, the Cardinals don’t have a closer with confidence. Can a team win the WS when their closer doesn’t have confidence? [Pausing to think for 5 seconds… No.]
>>>P
Photo Credit Thomas Huston
That was one crazy game and crazy series. Any game in which a pitcher is able to record just one out, which occurred by way of a wild pitch he threw while attempting to complete an intentional walk, but resulted in tagging Buster Posey out on a close play at the plate because he was blocking the plate in a way that the “Posey Rule” is supposed to prevent, is the definition of crazy. And as a giddy Giants fan, I have to say that at least a small part of me feels bad. Almost like we took something we didn’t deserve. Three runs scored on a walk, a ground out, and a wild pitch. Bryce Harper’s home run went farther than all of the Giants hits combined.
The Giants are always this way, but this year seems more extreme than others. In 2010, the Giants pitchers were legitimately elite–Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner and the bullpen were as good or better than anyone, and the only reason they were underdogs that year is because no one on the east coast knew of them yet (and they had a lineup filled with Uribes, Burrells, and Renterias). That was fun because it allowed me to prove to all my east coast friends that the Giants were as good as I had been saying. In 2012, they still had the core of their elite pitching staff, and hot hitters like Pagan and Scutaro and Sandoval and an MVP in Posey.
This year, just about no one is hitting and their only remaining elite pitcher lost the game he pitched. Their closer is unproven, and their best pinch hitter is a pitcher. By contrast, everyone in the Nationals lineup was a threat to hit a home run or at least a triple. The Giants have only two and a half guys in their lineup to be at all scared about. The half is Sandoval because you never have any idea what he can hit and what he can’t. If Joe Panik isn’t hitting as was happening in games 2-3, there’s basically 4 automatic outs all looped together from 8-9-1-2.
Last night looked ominous. The Giants lineup looked like it would be absolutely horrible against a really good left handed starter. I counted 6 easy outs in the lineup to start (Sandoval was batting right handed which neutralizes him; I included Crawford because he can hit lefties). That’s not promising. But the 8-9-1-2 guys were huge last night, even if it included errors, misplaced bunts, and scratch singles. If the 3-6 hitters did anything, they’d actually have won last night running away. And now the best 4 teams have already been eliminated and the Giants have a realistic chance to win it all, again. Incredible.
It does have to be added that Bochy got away with a huge mistake last night. If they had lost, the decision to let Strickland face Harper was huge. Don Mattingly and Matt Williams would be getting a hundred derisive questions with that one. Harper loves fastballs, and particularly Strickland fastballs. But who cares. Bochy and the Giants can do no wrong in October.
Some electricity, nothing to do, MLB thoughts before NBA Tomorrow
As usual, grantland.com has an array of smart articles analyzing the Giants (see Hua Hsu and Jonah Keri), as does sfgate.com and extrabaggs, Andrew Baggerly. And David Schoenfield is right to point the finger at Brian Sabean, while many others are pointing to Bruce Bochy. Sabean is a tough one to swallow because he’s been the scorn of so many Giants fans for so long, me included. If only he got a bat to hit behind Barry Bonds. I will never get over that. Never.
But, the current model is working and Sabean deserves the credit. I think. It’s almost moneyball-like. Just like the moneyball A’s, build a team around 3 great young pitchers and a combination of older past-their-prime players and castoffs. Except the A’s had more young offensive talent. I really don’t know how this has worked on the offensive end. And the reason it isn’t so obvious is that during the season, it often doesn’t work. The Giants play a lot of games where all their meek hitters play to their potential and they lose 3-1. Posey is the only guy who makes the Red Sox opening lineup this year.
Even more strange is that unless you became a Giants fan in October of 2010, they are absolutely known by fans for choking big moments. 2002 is the most obvious, but Bonds never made the world series in any other situation despite the fact that he was on the team, winning 4 mvps. And Jeff Kent won an mvp too because he got to hit in front of Bonds. There’s the dramatic losses to the Marlins in the 2003 playoffs, with Jose Cruz Jr. dropping a lazy fly ball in the 9th, and JT Snow getting thrown out at home to end the series. There’s the opening round playoff loss to the Mets in 2000, the epic collapse to the Braves in Bonds first season with Salomon Torres losing the final game 12-1. I believe the 100-win Giants remain the team with the most wins to not make the playoffs. And I’m not going to even go back to the ’80s and one flap down and the Kevin Mitchell years.
What I want to know is…why is Sergio Romo or Ryan Vogelsong not Salomon Torres or Felix Rodriguez? Or, why does Barry Zito come through when–going even further back–the Boston Red Sox’s 1980s version of Zito–Bob Stanley–totally remained Bob Stanley in the game 6 collapse of 1986 (he came in and threw a wild pitch before giving up the error to Buckner). Who are the other examples of Barry Zito in sports history? I’m going to think about this.
So, why are these Giants so clutch? They did it in 2010, too, even when Jonathan Sanchez brought us to the brink. The stars of that team: Cody Ross, Juan Uribe, Edgar Renteria, Aubrey Huff. They did it this year with a similar set of guys. Is this about Sabean’s brilliance or just sheer luck? (And an awesome starting pitching staff).
More than Sabean, I think it might be Bochy. Not only is he let the players play loose, he’s unforgiving to guys who don’t succeed. He’s not afraid to bench guys, and fast. But, then, why don’t those guys sulk? Why is Timmy not A-Rod? Aubrey Huff, Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, Barry Zito–all guys who played much smaller roles and seemingly didn’t make it an issue….I’m going with Bochy. So, time for a picture…
Ryan Vogelsong is Starting Game 3?
Apparently Bruce Bochy has picked Ryan Vogelsong to pitch game 3 of the playoffs for the Giants against the Reds. Not Tim Lincecum, not Barry Zito. If the Giants lose tonight, they’ll go with Ryan Vogelsong to save their season.
I don’t get it. If you are saying to Lincecum that he hasn’t performed this year, and hasn’t been hot at the end, then ok. But if that’s the case, then go with Barry Zito, the hottest pitcher on the team the last couple of months. Also, Zito has been effective against the Reds, a team with a lot of left-handed power hitting that he neutralizes.
But if Bochy isn’t going with Zito, go with Lincecum. Especially if they are down 2-0, on the road, go with a guy who has showed big game performances–not just in 2010 but in the last couple of months this year–and has the potential to turn the season around. Vogelsong is just uninspiring; workmanlike, consistent, and a 6 inning pitcher. Meh.
I wonder if Barry Zito was thinking back to being left off the roster in 2010 when Aubrey Huff and his .192 batting average got the opportunity to pinch hit last night.
—–
Addendum, written with the score 9-0 Reds: Bochy’s decision not to start Lincecum didn’t decide this series, and the Giants might even still rally, as life-less as they look in these first two games. I’m not even that upset–the Giants winning in 2010 was such a surprise because their hitting was as bad then as it is now. The Giants hitting is always terrible, except when guys are on PEDs or when terrible hitters like Juan Uribe are somehow hitting everything in sight, (or when their name is Buster). (And if I may say, while in the middle of a rant fueled by a 9-0 deficit, that I don’t care how many PEDs Barry Bonds did, he deserves everything he accomplished because the Giants never had anyone hitting behind him in the lineup. Benito Santiago doesn’t count!)
The Giants have been exciting for the last decade primarily because of two guys–first Barry Bonds, and then Tim Lincecum. There were other guys who were part of a great support cast–JT Snow, Brian Wilson, Kung fu Panda–and maybe Buster Posey will continue to emerge as the next great one. But Lincecum won the cy young in 2008 and 2009 which turned a team around suffering from Bonds-fatigue. His performances in the 2010 playoffs were electrifying. He’s been a huge big game pitcher, even this year when he’s had often terrible stuff. I just don’t get not starting him in the playoffs. As a fan, I was let down when he was left out of the rotation, and I can see that my letdown has impacted the team’s performance. There is no life to them.
Addendum #2:
Does Lincecum’s not getting a starting role in the playoffs this year mean he leaves next year as a free agent? I’m listening to KNBR guys talking about the Red Sox comeback. You know things are bad when people are using the example of the Red Sox winning 4 straight against the Yankees.
Addendum #3:
To make me feel better, I started reading about the Celtics big win against Milan. Jared Sullinger is off to a good start. And then there’s this from Chris Forsberg at ESPN Boston:
DARKO MAKING A BIG IMPACT
Darko Milicic was outstanding while chipping in two points, nine rebounds, four blocks, and three assists. We know he can use his size on the defensive end, where he’s been swatting everything that comes his way during this overseas trip. But offensively he’s shown an ability to create for teammates in the high post off screens and pick-and-rolls.
UNREPENTANT HOMER 
